Studying science
Science presents itself as a unified approach to learning the truth about the world. Work in STS has made a substantial contribution by providing a more complex understanding of what constitutes "making science". This session will address the study of science in Latin America. It's aim is to stress the different ways that scientific knowledge is constructed by highlighting regional, cultural, and historical specificities that arise in scientific practice. Papers in this session go beyond traditional studies of the laboratory and include field expeditions, forensic crime labs, and the creation of local scientific elites. They tie the practice of science to wider issues of power and foreground the role of the visual in science, including unseen forms of scientific labor and scientific knowledge.
Breakout session leader: Julia Rodriguez
Papers:
Márcia Regina Barros da Silva (Brazil), "Transformations in the Understanding of Science and Technology Studies in Latin America"
Henrique Cukierman (Brazil), "Who was it Who Invented Brazil?"
Amy Cox Hall (USA), "Visualizing Discovery: Photography and the Yale Peruvian Expeditions (1911, 1912, 1914-15)"
Edna Suárez (Mexico) and Gisela Mateos (Mexico), "Mexican Physics and Life Sciences during the Cold War: A Pending Agenda"
Tania Pérez Bustos (Colombia), María Fernanda Olarte Sierra (Colombia), and Adriana Díaz del Castillo H. (Colombia), "Working with Care: Experiences of Invisible Women Scientists Practicing Forensic Genetics in Colombia"
Workshop participants can access papers using their login and password on the Papers link. Revised papers must be submitted to the workshop organizers prior to August 1, 2012.