Co-written with Shreeharsh Kelkar, with additional help from Amy Johnson and photos by Ashawari Chaudhuri, Amy Johnson, and Lan Li. In her Welcome speech for the HASTS 25th Anniversary celebration, Deborah Fitzgerald started with a plea.  Working in the “belly of positivism,” it’s not easy being a science studies scholar at MIT.  But fortunately, we’ve been able to become the best–and only–program of our kind.  History, Anthropology, and STS. “The program was never quite tidy or quite tame,” and sometimes it still feels a bit unruly, always full of surprises. ***** The first panel, Environment, is chaired by Nicole Labruto and moderated by Nate Deshmukh Towery. Etienne […]

Co-written with Lan Li, with additional help from Julia Fleischhack; photos by Ashawari Chaudhuri and Amy Johnson; Wordle shows program interests between 2000 and 2004. Onward to Technology! Aka the third panel of the HASTS 25th Anniversary Event, introduced by Grace Kim and moderated by Shreeharsh Kelkar. Lindy Biggs (‘87): The Changing Meaning of Work in England’s Early Industrial Period David Lucsko (‘05): Dismantlers or Graveyards? Automotive Salvage in the Twentieth Century Rob Martello (‘01): Paul Revere and Ben Franklin: Artisans, Entrepreneurs, and Boundary Crossers Bill Turkel (‘04): The Hands-On Imperative **** Lindy Biggs (‘87): The Changing Meaning of Work in England’s Early Industrial Period For […]

Co-written with Lucas Mueller, with additional help from  Julia Fleischhack and Amy Johnson; photos by Ashawari Chaudhuri and Amy Johnson. Wordle shows program interests between 1990-1994.  The Health and Biology panel,  panel #2 at the 25th Anniversary Event, introduced by Marie Burks and moderated by Lan Li. Jennifer Mnookin (‘99): Knowledge, Culture and Forensic Science: What Fingerprint Experts – and Their Critics – Know Anne Pollock (‘07): Health Disparities and American Citizenship Claims Jenny Smith (‘06): From Soup Nuts to Curry-Flavored SPAM, a History of the Science and Politics Behind American Food Aid Jessica Wang (‘95): The Telling Case: Rabies Narratives, Autopsy, […]

Co-written with Shreeharsh Kelkar, Lan Li, and Beth Semel, with additional assistance from Julia Fleischhack; photos by Amy Johnson. The Infrastructure & Communication panel, the final panel in the 25th Anniversary Event, introduced by Renee Blackburn and moderated by Ellan Spero: Slava Gerovitch (‘99):  ‘Writing Across the Lines:’ A Parallel Social Infrastructure in Soviet Mathematics in the 1970s Shane Hamilton (‘05): Navigating the Spatial Turn Wade Roush (‘94): History, Journalism, and the Technology of Storytelling Livia Wick (‘06): The Arabic Language, Pedagogy, and the Concept of Crisis   Slava Gerovitch (‘99): ‘Writing Across the Lines:’ A Parallel Social Infrastructure in Soviet Mathematics in the 1970s Historians haven’t […]