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Southern HoST, April 3-4 2009: VCU Department of History and Science, Technology, and Society [STS] Initiative
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Table of Contents
Notes from the Inside
From the President
First Person: Darwin in a Different Voice
Engines of Ingenuity
Playing with Dolphins
The Perils of Publicity
Profile: Leeds University
Patenting Jefferson
Michigan State University
SPACEWORK:HSS/NASA Fellowship
2009 Preliminary Program
Koyré Medal, Telescopes,
Latest News,
Member News
In Memoriam, Jobs, Conferences, Grants
On one of Richmond’s first lovely Spring weekends, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Science, Technology, and Society [STS] Initiative hosted the third annual Southern History of Science and Technology [or “SoHoST”] regional meeting. SoHoST’s original organizer, Susan Rensing (Mississippi State) attended, as did several dozen faculty and graduate students from throughout the southern U.S. – from the border state of Maryland to as far down as Florida. Florida and frontier history of science received special attention in a well-attended keynote address – “Nature’s Enslavement in an Enslaved Land” – delivered on Friday evening by the History of Science Society’s Executive Director, Robert J. Malone.
The two-day program featured sessions on “Early Modern Science and Medicine” (with papers by Christopher Carter (University of Virginia) and Andrew Benedict-Nelson (Johns Hopkins); “The Science & Technology of Music” (with papers by Alexandra Hui (Mississippi St.) and Fred Katz (University of Maryland); “Technology in the Southern Context” (with a paper on Jefferson and patent law by Virginia patent lawyer Jeffrey Matsuura) and “Consumer Technology” (with papers by Benjamin Cohen (University of Virginia), Matthew Lavine (Mississippi State), and Amy Gangloff (Mississippi State)). Saturday’s sessions concluded with papers on “Controversies in Sociobiology” (by Mary Richie McGuire (Virginia Tech) and Erika Milam (University of Maryland)) and “Medicine and Public Health” (by Kelly Joyce (College of William & Mary) and Elena Conis (Center for Health, Culture & Society, Emory University). After the formal sessions ended, the event’s organizers – Karen Rader and John Powers – hosted a conference banquet, featuring Virginia barbecue specialties, at their home.
The organizers wish to thank all the attendees, as well as the following people and organizations, all of whom helped us continue SoHoST’s vibrant and well-planned regional meeting tradition: Mary Ann Andrei (University of Virginia, and SoHoST program co-chair); Wanda Clary (STS Administrative Assistant); Marisa Benson (of Emory University, who offered all the organizational materials and strategies she used in last year’s meeting) and the History of Science Society, who offered moral support and logistical advice.
– by Karen Rader
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