Vol. 42, No. 1, January 2013
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From the HSS President: Making A Difference
by Lynn K. Nyhart
At the beginning of a new year, many of us resolve to make a difference in the world. We may seek to be kinder to others; to give more of ourselves; to work for justice, democracy, health, and peace; to increase beauty. But how can we work as historians of science to make a difference? Late December, as I write this, is a list-making time of year. I have made two.
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From the HSS President: Making A Difference
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Article: The "Dinosaurs" Guide to Technology in the History Classroom
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Article: That Was Then. This Is Now
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Article: Reaching Beyond the Discipline
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Article: A Conversation with the American Historical Association's Jim Grossman, 4 October 2012
The first aims at pithiness: a "top ten" list that we can post on our websites, blogs, and office doors. Something we can fall back on for friends, relatives, students (and their parents!), people who walk into our offices, neighbors at parties — anyone who asks, "What is it you do? And what difference does it make?"
Sadly, though, I have come up with only nine ways. Please add one. Who knows, maybe we can generate TWENTY ways! (Send your suggestions to me at lknyhart@wisc.edu. Or post it on your blog, letting me know, and see what your friends come up with!)
The second list is shorter, but less pithy: some of the changes we need to work on within the History of Science Society to help us make more of a difference outside it, and what we've done so far.
(Almost) Ten Ways History Of Science Makes A Difference
- It puts a human face on science, reminding us that scientists are people like the rest of us. (In fact, it puts many different human faces on science, which is a good idea.)
- It provides a long-term perspective on science-related ideas and trends of which scientists themselves are often unaware. It thus can reveal hidden connections to the past, and show how the past continues to bear on the present.
- It counters the naive view that "science = truth" by treating science as part of particular cultures.
- It explores the historical contingencies by which scientific knowledge has been produced, stimulating the insight that just as the past course of knowledge was not inevitably laid out, neither is the future.
- It investigates the place of science in the construction of meaning—how we make sense of our world.
- It broadens the humanities by showing their relevance to science and industry.
- It attends to the relationships between science and power, investigating both how science has come to be culturally powerful and how people with power (whether financial, governmental, or religious) have shaped science.
- It unearths and revivifies past cultural moments in which science has been made and used, shining a light on our own time by revealing similarities and differences between past and present.
- It invites reflection on the leading values attached to science—the pursuit of greater understanding of nature and the instrumental goal of improving the world.
- ?? [Your statement here!]
This list reflects the view that our main difference-making capacity lies in changing the way people think about science and its place in our world (and for that matter, history and its place in the world), rather than precipitating direct, immediate action. This sort of difference-making has few metrics, but it is vital to fostering a culture that values both history and science.
There are no guarantees, however, that anyone except historians of science will see this list or understand it. So how do we get the word out, beyond the captive audience that many in our profession have in the classroom?
As I suggested a year ago in this space, I think we need to change who we think of as "us." To make a difference in the world, we need to make a difference in the history of science profession. So here's another list: an interim report on what's going on in the History of Science Society that might facilitate broadening who "we" are. If you're interested in helping out with one or more of these initiatives, please contact Jay Malone at jay@hssonline.org.
Four Ways To Make A Difference In The History Of Science Society
(So We Can Make A Difference Beyond It)
- Foster relationships with historians of science outside of academia. Historians of science who work outside academia are more apt to connect and communicate with different sectors of our society. Moreover, in an age of PhD overproduction, we need to help history of science PhD and MA holders prepare for and find work outside academia. Since many of us who run things in this profession have little or no experience in this realm, we need to lean on those who have such experience; we call on your practical advice and moral support. We need to begin by discovering who you are. We can make a start with our revamped HSS website, to be rolled out over the coming months (thanks to Fred Gibbs and Alex Wellerstein), where we plan a space for people outside academia to give short accounts of what they're doing now. Tania Munz (t-munz@northwestern.edu) and Carin Berkowitz (CBerkowitz@chemheritage.org) are heading up an initiative for "HSS Outside the Academy," focused on people who have left the traditional academic path for other careers, whether history of science-related or not. The aims are multiple: to explore how the Society might continue to be relevant and interesting to such individuals; to open up a platform at meetings for broader ways of thinking about history of science and the world; and to build a network of "Friends of the Field" that might serve as an important resource for mentoring those who are facing similar choices. The tasks are numerous: to develop an area on the website to showcase work of historians of science that is not in traditional academic book and article forms; to list jobs that relate to but are outside of traditional history of science fields; and to contact people who have "left the field" or who remain anonymous within it to ask them to reconnect. Carin and Tania could use some help. Please contact them and Jay if you have thoughts and suggestions or would like to get involved.
- Use the HSS Annual Meeting itself as an opportunity for increasing public engagement. Our first foray in this direction was the "Blue Marble" event at Scripps, developed by a sub-committee of the Committee on Education and attached to the HSS meeting in San Diego—an afternoon-long collection of panel presentations and individual talks on the history of oceanography and its connection to present-day policy issues. It was a rousing success, and there is hope that this might provide a model for future public events in conjunction with the annual meeting. But there are other possibilities, too: perhaps we could open our plenary session to the public, or our Society lecture. How can we re-imagine the meeting to expand our sense of "us"?
- Provide up-to-date educational resources on the web, for both college-level and K-12 teachers. Erika Milam reported at the 2012 Women's Caucus breakfast that the caucus's syllabus project (a dozen syllabi on different topics in women and gender and STM: http://hsswc.weebly.com/syllabus-project.html) had by far the highest traffic on the Women's Caucus's new website. This suggests that posting up-to-date teaching modules, guidelines, and readings is not just useful to our own membership but might also be a crucial way for all kinds of people to find us, and for us to shape how history of science is being taught in different kinds of classroom settings. Some of the other forums and interest groups also have such teaching resources on their websites; see, e.g., the resources provided by the Forum for the History of Science in Asia: http://fhsasiahss.wordpress.com/2012/11/13/teaching-resources-web-links-and-podcasts/. The Science Education subcommittee of the Committee on Education is also developing modules for teaching science through the history of science. One job of our new website will be to make these teaching resources collectively visible and linked.
- Increase the diversity of the Society. We can make more of a difference beyond our community if we're more diverse inside it. The responses to the climate survey that went out last fall are still being analyzed, but should give us a solid demographic baseline that we have hitherto lacked concerning gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. Of course, simple observation at meetings shows that we lack racial diversity. Initiatives from a decade ago (and longer) did not take root. While changing this homogeneity probably needs to be fostered mainly at the level of individual graduate programs and even undergraduate programs, HSS can help, for example by developing relationships with the Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Since the Council has just voted to meet in Atlanta in 2016, a city within easy access of many HBCUs, this may afford a goal and timeline for working to develop some stronger ties. Collecting and posting resources related to the history of science, technology, (medicine?) and race may also provide an opening for recruiting a more diverse membership into our ranks. Who would like to take this up?
If you're interested in helping out with any of these initiatives, please contact Jay Malone at jay@hssonline.org.