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Vol. 42, No. 1, January 2013
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New Doctoral Dissertations Pertaining to the History of Science and Medicine

Recent doctoral dissertations pertaining to the history of science and medicine have been uploaded on this URL http://www.hsls.pitt.edu/histmed/dissertations by Jonathon Erlen (University of Pittsburgh).

NSF's SBE Directorate to Participate in International Social Science Funding Collaboration

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Directorate (SBE) has announced that it intends to participate in the Open Research Area (ORA). ORA was started in 2009 by four European funding agencies: the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, France), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Germany), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC, UK), and the Nederlands Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO, Netherlands) as a joint funding scheme for collaborative international research projects in the social, behavioral, and economic sciences. After two successful rounds of competition, in 2013 ORA will expand to include the SBE directorate.

One of the chief objectives of ORA is to reduce barriers to international collaborative research by making collaboration among the partners as seamless as possible through a single review process and joint decision-making. This is an important goal as the growth of international collaborations has indicated that working with the best scholars across national borders can produce high quality research.

The program will accept proposals for research projects in any area of the social and behavioral sciences involving researchers from any combination of three or more of the participating countries. Bilateral applications are excluded. Further, proposals must clearly demonstrate the added value of transnational collaboration.

Interested researchers are asked to contact the NSF/SBE program officer for ORA, Elizabeth Tran, (etran@nsf.gov) to discuss the fit of their proposed research to ORA.

The Call for Proposals is posted at http://www.nwo.nl/ora.

The Lloyd Library and Museum Holiday Exhibit: What Makes the Reindeer Fly?

Cincinnati, Ohio, through 28 February 2013

This exhibit, curated by Anna Heran and fungi expert Nik Money from Miami University, is as much fun as it is informative. What Makes the Reindeer Fly explores the role of "magic," or hallucinogenic, mushrooms both scientifically and culturally from around the globe and how they have a greater presence culturally than you ever imagined possible. In a vast array of rare, historic, and contemporary books, studies, and images from the early 17th century through the 20th, many tales are told. These fungi show up quite often in children's literature and figure prominently in popular stories and folklore. For instance, many of the images, legends, and decorations surrounding Christmas, such as Santa Claus and his sack of gifts, why he is dressed as he is, why he comes down the chimney, and how his reindeer fly, come from many ancient traditions, stories, and cultures—one of them being from the pre-Christian Lapps of today's Finland.

The Lloyd Library and Museum, located at 917 Plum Street, downtown Cincinnati, was developed in the nineteenth century by the Lloyd brothers-John Uri, Curtis Gates, and Nelson Ashley to provide reference sources for Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists, Inc., one of the leading pharmaceutical companies of the period. Today the library is recognized worldwide by the scientific community as a vital research center. The library holds, acquires, and provides access to both historic and current materials on the subjects of pharmacy, botany, horticulture, herbal and alternative medicine, pharmacognosy, and related topics. Although the collections have a scientific focus, they also have relevance to humanities topics, such as visual arts and foreign languages through resources that feature botanical and natural history illustrations, original artworks, and travel literature, thereby revealing the convergence of science and art. The Lloyd is open to anyone with an interest in these topics.

For more information, visit the Lloyd web site at www.lloydlibrary.org.

Newton at the Worth Library Online Exhibition

Scholars may be interested in the following web site exhibition entitled "Newton at the Worth Library." This is one of a number of exhibitions exploring the scientific and medical collections of the Edward Worth Library, Dublin, and is part of Dublin City of Science 2012's program of events.

The URL is as follows:
http://newton.edwardworthlibrary.ie/Home

Call for Papers—Spontaneous Generations: A Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science

Spontaneous Generations is an open, online, peer-reviewed academic journal published by graduate students at the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto. It has produced six issues and is a well-respected journal in the history and philosophy of science and science studies. We invite interested scholars to submit papers for our seventh issue, which will focus on the economic aspects of science.

We welcome submissions from scholars in all disciplines, including but not limited to HPS, STS, History, Philosophy, Women's Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, and Religious Studies. Papers in any period are welcome.
The journal consists of four sections:

A focused discussion section consisting of short peer-reviewed and invited articles devoted to a particular theme. The theme for our seventh issue is "Economic aspects of science." Recommended length for submissions is 1000-3000 words.
A peer-reviewed section of research papers on various topics in the field of HPS. Recommended length for submissions is 5000-8000 words.
A book review section for books published in the last 5 years. Recommended length for submissions is up to 1000 words.
An opinions section that may include a commentary on or a response to current concerns, trends, and issues in HPS. Recommended length for submissions is up to 500 words.

The seventh issue of Spontaneous Generations will appear in September 2013. Submissions for the issue should be sent no later than 15 March 2013. For more details on the issue's theme and for further information, please visit the journal homepage at http://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/SpontaneousGenerations/

Dissertation Reviews: November 2012 (Sci/Med/Tech)

Dissertation Reviews features friendly, non-critical overviews of recently defended and unpublished dissertations, as well as articles on archives and libraries around the world. The following is a list of the posts from the Science Studies, Medical Anthropology and Bioethics series for November 2012.

[Science Studies, Southeast Asia] Wan Faizah Wan Yusoff, "Malay Responses to the Promotion of Western Medicine, with Particular Reference to Women and Child Healthcare in the Federated Malay States, 1920–1939" (SOAS, University of London, 2010), reviewed by Hans Pols (University of Sydney); http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/1750
[Science Studies] Perrin Selcer, "Patterns of Science: Developing Knowledge for a World Community at UNESCO" (University of Pennsylvania, 2011), reviewed by Poul Duedahl (Aalborg University); http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/1952
[Bioethics] Nathan Emmerich, "Taking Education Seriously: Developing Bourdieauan Social Theory in the Context of Teaching and Learning Medical Ethics in the UK Undergraduate Medical Degree" (Queen's University Belfast, 2011), reviewed by Sara Donetto (King's College London); http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2075
[Science Studies] Joline Zepcevski, "Complexity and Verification: The History of Programming as Problem Solving" (University of Minnesota, 2012), reviewed by Christine Aicardi (University College London); http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/1835
[South Asia, Science Studies] Michael Slouber, "Garuda Medicine: A History of Snakebite and Religious Healing in South Asia" (University of California, Berkeley, 2012), reviewed by Dagmar Wujastyk (Zurich University); http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2081
[Science Studies, Bioethics] Kris Weller, "Defining Human: Species, Sanity, and Legal Subjecthood" (University of California, Santa Cruz, 2010), reviewed by Rui Sa (Universidade Nova de Lisboa); http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/1779
[Bioethics, Science Studies] Benjamin Hurlbut, "Experiments in Democracy: The Science, Politics and Ethics of Human Embryo Research in the United States, 1978–2007" (Harvard University, 2010), reviewed by Thomas Banchoff (Georgetown University); http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2147
[Science Studies] Hector Vera, "The Social Life of Measures: Metrication in the United States and Mexico, 1789–2004" (New School of Social Research, 2011), reviewed by Miruna Achim (Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana-Cuajimalpa); http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/1936
[Science Studies] Daniel Margocsy, "Commercial Visions: Trading with Representations of Nature in Early Modern Netherlands" (Harvard University, 2009), reviewed by Alix Cooper (SUNY-Stony Brook); http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2137
[Talking Shop, Medical Anthro] Dori Beeler (Durham University), "Phenomenology and Medical Anthropology"; http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2026
[Archives Review, Science Studies] Kristen Ehrenberger (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), review of the Dresden City Archive (Stadtarchiv Dresden), Dresden, Germany; http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/1781
[Archives Review, Science Studies] Kristen Ehrenberger (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), review of the German National Library (Deutsche Nationalbibliothek, DNB), Leipzig, Germany; http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/1784

For a complete list of ALL November 2012 posts, please visit:
http://dissertationreviews.org/archives/2059

The "Dissertation Reviews" Editorial Board
http://dissertationreviews.org/about-us/editorial-board

The "Dissertation Reviews" Advisory Board
http://dissertationreviews.org/about-us/advisory-boards

If you are interested in having your dissertation reviewed, reviewing a dissertation, contributing an article, or helping our team in some other way, please contact info@dissertationreviews.org or sciencestudies@dissertationreviews.org

World-Wide Doctoral Dissertations Available from Dissertation Abstracts, 2010

You can find the latest batches of recent doctoral dissertations world-wide harvested from the November 2010 issues of Dissertation Abstracts at the following URL: http://www.hsls.pitt.edu/guides/histmed/researchresources/ dissertations/index_html. These dissertations pertain to the broad scope of the history of science.

Crowdfunding Employed to Fund an Exhibition on Artistic Anatomy Illustrations in America

One method discussed by scholars to raise money for various projects in the history of science, medicine and technology is to use crowdfunding. One such recently launched project is a unique example of the use of crowdfunding: Teaching the Body (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1514650360/teaching-the-body?ref=live)

This use of Kickstarter and crowdfunding is significant for historians of science in that it is not, like so many scholar-led projects, a book-publishing project but an attempt to sponsor an exhibition on the history of American art and human anatomy. Given that so many historians of science and medicine either organize or attend such exhibitions, it will be interesting to see if the graduate student (partnering with the Boston University Art Gallery) behind the project meets the relatively modest goal of $2,500. There are now several opportunities for members of the general public to fund specific exhibitions and this development may be of great importance for museums, libraries and other venues that have had difficulties raising funds from corporate sponsors, their own institutions or foundations for such events and for historians hoping to curate such events. As crowdfunding gains traction in academia, there is more competition for such funds as backers have to spare.

Histories of the Internet—Call for Papers

This is a call for papers for a Special Issue of Information & Culture: A Journal of History (Volume 50, Issue 1, February-March 2015). For the latest and most complete information on the special issue please see www.sigcis.org/InternetIssue. Guest Editors are William H. Dutton, Professor of Internet Studies, Oxford Internet Institute, University of Oxford, and Professorial Fellow, Balliol College; Thomas Haigh, Associate Professor of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee; and Andrew L. Russell, Assistant Professor of History, College of Arts & Letters, Stevens Institute of Technology.

Abstracts can be submitted to an editor of the special issue for informal feedback until 1 March 2013: e-mail: William.Dutton@oii.ox.ac.uk. Full papers should be submitted to the managing editor, George Royer, for review by 30 August 2013.

Lakatos Award Awarded for 2012

The London School of Economics and Political Science announces that the Lakatos Award, of £10,000 for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science, has been won by Wolfgang Spohn of the University of Konstanz for his book The Laws of Belief: Ranking Theory and its Philosophical Implications (Oxford University Press, 2012).

The Lakatos Award is given for an outstanding contribution to the philosophy of science, widely interpreted, in the form of a book published in English during the previous five years. It was made possible by a generous endowment from the Latsis Foundation. The Award is in memory of the former LSE professor, Imre Lakatos, and is administered by an international Management Committee organized from the LSE.

The Committee, chaired by John Worrall, decides the outcome of the Award competition on the advice of an international, independent and anonymous panel of Selectors who produce detailed reports on the nominated books. For further information visit http://www2.lse.ac.uk/philosophy/LakatosAward/home.aspx

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