Notices

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Information on Darryl Reanney sought

Donald Forsdyke of Queens University has sent this request:

As set out on a recent paper in Biological Theory, the microbiologist/philosopher Darryl Reanney, who I believe started off in New Zealand but did most of his work in Australia, advanced one of the earliest hypotheses on the role of introns when they were discovered in 1977. Apart from a TV interview he gave shortly before his death from leukaemia in 1994, there is little I can find on him on the internet. In particular, I would like a photo to add to the web version of my intron paper. If anyone in AAHPSSS can help it would be much appreciated.

Donald R. Forsdyke, Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada

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AAHPSSS 2013 Annual General Meeting

The 2013 AAHPSSS annual general meeting was held at the University of Sydney on Friday 8 November 2013 at 1.50pm-2.20pm. The minutes of the meeting will be published in the next newsletter (March 2014).

The 2014 AAHPSSS annual general meeting will be held at the biennial conference between the 16th and 18th of July in Katoomba.

Please feel free to send queries or comments via e-mail to Luciano Boschiero (Treasurer).

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Call for HPS/STS papers at Melbourne

The History and Philosophy of Science Postgraduate Association of the University of Melbourne is pleased to announce that it is organizing a conference whose purpose is to highlight the research of post-graduates as well as academics within HPS.

Proposals for paper presentations are now being invited for the “Melbourne University Research Conference on the History and Philosophy of Science” to be held Thursday Feb. 21, 2013. We are welcome papers from a variety of disciplinary perspectives related to topics within the fields of History and Philosophy of Science and Science and Technology Studies.

We hope that this conference will provide an opportunity for staff and postgraduates at the University of Melbourne to come together and showcase their research, as well as a forum for discussion with the wider HPS and STS communities, in Melbourne and beyond.  We therefore particularly welcome paper proposals from postgraduates of other institutions.

Presentations will run for fifteen minutes plus question time.  Papers presented will appear in a peer reviewed proceedings, tentatively scheduled for publication in June of 2013. It is also anticipated that presentations will be presentations will be recorded and made available via a conference website, subject to the approval of each presenter.

Abstracts of up to 250 words, with a brief biographical statement, should be sent to hpssa.unimelb@gmail.com no later than Friday the 25th of January.

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APSTSN Biennial Conference July 15–17 2013

The National University of Singapore is pleased to open the Call for Papers for APSTSN Biennial Conference July 15–17 2013.

The Asia-Pacific Science, Technology and Society Network is an association of regional scholars for fostering collaboration and encouraging science, technology and society research, teaching, and critical discussion on current STS themes and issues in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Knowing, Making, Governing - across Asia and the Pacific, the work of science, technology and society calls attention to the region’s plurality of socio-technical projects and ways of knowing. The conference accepts proposals for all themes pertaining to science, technology and society, including:

Themes

Biosciences

Gender

Modeling and Numbers-work

Business, Finance, & Markets

Indigenous Knowledges

Normativity and Normalization

Care

Information & Media

Publics & Participation

Citizenship & Activism

Inter-Species Relations

Posthumanities

Disaster

Government, Policy & Politics

Risk

Energy

Limits of Knowledge

Theory & Method

Environment & Ecology

Medicine

Food & Agriculture

This conference is jointly organized by the STS Research Cluster of the Asia Research Institute (ARI), the STS Research Cluster of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), and Tembusu College (at University Town), all at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Support has also been received from the Humanities and Social Science Research Fund at NUS.

Abstract submission will open on December 1, 2012 and the deadline for submitting proposals is January 7, 2013. Accepted participants will be notified in February 2013.

Proposals will be reviewed by the NUS Conference Organizing Committee, with the objective to accept all properly prepared proposals. Please note that Science, Technology and Society (STS) is a broad but distinct inter-disciplinary field pertaining to science, technology and their historical and social implications and conditions of possibility. 

Check the conference website for further information on submitting abstract, panel and plenary proposals. 

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Postgraduate scholarships

Two Postgraduate Scholarships in Race and Ethnicity in the Global South, University of Sydney, Australia

Description:

Two full-time postgraduate scholarships are available for suitably qualified candidates with a good honours or masters degree in history, HPS, or anthropology to undertake research studies leading to a PhD. The PhD topic should relate to the ARC Laureate Fellowship project, which focuses on the development and transmission of concepts of race and human difference in the southern hemisphere during the 20th century, especially on those ideas derived from biological or anthropological studies. Through comparative and transnational histories we seek to reveal influential debates over racial difference conducted by scientists, anthropologists and others across the global South. We are especially interested in projects that bring southern settler societies together into the global picture of 20th-century race science.

Eligibility:

Applicants should have a particular interest in the history of concepts of race and human difference. Knowledge of the history of science is desirable but not essential. Applications are open to Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents or New Zealand citizens.

International students may apply, but need to contact Dr Rodney Taveira (rodney.taveira@sydney.edu.au) in the first instance.

Amount awarded:

The scholarship is valued at $27,651 per annum (tax exempt) and may be renewed for up to three years, subject to satisfactory progress.

Application guide:

Further information can be obtained from Laureate Fellow and Professor Warwick Anderson, Director, Race and Ethnicity in the Global South Project, School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry and Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine, The University of Sydney NSW 2006 (Phone: +61 2 9351 3365 ; Fax: +61 2 9351 7760; E-mail: warwick.anderson@sydney.edu.au).  Applications should be sent direct to Dr Rodney Taveira at Race and Ethnicity in the Global South, K6.07 A14 – Quadrangle, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006 Australia and should include a curriculum vitae, a copy of an academic transcript, and the names and contact details of at least two referees.

Closing date:

07 December 2012

DR RODNEY TAVEIRA | Research Administrative Assistant
Race and Ethnicity in the Global South (REGS)
School of Philosophical and Historical Inquiry; Centre for Values, Ethics and the Law in Medicine

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2012 Dyason Lecture

Professor Warwick Anderson, (ARC Laureate Fellow and Professor, Sydney) will deliver the 2012 Dyason Lecture:

Fashioning the Immunological Self: The Biological Individuality of F. Macfarlane Burnet

During the 1940s and 1950s, the Australian microbiologist F. Macfarlane Burnet sought a biologically plausible explanation of antibody production. In this talk, I seek to recover the conceptual pathways that Burnet followed in his immunological theorizing. In so doing, I emphasize the influence of philosophical speculations on individuality, especially those of Alfred North Whitehead; the impact of cybernetics and information theory; and the contributions of clinical research into autoimmune disease at Melbourne. Accordingly, this essay describes an intellectual arc distinct from most other tracings of Burnet’s conceptual development, which focus on his early bacteriophage research and his fascination with the work of Julian Huxley and other biologists in the 1920s. No doubt these were potent influences, but they seem insufficient to explain Burnet’s sudden enthusiasm in the 1940s for immunological definitions of self and not-self. I want to demonstrate here how Burnet’s deep involvement in philosophical biology—along with ineluctable clinical entanglements—shaped his immunological theories.

 

The lecture will take place in the Eastern Avenue Lecture Theatre at the University of Sydney, from 6:30-8:00pm. The event is free and open to all.

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Welcome to AAHPSSS

Welcome to the new website for the Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science and Society (AAHPSSS = A2HPS3). Here you can find details about A2HPS3 and the (henceforth) biennial conference (including information on past conferences), instructions on how to become a member, as well as news and events concerning HPSS. If you have useful information that you would like to see on this site (such as local job postings, calls for papers, and conferences) please let us know using the contact form.