STS Lecture Series

see also our Brownbag lunchtime series

Upcoming Talks

Monday 28 April 2008

William Perry

Former Secretary of Defense, Clinton White House

Title: TBA

details to be announced soon

Seminar at 4:00 p.m. — 135 Reber Building

David Goldberg

Jerry S. Dobrovolny Distinguished Professor
in Entrepreneurial Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Design of Innovation and the Logic of New Products:
Toward a Philosophy of Entrepreneurial Engineering

Click here for a PDF flyer

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Seminar at 4:00 p.m.—135 Reber
(Reception at 3:30 p.m. in lobby of Reber Building)

Darryl Farber

Assistant Professor
Science, Technology, and Society Program, Penn State University

Scenario Planning for Managing the Atom

Scenario planning is a tool for strategic decision making. Organizations such as the Electric Power Research Institute, Shell Oil, Duke Energy, and the National Academy of Engineering have used scenario-based planning as a method to think systematically about possible future business and policy environments an organization may face. This seminar will introduce scenario planning and its use in nuclear power management and policy.

[5/30/2007] Prof. Don Brown adresses the United Nations on the Ethical Dimensions of Climate Change [YouTube run time 10:54]

[12/21/2007] WPSU produced video on Climate Change featuring PSU faculty [You Tube run time 10:34]

STS is pleased to announce:

Asi Burak

Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, ImpactGames

" PeaceMaker:
A Video Game Inspired by Real Events
in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict"

Wednesday, 28 November, 4 pm
IST 113 (The Cybertorium)

We also draw your attention to the

"Who Owns Our Species?" lecture series

Wednesday, 4 April, 4:00-5:30pm:

Brian Rappert (University of Exeter)
"International Security, Methods, and Scientific Research"

• [PDF Flyer]

Previous Semesters

Friday, Dec. 8, noon-1:00pm:

Janet Vertesi (Cornell STS)
"Making Mars: Digital Image Processing and the Mars Rover Mission"

• [PDF Flyer]
• watch the presentation: 32min [MPEG movie - 17.6MB]
• watch the Q&A: 32 min [MPEG movie - 19.4MB]

Please see the allied lecture series at the Rock Ethics Institute

4:15 p.m. April 5 -- 201 Thomas Building

Edward Pines,
"Ethics for the Global Engineering/Manufacturing Enterprise."

Edward Pines, academic department head of industrial engineering at New Mexico State University, will discuss the different approaches to social accountability, including the Global Sullivan Principles and the Social Accountability International's SA 8000 standard. He also will discuss a new course being developed at New Mexico State on social accountability that will be offered jointly by two faculty members in its College of Engineering and College of Business and Economics.

A critical aspect of engineering ethics is the tenet that “engineers shall hold paramount the health, safety, and welfare of the public.”  As engineering becomes increasingly a 24 hour a day global profession, engineers encounter interpretations of business and employee relations including health, safety, and welfare that may differ from those which with they are familiar.   Much as in economic analysis of outsourcing, one finds varying perspectives on what to do.
            One well-known model is the set of principles developed by the Reverend Leon Sullivan.  These principles, now known as the Global Sullivan Principles, were developed in 1977 while Sullivan was a member of the board of directors of General Motors.  They address issues such as worker treatment, environmental concerns, fair competition, and supplier relations.
            Another increasingly popular approach is for organizations to become registered to SA 8000, a standard for social accountability.  SA 8000 is developed and maintained by Social Accountability International.  Its registration model is similar to those many engineers already encounter such as ISO 9000 for quality management systems or ISO 14000 for environmentally conscious manufacturing.   This standard addresses issues of the workplace such as environmental safety & health, fair labor standards and labor practices—key issues in ethics for many practicing engineers. 
            This presentation discusses several approaches to social accountability, and, reports on the development of a course, offered jointly by two faculty members of New Mexico State University’s College of Engineering and the College of Business Administration and Economics to address the issue of corporate social responsibility. 

Sponsored by the Science, Technology and Society Program and the Leonhard Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Education, is free to the public.

Contact:   Darryl Farber   <dlf112@psu.edu>   814-865-3042

March 1, 2006 -- 339 Davey, 12 noon

"Images of the Nanoscale: What they say, what they
suggest"

Davis Baird, Dean of the Honors College, Professor of
Philosophy, University of South Carolina, and former Associate Director of University of South Carolina NanoCenter.

• Michael Holland, Chairman's Designee of the House Committee on Science/Energy Subcommittee,"The Allocation of Federal R&D Money: Coordinating the Nanotechnology Research Initiative and the Funding of Facilities", Monday, 24 October 4pm, 111 Wartik (This talk is cosponsored by the Dept. of Chemistry)

Dr. Holland will be speaking on the allocation of federal money on R&D, particularly on the process for coordinating the nanotechnology research initiative and the funding of facilities.  

• Wenda Bauchspies, STS Program and former Fulbright Fellow to Guinea, west Africa, "She was WHERE? Doing WHAT?", Tuesday, 27 September at noon in the STS Conference Room (101 Old Botany).

  In this noontime presentation, Dr. Wenda Bauchspies will narrate a slide show of her Fulbright Experience in Guinea during the academic semesters: 2003-04 and Spring 2005. She will describe life in Kankan, Guinea, a mid-sized West African city where she was teaching at the University of Kankan. She will discuss how her research shifted from women in science to the reality of everyday life via: transportation, communication, electrical usage, lightning solutions, garbage disposal and household management.

• January 28 -- David Allen Grier (George Washington Univ.), "When Computers were Human" -- 102 Chambers

  [PDF Flyer]

• February 15 -- Margot Iverson (University of Minnesota): "Establishing a Native Americans Genetic Research Program: The Role of the International Biological Program" -- in conjunction with SMTC -- Foster Auditorium, Patee Library

  [ABSTRACT] Coming Soon: [PDF Flyer]

• March 22 -- James Fleming (Colby College), "The Pathological History of Weather and Climate modification: Three cycles of promise and hype" - 109 Walker

  [ABSTRACT] [PDF Flyer]

• March 24 -- Bill Shields (Department of Science and Technology Studies, Virginia Tech), "To Build a Safer Car: Automobile Safety Engineering, 1900-1960" - 208 Willard

  [ABSTRACT] [PDF Flyer]

• (date TBA) -- Dr. Steven P. Nichols, P.E.: " Technology Commercialization, Entrepreneurship and Professional Responsibility" (In conjunction with ASME)

  Coming Soon:[ABSTRACT] [PDF Flyer]

• Friday, December 3rd, 2pm -- Roger L. Geiger (Professor of Education, Penn State), “Knowledge and Money: Research Universities and the Paradox of the Marketplace”
• Robert McKinstry, "A Breath of Fresh Air: How Smarter Energy Choices Can Protect the Health of Pennsylvanians" - Moved to Harrisburg

• 19 March, 4:00PM: Joan Leach (Rhetoric of Science, U. of Pittsburgh), "Scientific Decorum and the Sophistic and Plain Styles of Speaking" [ABSTRACT][Click for PDF Flyer]
• 16-17 April: Wind&Water: the Mill in the Middle Ages (Co-sponsored with Medieval Studies)
  

• 25 September 4:00 PM: Jennifer Reardon (Cornell University), "Ordering Nature, Ordering the Polity: The Case of the Human Genome Diversity Project"
  (co-sponsored by the Rock Ethics Institute and Science, Technology, Medicine & Culture) -- in Foster Auditorium, 101 Pattee Library
• 10 October 4:00 PM: Jeffrey H. Schwartz (University of Pittsburgh), "Fossils, Genes, and the Origin of Species" (co-sponsored witht he department of Anthropology) -- in 107 Carpenter [ABSTRACT]
• 1 December 4:00 PM: Sheldon Zink (Director, Program for Transplant Policy and Ethics Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania), "Artificial Heart Technology: Ethics and the Body" -- 12 Walker Bldg.
• 10 December 4:00 PM: Brian L. Keeley (Pitzer College /University of Pittsburgh), "Deciphering the Ocular Dialect: How to use eyes to read minds" -- 115 McAllister Bldg. [ABSTRACT]

• 24 January 4:00 PM: Albert F. Mosley (Smith College), "Does HIV Cause AIDS: In Defense of Thabo Mbeki" (co-sponsored by the African American and African Studies Program and Philosophy Department) -- in Willard 260
• 4 March, 4:00 PM: Elizabeth Shea (Northeastern U.), "Authoring the Origin of Genetics: William Bateson and the Rhetorical Foundations of A Scientific Discipline"
• 8 April, 7:00 PM: Lance Bush (NASA), "The International Space Station
  in the 21st Century: Space, Politics, International Relations, & Business" -- in 111 Wartik Lab [Note: Dr. Bush will be on campus Apr. 7-8; please contact Darryl Farber if you would like more information]
  
• POSTPONED UNTIL SPRING 2004: Gary Downey (Virginia Tech), "On Why the French Have No Engineering Ethics: Code-Switching, Progress, and Engineering Epistemology"

• 20 September, 4:00 PM: Phillip McReynolds (Gonzaga University), "Towards an Ethics of Things: Rethinking Action and Responsibility in Science and Technology" -- in 113 Carnegie Building (Reception to follow sponsored by the Philosophy Department)
• 24 September, 11:00 AM: Linda Layne (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), "A Feminist, Anthropological Account of Pregnancy Loss in America"
• 11 October, 4:30 PM: Steve Sawyer (IST, PSU), "Social Informatics: research and questions in the intersection of IST and STS "
• 31 October, 12 noon: Katie Hogan, "Women, AIDS, and Literature" -- in Weaver 102 (sponsored by SMTC)
• 1 November, 4:30 PM: Marianne Sommers (SMTC NSF postdoctoral fellow, PSU), "Biography of a Scientific Object, or from Ancient Briton to Cro-Magnon: The Human Skeleton known as 'The Red Lady of Paviland' and her Lords"
• November 4, 12:00 noon: Clemente Abrokwaa (STS and African Studies, PSU), "Science, Technology, & Social Change in Africa" -- in Willard 216 (sponsored by African Studies)
• 15 November, 1:30 PM: Steven A. Walton (STS, PSU), "Scientific Instruments and Warfare"
• 3 December, 12 Noon: Mark Brown (NSF postdoctoral fellow, PSU), "Internalism or Why I Learned to Love Texas Suspension Bridges" [Click for PDF Flyer]

Please email the Webmaster about any upcoming events that should be listed here