CfP: Truth Politics between Science and Society. Political Epistemologies of the 1990s Science Wars.
Call for papers: Truth Politics between Science and Society. Political Epistemologies of the 1990s Science Wars. Erfurt, 08.07.2025 - 09.07.2025, Deadline 22.04.2025
In light of a dwindling public trust in science (Oreskes 2019) and ambiguous calls for a ‘return to truth’ (Cain et al. 2019), understanding the relationship between science and a democratic public, the delineation of appropriate scientific practices, and how to reconcile conflicting interpretations of reality seems to be more relevant than ever. In the 1990s, struggles over these issues culminated in the Science Wars that consisted of a series of heated academic-public discussions, among them the infamous ‘Sokal Hoax’. The Science Wars represent a historic peak and intersection of academic, political, and epistemological debates that had been smoldering for decades before, leaving a contested legacy.
A fresh perspective on the Science Wars – one that acknowledges their historical complexity, moves beyond a dualistic framing, and situates them firmly in their historical moment – promises to illuminate the social, political, and cultural ramifications on academia and beyond. The workshop aims to map and historicize the shifting epistemological landscapes of the 1990s from an international perspective informed by methods of Historical and Political Epistemology.
We take the Science Wars and their reception as a vantage point to explore historical debates at the nexus of truth, science, and society. The topics may include, but are not limited to:
-
debates about the relationship between religion, especially creationism, and science and education (Perez 2024);
-
the “Darwin wars” (Brown 2000) or “Evolution wars” (Aechtner 2020);
-
the New Atheist movement and its struggles against religious “irrationalism”;
-
sceptics’ networks debunking “pseudo-sciences” since the 1970s;
-
more generally, the philosophical efforts to delineate science against “pseudo-science” (Popper, Lakatos, Bunge etc.);
-
the “Freud wars” against psychoanalysis;
-
the “theory wars” (Bevir et al. 2020) in literary theory;
- debates about science museum exhibitions (e.g. Science in American Life, Enola Gay) etc.
In line with the perspective of Historical and Political Epistemology, the following questions might be worth considering:
-
What were the socio-political effects of deploying scientific concepts, rhetorics, and arguments (e.g. truth, objectivity, rationalism, the scientific method, academic freedom) in particular historical contexts?
-
What kind of political and social imaginations about the future of science and the (democratic) public informed these different positions?
- What kinds of subjectivities and narratives about science and society were re-/asserted?
In particular, we invite paper proposals with an international and transnational perspective on the reception of the Science Wars and related debates, as well as similar struggles that played out in different academic cultures and national contexts. Moreover, the role of new channels of communication and media, and how they shaped debates in public-academic arenas represent an important topic to explore.
We invite colleagues to send a short CV, and a 300-word abstract of their paper (the presentation should be 25-30 minutes long). The deadline for submission is April 22, 2025. Please send these documents to forschungsstelle.wahrheit@uni-erfurt.de. Applicants will be notified of the acceptance of their proposal by the beginning of May. As a result of the workshop, we are planning a publication. The workshop will take place at the University of Erfurt, Germany. We will cover travel and accommodation costs for the speakers.
Organizing Committee:
Martin Babička, D.Phil., Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague
Johanna Hügel, History of Science, University of Erfurt
Meike Katzek, M.A., History of Science, University of Erfurt
Prof. Dr. Bernhard Kleeberg, History of Science, University of Erfurt
Dr. Jan Surman, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague EASST's Eurograd mailing list -- eurograd-easst.net@lists.easst.net Archive: https://lists.easst.net/hyperkitty/list/eurograd-easst.net@lists.easst.net/ Edit your delivery settings there using Account dropdown, Mailman settings. Website: https://easst.net/easst_eurograd/ Meet us on Mastodon: https://assemblag.es/@easst Or X: https://twitter.com/STSeasst
EASST-Eurograd
30 recent messages
- 30/04/2025 FW: CALL FOR PAPERS: How might be think dose and dose-response? An exploratory workshop on measuring practices - University of Liverpool, June 19th 2025
- 29/04/2025 PhD vacancy "Ethics of Agricultural Automation"
- 18/04/2025 Deadline for ASSIST 2025 Conference. KEYNOTES ANNOUNCED. REGISTRATION OPEN
- 04/04/2025 08/04/2025 Seminar with Steven Gonzalez Mo=?windows-1252?q?nserrate =3A =22The Cloud=92s =28In=29Security=3A The Peri?= ls of Terraforming Environment for Computation"
- 04/04/2025 Registration is now open for 4S Seattle, 3-6 Sept 2025!
- 04/04/2025 Call for Abstracts, Biometric Assemblages in Medicine, MAE Conference 2025 in Vienna
- 04/04/2025 CALL FOR PAPERS: How might be think dose and dose-response? An exploratory workshop on measuring practices - University of Liverpool, June 19th 2025
- 04/04/2025 Conference "Biodata, Surveillance & Society" w Erin Murphy, Louise Amoore & artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg - CfP closes tomorrow
- 01/04/2025 Extended deadline STI 2025 (14th April) and reminder of the Special Session "Carrots and Sticks in the Evaluation of (Open) Data Sharing"
- 01/04/2025 Upcoming exhibition opening: “Living w=?windows-1252?q?ith Radiation=94 12=2E June 2025 =28Erlangen=2C Germany=29?=
- 01/04/2025 PhD vacancy on Learning Infrastructures at Wageningen University
- 01/04/2025 Good news! CRISP Doctoral School, 16 - 20 June 2025 - deadline extended to April 4th!
- 01/04/2025 Brand new MSc programme in Sustainability and Society at UEA
- 01/04/2025 CfE: Special Issue Comics as media of k=?iso-8859-1?q?nowledge=94=2C Journal for Cultural Analysis and European Et?= hnology/Zeitschrift für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft. (Out of Office)
- 31/03/2025 CfE: Special Issue “Comics as media of =?utf-8?q?knowledge=E2=80=9D=2C Journal for Cultural Analysis and European ?= Ethnology/Zeitschrift für Empirische Kulturwissenschaft.
- 31/03/2025 Job opening – Lecturer in Philosophy of AI and Data
- 31/03/2025 CfP: Truth Politics between Science and Society. Political Epistemologies of the 1990s Science Wars.
- 31/03/2025 TATuP 34/1 (2025) published: "Practices and concepts of care in sustainability transformations. Critical perspectives in technology assessment"
- 31/03/2025 Reflections on Papers Past
- 31/03/2025 Upcoming talk: Situating Uranium Industrialism by Nikolaos Olma (Online)
- 31/03/2025 Reminder: CfP "Beyond Infrastructure? (Un-)built Environments in the Anthropocene" International Conference (University of Vienna, September 22-24, 2025)
- 31/03/2025 Postdoc on 'VR and Immersive Technologies' at Utrecht University