Mullins Lecture To Address Public Knowledge In Democratic Societies

The Program in Science and Technology Studies (STS) at Virginia Tech presents the 2003 Mullins Lecture by Sheila Jasanoff, the Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Jasanoff will discuss "Civic Epistemology: Public Knowledge in Democratic Societies" Friday, April 11, 4 p.m., in 2150 Torgersen Hall. A reception will be held after the talk.

Jasanoff's longstanding research interests center on the interactions of law, science, and politics in democratic societies. Specific areas of work include science and the law, comparative politics of environmental regulation and risk management, and the political implications of scientific and technological change.

She has written more than 80 articles and book chapters on these topics and has written the books Controlling Chemicals: The Politics of Regulation in Europe and the United States, Risk Management and Political Culture, and The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers. Her book Science at the Bar: Law, Science and Technology in America received the Don K. Price award of the American Political Science Association for best book on science and politics in 1998.

Since 1989, STS has held an annual lecture in honor of the late distinguished sociologist of science and Virginia Tech Professor Nicholas C. Mullins. The lecturers from 1989 were Harriett Zuckerman, Bruno Latour, Trevor Pinch, Helen Longino, Michel Callon, Daryl Chubin, Emily Martin, Donna Haraway, Sherry Turkle, Frank Sulloway, Lynn Margulis, Andrew Pickering, and Steven Yearley.

For more information, call 231-8472 or email dbreslau@vt.edu.