Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Lancaster University

Home
About FASS
- Home page
- Read the Dean's Welcome
- Contact Us
Departments
Departments
- Find departments, websites and department heads.
- Go to Department list
People
Faculty Office
- Contact Deans, admin, research support, finance and IT staff via the Faculty Office
Find all Academic and Support Staff
- Academic and support staff in departments
- General Contact information
Study Here
Undergraduate Study
- Introduction to undergraduate study
- Studying for a degree
Postgraduate Study
- Introduction to Postgraduate Study
- Go to the Graduate School Website for information about funding, research training, view student profiles etc.
Research
Our Research
Publications
- Download publications from Lancaster's Publications Repository.
- Recent Books
See also
- Business and Enterprise
- Knowledge Transfer
Business & Enterprise
Business and Enterprise
See also
- Research
- Knowledge Transfer
News & Events
FASS Events
- All Forthcoming Events
- Events Archive
FASS News
- Keep up-to-date with our News
- View News Archive
FASS Intranet
FASS Intranet
- LU Staff only. Policies/guidelines, funding, research support, committees etc.
- Go to FASS Intranet

You are here: Home >

Events

News

Subscribe to News and Events

CSS, CSEC & CESAGen Conference:- Getting Underneath the Fact

Date: 28 August - 29 August 2006 Time: 09.50 pm

Getting Underneath the Fact:natural categories & biological facts as historical and emergent objects

A conference organised by the Centre for Science Studies in conjunction with the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change, at Lancaster University.

To be held at the Institute of Advanced Studied from the 28th to 29th August 2006.

ABSTRACT

The initial project of science studies, it seems, is becoming ever more compromised by demands for science studies scholars to learn the language and the nominations of science before they can critique. This is highlighted by the recent Report on Wellcome Trust Biomedical Ethics Summer School at St Annes College, Oxford on the 26-29 Sep 2005. The report suggests that while the debate between scientists and social scientists and other humanities scholars may be fruitful the latter are:

'intimidated by the complexity of the science,……This suggests a training need: To find ways to familiarise social scientists and humanities researchers with neuroscience, and to equip them to liase with neuroscientists in a competent manner.'

This conference would be an opportunity to explore how STS research and the debates in which we engage are compliant with this vision, relying upon assumed foundations of knowledge. In the passage above the ontological assumptions of the neuroscientist may be read as fact, hence not open for debate or contestation. The task for the social science/humanities researcher becomes, it seems, someone who adds a bit of construction after the fact. This conference will provide a forum to think about assumed foundations in knowledge, their performative nature, and the way in which debates are framed around biological and natural facts. These issues will be explored in different research domains including genetics, brain sciences, classifications and number systems.

Please see attached PDFs for full conference abstract, conference programme, and conference registration form.

Please registerby 30th July 2006.

Returningtheregistration formto Ruth Love, Department of Sociology, B53a County South, Lancaster University. LA1 4YD

Tel - 01524 593148 / E-mail - r.love@lancaster.ac.uk

Conference Abstract

Programme

Registration Form

Contact:

Who can attend: