Activist science: From Resistance to Coproduction in the 20th Century

This international workshop aims to bring to the fore new case studies and historiographical reflections on the social status and the epistemological role of activists in the 20th century. We are particularly interested in the influence of Social Movements Studies (SMS) on History of Science, and on the transition between STS and SMS. Analytical concepts such as contentious knowledge and politics, mobilized publics, resistance, protests, repression and counterhegemony, among many others, will be particularly relevant.

Precirculated papers will be discussed in person during the workshop for the preparation of a future collective publication. Everybody is very welcome to join us in the audience.

Participants:

Max Bautista Perpinyà (UCLouvain)

Carlo Debernardi (University of Siena)

Gerardo Ienna (La Spienza, Roma)

Marcin Krasnodębski (Polish Academy of Science, Warsaw)

Agustí Nieto-Galan (iHC-UAB)

Giusy Pappalardo (iHC-UAB)

Gianluca Pozzoni (Università degli Studi di Milano)

Ginevra Sanvitale (Trinity College Dublin)

Jaume Valentines (iHC-UAB)

Claire Votava (UCLA)

Programme:

Thursday 19 March

Introduction

10:00 - 10:30 Agustí Nieto-Galan and Jaume Valentines-Álvarez

Activist science: A historiographical approach

Case studies

10:30 - 11:30 Marcin Krasnodębski

Prophets, Apostles, and Clergy: Typology of Environmental Activists in Chemistry

Comments by Ginevra Sanvitale

11:30 - 12:00 Coffee break

12:00 - 13:00 Claire Votava

Between Activism and Technocracy: The Council for Science and Society, 1972–1990

Comments by Giusy Pappalardo

13:15 - 14:30 Lunch break

14:45 - 15:45 Carlo Debernardi, Gerardo Ienna and Gianluca Pozzoni

Counter-hegemony in scientific fields. The case of the radical science magazine Sapere in Italy (1974-1977)

Comments by Agustí Nieto-Galan

15:45 - 16:15 Coffee break

16:15 - 17:15 Giusy Pappalardo

Activist Knowledge(s) along the Matanza-Riachuelo River: Indigenous, Migrant, Working-Class, and Women’s perspectives in 20th-21st-Century Buenos Aires

Comments by Claire Votava

Friday 20 March

10:00 - 11:00 Agustí Nieto-Galan

A liberal activist: Archibald Vivian Hill and the Ethical Dilemma of Science

Comments by Marcin Krasnodębski

11:00 - 11:20 Coffee break

11:20 - 12:20 Ginevra Sanvitale

Paola Manacorda, a critical IT expert within and beyond the 1970s Italian radical science networks

Comments by Gerardo Ienna

12:20 - 13:20 Max Bautista PerpinyàThe End of Counter-Epistemologies: Science, Politics, and Environmental Activism in València (1977–1999)Comments by Jaume Valentines-Álvarez

13:20 - 13:40 General discussion and publication prospects