People
The organization of this project integrates the expertise of its participating members (and academic disciplines) to enable a Centre for Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine Studies project benefit from more than the sum of its parts. We describe the expertise and role of each member with, for example, material culture studies of science and technology using techniques to unravel the contributions of instruments, specimens, and objects for the pursuit of knowledge making, while they must rely upon very specific and constrained collections. However, the involvement of so many different collections from UofC sources and Southern Alberta institutions helps to integrate comparative knowledge from other material collections and research perspectives across disciplines in mutually beneficial ways.
In the scholarship, studies of science, technology, environment, and medicine in their cultural contexts have often been confined to uni-disciplinary forms of knowledge-making. What this project wants to achieve in an innovative way is the interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration between the disciplines (sociology, history, philosophy, anthropology) about the ways of knowledge creation in the scientific sphere. Based on the material collections available, the relationship between societal interests and the processes of science can be more adequately understood. This project synthesizes such perspectives and advances science in context knowledge.
PI: Dr. Frank W. Stahnisch
((AMF/Hannah Professorship in the History of Medicine and Health Care) - As a historian of medicine and health care, Frank's interests span the development of experimental physiology and laboratory medicine since the late 18th century (particularly France and Germany), the historical relationship between neurology/the neurosciences and the philosophy of the mind (focus on the German-speaking countries and North America), the relationship between clinical neuroscience and public mental health (particularly Canada and the United States), the historical epistemology of the life sciences (18th to 21st centuries), and the longer history of visualization practices in medicine and health care. Frank W. Stahnisch is an Editor-in-Chief of the international "Journal of the History of the Neurosciences", which is the official journal of the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN) and the History Committee of the World Federation of Neurology (WFR). This journal is a flagship journal in the wider field of the history of neuroscience, psychiatry, and public mental health. Most of Dr. Stahnisch’s publications are available in open access form through the Research Gate repository. Please view at: Frank W Stahnisch on ResearchGate
Co-Investigator: Dr. Glenn Dolphin
(Tamaratt Chair, Science Education and Teaching, Faculty of Science) – Dr. Dolphin received both a BS and MA in geology and a MAT in geology. He taught for half a year in the Elmira school district, Elmira, NY, followed by 13 years teaching earth science in the Union-Endicott school district, Endicott, NY. During this time, he held the position of STANYS (Science Teachers Association of New York State) Director at Large (DAL) for earth science. He has a PhD in Science Education. Recent research involves analyzing the efficacy of the implementation of a historical case study for teaching about earthquakes, plate tectonics and aspects of the nature of science. He is also investigating how the use of certain scientific metaphors (such as tectonic plate) might impede the learning of the concept of elastic rebound; the mechanism for causing earthquakes. Finally, he has a group of research assistants who are researching various aspects in the history of geology and developing historical case studies surrounding particular geologic concepts.
Co-Investigator: Dr. Sabrina Perić
(Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology) – Her current research focuses on the anthropology and history of resource extration, science and its relationship to governance. I am particularly interested in the role of scientific expertise in governance and conflict, as well as the participation of scientists in radical politics. these issues are at the centre of both my previous research in southeastern Europe and my new field sites in northern Canada and U.S. She also runs the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology's Field School in the Yukon's Kluane Region, "The Dynamic North: Climate, Economy and Society in Anthropological Perspective."
Co-Investigator: Dr. Jesse L. Hendrikse
(Instructor, Health Sciences Program, Cumming School of Medicine) – Dr. Hendrikse has a master’s and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Calgary, focusing on philosophy of biology. Currently, he is an instructor at the Department of Community Health Science at the Cumming School of Medicine. He has teaching experience in the foundations of social scientific method, and science, philosophy, and society, He has published on evolutionary developmental biology.
Dr. Gregor Wolbring
Dr. Gregor Wolbring is an Associate Professor at the University of Calgary, Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Community Health Sciences, Stream Community Rehabilitation and Disability Studies. He is also a Part-Time Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa, Canada; Founding Member and Distinguished Scholar, Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University, USA; Adjunct Faculty in Critical Disability Studies at York University Toronto and Fellow: Institute for Science, Policy and Society, University of Ottawa,. His research interests are manifold: ability and ableism ethics and governance, history of thalidomide and thalidomiders, disability studies, social, ethical, legal, economic, environmental, cultural and governance issues of new, emerging and converging sciences and technologies (S&T)
Dr. Richard Hawkins
Dr. Richard Hawkins is Professor at the University of Calgary. Until July 2012, he was also Canada Research Chair in the Social Context of Technology. He is also Senior Fellow at The Centre for Innovation Studies (THECIS) and Fellow of the Institute for Science Society and Policy (University of Ottawa). Dr. Hawkins is a political economist who has authored over 100 scientific publications and reports on science, technology, and industry policy. He also has extensive international experience as a policy consultant and advisor. He holds BA and MA degrees from Simon Fraser University (Canada), and a DPhil from the University of Sussex (UK).
Dr. Fedir Razumenko
Dr. Fedir Razumenko is a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Community Health Sciences. His interdisciplinary research project “Cancer Clinical Trials in Canada and the Ethics of the Human Dignity Framework” explores the evolution of clinical trials from a biomedical research paradigm to a patient-centered comprehensive investigation model. Dr. Razumenko has research interests in History of Science, Science and Technology Studies, History of Medicine and its several sub-fields: human subject research and clinical trials, cancer treatment and investigation, medical and research ethics, cancer care, governance of health research and its legal foundations.