Scientific work is often understood to be something separate from social, artistic, or cultural influence. Increasingly, interdisciplinary inquiry pushes us to reconsider these perceived divisions. The 2014 Science & Society Undergraduate Research Symposium focuses on the social, the political, and the “scientific” (medical, technological, and beyond), proposing that these disciplinary boundaries are not so easy to identify and distinguish in the first place. When we fracture natures, we break open conceptions of “science” and “society” in order to consider who and what is at stake within scientific discoveries, histories, and discourses.

PROGRAM OF EVENTS

5:00 // Opening Remarks

Massimo Mazzotti, Director, CSTMS Associate Professor, Department of History Alli Yates, symposium organizer

5:05 -5:50 // Keynote Address

Harlan Weaver

“Queer Intimacies and Inhuman Socialities in Contemporary Pit Bull Worlds” (10-minute break for dinner and refreshments)

6:00-6:30 // Rethinking the Natural: Health, Environment & Society

“Choking on Air: A Historical and Scientific Approach to Environmental Injustice”

Savannah Carnes, Molecular Cellular Biology

“Beyond the Trees: Public Engagement in the East Bay Eucalyptus Controversy”

Meredith Jacobson, Forestry and Natural Resources Q&A, Group Discussion Moderated by: Angelo Matteo Caglioti, PhD Candidate, Department of History

6:35-7:15 // Disease, Perfection, and the making of the human (and more-than-human) Body

“Reading the “Sexually Diseased Body”: A Critical Discussion of Genital Herpes ”

Laura Fryer, Gender and Women’s Studies

“Thick Fluttering: Emotion, Anorexia Nervosa, and Confronting Dominant Medical Thought”

Avery Heine, Gender and Women’s Studies Q&A, Group Discussion Moderated by: Alli Yates, Interdisciplinary Studies

7:20-8:00 // Self, Subjectivity, and Medicine

“Dementia and Social Death: A Reframing of the Self in the Bio-normative Illness Narrative”

Andreas Lazaris, Cognitive Science

“Meditations on Western Medicine: Intersections of Complementary/ Alternative Medicine & Scientism”

Allyson Troxel, Interdisciplinary Studies

“Cancerous (Mis)communications: Overcoming Prejudice for Equitable Healthcare”

Courtney Sarkin, Legal Studies/Molecular Cellular Biology

Q&A, Group Discussion Moderated by: Michele Pridmore-Brown, Visiting Scholar at the Center for Science, Technology, Medicine and Society and Science Editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books

8:05 // Featured performance

Viral Plasticities (y)

Event is free of charge and open to the public. 470 Stephens is ADA accessible. Out of consideration for our guests and participants with chemical sensitivities, we ask that all participants and guests refrain from smoking before the event, as well as from wearing strong fragrances, oils, or clothing exposed to chemical based laundry detergents or fabric softeners. Information on fragrance-free products and practice can be found here or here. Please contact us about disability accommodations, assistance in working with our scent-free accessibility request, or with general questions about the event at cstms.undergradconf@gmail.com.