Emily Thompson News

Courtesy of former grad student Audra (who will soon be able to post her own entries!), here is a happy news item about a former HSS faculty member who taught many of us in the history of technology:

"Emily Thompson just got a MacArthur grant. Here's the blurb from salon.com's AP feed:

-- Historian Emily Thompson, 43, who teaches at the University of California at San Diego, said she might use the grant money to include a DVD with film clips in a book about the transition from silent to sound motion pictures, or to help restore an old film."

Interesting new Mirowski & VanHorn article in SSS

In preparation for possibly submitting an article, I was browsing the latest issue of Social Studies of Science this morning. I only got through the first article, which was so interesting that I used up all my time before lunch just reading it:

Philip Mirowski & Robert VanHorn, "The Contract Research Organization and the Commercialization of Scientific Research," Social Studies of Science 35 (2005): 503-548.

This article will be especially of interest to those of us following the debates about changes over the past several decades in university-business relations. It might even be suitable journal club material, perhaps a better choice than the other Mirowski article I suggested a few months ago. The main subject matter is drug testing, but the authors make the claim that the new structural forces are already or will in the future be operating in several other fields as well. Even though this article is about recent stuff, I think it has some potential relevance for those of us studying longer time periods who are interested in the economics of knowledge production.

Welcome to Logan Lounge!

After informal conversations with several of you about having a collective blog, I created this blog for current and former members of the History and Sociology of Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania to exchange ideas with one another whether they are in residence in Philadelphia or not. (Having just finished my degree and moved away, I have a special incentive to set up such a blog!) Of course, other people are also welcome to view the site and participate in its discussions. If you would like to be able to post new items to the blog, send me an e-mail so I can add you to the list.

As will presumably be obvious to current and recent members, this blog is called "Logan Lounge" because the Department is located in Logan Hall on the Penn campus. The 3rd floor lounge is an area where so many of our conversations take place, and this blog is meant to be an extension of the physical space into cyberspace. I chose the basic site design template that seemed to me to best resemble the furniture in the lounge. If anyone wants to change it, let me know.

What is appropriate for posting on the blog? It is really up to you, but some possibilities include recommendations of recent articles or books that might be interesting to colleagues in the Department, discussions on particular themes of interest to you, upcoming conferences, requests for secondary literature on a given topic, favorite lunch truck/food cart debates, new recipes, etc. See you in the Logan Lounge!