Lora Geriguis (La Sierra University)
lger@****.com (Log-in to reveal)

This session will investigate the way that science and culture have influenced, informed, and challenged one another, either within society more broadly or even within higher education. Projects from the medical humanities, environmental humanities, and/or digital humanities are relevant to this panel, as are other interdisciplinary fields at the intersections of science and the humanities. We are looking for papers that consider science and culture as lived human experiences, rather than speculative science fiction per se.

University budget and federal funding battles have long pitted the sciences against the humanities and fine arts; but in recent years the tectonic plates of these two seemingly separate disciplinary clusters have moved against one another such that the friction and heat have been generative of new disciplinary outcroppings such as medical humanities, environmental humanities, and digital humanities. Papers are sought for this panel that demonstrate the productive ways that the various genres of culture (visual, textual, performative) have reflected upon, borrowed from, contributed to, and/or challenged the emergence of the sciences--either “science” writ large, or specific practices of a particular scientific field--as forces that influence lived human experience and its expression in culture. Projects related to the fields of medicine, ecology, and technology are particularly encouraged, but papers reflecting upon other fields of science are also invited. Projects that consider specific case studies or trace trends in the fields more broadly are equally welcomed. Similarly encouraged are papers that examine best practices of pedagogy, curriculum design, and academic planning at the intersections of science/humanities/culture.