Possible symposium thoughts
I was thinking about how I could convert some of the work I’m already doing (i.e. working in a neuro lab looking to repurpose Alzheimer’s drugs for glaucoma) to something relevant to the Two Cultures for the symposium. One thought I had was that we needn’t limit ourselves to just the two cultures discussed in the paper (“scientists” and “humanities”/”everyone else”).
For my field, there’s actually a lot of interplay between scientists and the lay public. In particular, the people making drugs/searching for new drug candidates/hoping to explain how or why drugs do or don’t work attempt to get grants from foundations (I’m talking something outside of NIH or NSF here; local foundations like the “Cure Huntington’s Disease Initiative” offer HUGE sums of money to labs pursuing ideas they deem worthy, whereas other smaller ones like local Autism foundations offer a precious few thousand to eager labs) that may not be scientifically-minded. It’s quite an experience – and I suppose one could say it’s interdisciplinary – to work with people outside the field and even outside of science in general while fundamentally addressing a single goal.
While Science vs Public is related to Snow in a straightforward way, we could expand further on that idea. There are multiple “cultures” (‘modes of thought”, “theories”, actual cultures) in virtually every discipline, and focusing on a literal interpretation of the phrase ‘Two Cultures’ may open up the discussion to some of you in history/polysci/other fields. That way, we might also add in variety and avoid getting too stuck discussing Science vs Humanities.
My ideas aren’t complete yet, but my telephone is ringing and so I’m going to post this and be off.
Just my two cents,
Melissa G
I agree Melissa! That’s what I thought when I was initially reading this article too at the retreat. I remember writing in the margins about the “two cultures” in my own life. I think it’s interesting, especially for psychologists who straddle the humanities-science gap to talk about the two cultures he names, but I was thinking of two other cultures….
Namely, the secular and the religious. I am a student in the divinity school and in the psychology schools and would love to reflect on the divide in today’s culture between secular and religious domains and study. I’ll keep this short so more people reply, but maybe one group could reflect on what “two cultures” they see in their lives and I could talk about those and how my work as an ordained deacon in the Methodist church serving as a psychologist would seek to bridge that gap.
See you all Sunday,
Laura Barnard