Herrnstein-Smith Symposium: Science + Humanities

On Friday, February 11, the Franklin Humanities Institute presents Science, Scientism, and Anti-Science in the Humanities: A Symposium in Honor of Barbara Herrnstein Smith.

Information from the FHI listserv: Spring 2011 is Prof. Smith’s final semester teaching at Duke. Author of Contingencies of Value: Alternative Perspectives for Critical Theory (1988), Belief and Resistance: Dynamics of Contemporary Intellectual Controversy (1997), Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion (2010) among many other publications, her work has been vital in fostering critical and institutional exchanges between the humanities and the sciences. This symposium will honor and extend that work by convening a group of leading scholars on the relationships between science, religion, culture, and literature.

Program Schedule (Download a poster with the schedule here ScienceScientismAntiScience)

10 – 10:15am

  • Welcome – Ian Baucom, Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke
  • Introduction – Fredric Jameson, Duke

10:15am – 12:15pm – Panel Chair: Ian Baucom

  • “Mutuality, Incommensurablity, and Credulity,” Elizabeth Wilson, Emory
  • “Science and the Lyric,” Jonathan Culler, Cornell
  • “Common Sense,” Mark Hansen, Duke

1 – 3pm – Panel Chair: Jane Tompkins, Emerita, Duke

  • “What Was Nature? Revisiting the Nexus of Science and Religion,” Andrew Janiak, Duke
  • “Contingencies of Science and Culture: Some Inspirations from Barbara Herrnstein Smith,” Casper Bruun Jensen, IT University of Copenhagen
  • “Reflections on Natural Reflections,” Kate Hayles, Literature, Duke

3:30 – 5:30pm: Roundtable Moderator: Nancy Armstrong, English, Duke

  • Stanley Fish, Florida International University College of Law
  • Susan Hegeman, English, University of Florida
  • Tim Lenoir, Jenkins , Duke
  • Rob Mitchell, English, Duke

5:30 Remarks from Barbara Herrnstein Smith

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