Fall 2026 Colloquium Series

About

This series is jointly hosted by the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science (MCPS), the Program in History of Science and Technology, and the Program in the History of Medicine. Each semester we invite scholars from around the country and the world to present on scholarship in the history and philosophy of science, technology and medicine.

Seminars will not be held on the following date(s):

September 11
November 27

Lectures begin at 3:35pm in 216 Pillsbury Drive (formerly Nicholson Hall), Room 125 on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus.

At this time, all events will be in-person unless otherwise stated. Some events may be subject to change. Please check back for updates or contact [email protected] for more information.

Learn more about MCPS-sponsored lectures.

Douglas Allchin; Stephan Guttinger & Iris Donga Vilares, October 2, 3:35 p.m.

MCPS, Philosophy, University of Exeter, Psychology, University of Minnesota

Title: Author Meets Reader on "Toward a Philosophy of Error in Science"

Abstract: The history of science is littered with errors, from chemical affinities to the missteps early in the covid pandemic. How do scientists err? How do they find and remedy their errors? What are the implications for scientific progress and scientific practice? Toward a Philosophy of Error in Science offers an analysis of error types and the process of isolating sources of error, and explores the ways negative knowledge is used fruitfully, including developing new methodologies.

James Lin, October 9, 3:35 p.m.

Associate Professor, Taiwan Studies Program Chair, Jackson School of International Studies, UW Washington Seattle

Title: In the Global Vanguard: Agrarian Development and the Making of Modern Taiwan

Abstract: In just half a century, Taiwan transformed from an agricultural colony into an economic power, spurred by efforts of the authoritarian Republic of China government in land reform, farmers associations, and improved crop varieties. Yet overlooked is how Taiwan brought these practices to the developing world. In the Global Vanguard elucidates the history and impact of the “Taiwan model” of agrarian development by incorporating how Taiwanese experts took the country’s agrarian success and exported it throughout rural communities across Africa and Southeast Asia.

Driven by the global Cold War and challenges to the Republic of China’s legitimacy, Taiwanese agricultural technicians and scientists shared their practices, which they claimed were better suited for poor, tropical societies in the developing world. These development missions were portrayed in Taiwan as proof of the Republic of China’s modernity and were crucial to how the ruling government sought to hold onto its contested position in the international system and its rule by martial law at home. This talk will draw primarily upon chapters 3 and 7 of the book, exploring the history of agricultural science and technology in Taiwan and abroad, and their co-construction with authoritarianism, military power, and Cold War politics.

Susan Burns, October 16, 3:35 p.m.

Professor, History, University of Chicago

Title: Becoming a Doctor in Early Nineteenth Century Japan: Medical Education on the Eve of Modernity

Abstract: In the 1870s, the recently established government of Japan began an aggressive campaign to institutionalize what was then known as “Western medicine.” This involved not only the establishment of modern medical schools (many staffed by European physicians) and the creation of a licensing system but also efforts to discredit Sino-Japanese medicine and its practitioners as backward and ineffective. In this talk, I want to explore the nature of medical knowledge before the intervention of the modern state by examining the education of a physician named Nanayama Jundō, who lived and worked in the far northwest of Japan. In his early 20 Nanayama traveled to Kyoto, the imperial capital and the epicenter of medical education, to study with some of the famous physicians of his day. His extant case notes, compiled at the suggestion of one of his teachers, offer a window into what he learned and how he made use of that knowledge.

Matilde Carerra, October 23, 3:35 p.m.

Post, doc, Minnesota Center for the Philosophy of Science, University of Minnesota

Title: Turning Data into Evidence in Human Paleogenomics

Abstract: What does it take for ancient DNA data to count as evidence about past human populations? This talk develops a practice-based philosophical account of paleogenomic inference, focusing on the gap between data production and evidential warrant. I argue that genomic sequences do not transparently encode demographic history; they become evidence only through a structured set of methodological and inferential practices involving authenticity assessment and contamination control. This foundation then opens up a broader set of questions that a philosophy of paleogenomics must confront: the distributed epistemic responsibility across.

Julia Cummiskey, October 20, 3:35 p.m.

Johns Hopkins University

Title: Burkitt’s Lymphoma Research in Uganda (1961-1979) and the Origins of a Modern Paradigm for Global Health Science

Abstract: In the 1960s and 1970s, researchers based at the East African Virus Research Institute in Entebbe, Uganda joined the race to discover the first human oncovirus at the same time that they navigated the transition from colonial to independent government, a reconfiguration of research funding, and an uncertain future. In this talk, I will describe how the search for a viral cause of Burkitt’s lymphoma, a newly-discovered syndrome characterized by aggressive facial tumors, shaped knowledge of viruses, cancer, and epidemiological methods while also launching a new paradigm for global health research. I argue that the EAVRI was one of the first places to become what is now called a “local partner”, a critical component of late 20th-century global health research and category that requires greater critical analysis. This talk will describe how researchers at the EAVRI leveraged their previous experience investigating yellow fever in Uganda, how they approached the “puzzle” of Burkitt’s lymphoma, and how the cancer research established patterns that shaped later HIV/AIDS research.

Zina Ward, November 6, 3:35 p.m.

Department of Philosophy, Florida State University

Title: Making the Case for Cluster Theories of Kinds

Abstract: A dominant strand of philosophical thought holds that natural kinds are clusters of objects with shared properties. I’ll argue first that such views are undermotivated; existing arguments fail to give us compelling reason to be cluster theorists. I’ll then propose an alternative defense of cluster theories of kinds, asking: What is the point of sorting things into kinds? My answer, supported by empirical work on human categorization, is that the aim of classification using kinds is to pick out groups that vary discretely from one another. I’ll argue that this idea supports the view that kinds should be thought of as property clusters.

Marion Quirici, November 20, 3:35 p.m.

Kennesaw State University

Title: “Degeneration Theory and Disability Panic in Early Irish Sports Journalism”

Abstract: This talk explores the central significance of degeneration theory, an idea propagated by nineteenth-century psychiatrists and criminologists suggesting the human race was in evolutionary decline, in the early sports journalism of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA). Founded by athlete and newspaperman Michael Cusack in the 1880s, the GAA aimed to revive native Irish sports and pastimes, such as hurling and Gaelic football, and to diminish the influence of foreign games. The Association had a profound and lasting impact on the project of the Irish Revival, not least because its production of athletes and ideals of athleticism proved useful for the recruitment of soldiers into the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB). The GAA maintained a print culture that has been largely overlooked, including Cusack’s own Celtic Times newspaper, the Gaelic Athletic Annual journal, and a number of books. My archival research examines the organization’s journalism and promotional literature to trace the GAA’s roots in fears of racial degeneration, and to expose its articulation of a eugenic body politic. GAA nationalists made a conscious effort to invert stereotypes of Irish weakness, unruliness, drunkenness, laziness, and uncleanliness with a specific code of conduct for Irish men, and to a lesser extent, Irish women. They imagined their task—building up the nation’s “inherited manliness”—to be a matter of racial preservation. The degeneration paranoia endemic to Irish nationalism influenced not only the creative responses of modernist authors, but also the biopolitical regime in Ireland after independence.

Adam Marcus, December 4, 3:35 p.m.

Retraction Watch and the Center for Scientific Integrity

Title: Tracking Retractions: Inside What's Wrong With Science and Science Publishing

Abstract: Science has an integrity problem - from data fabrication to citation manipulation to predatory journals - and the current system of scholarly publishing is poorly equipped to catch it. This talk draws on my work at the Center for Scientific Integrity and Retraction Watch, which we founded in 2010 to track retractions, expose misconduct, and push for greater accountability in research. I will discuss why we started this work, review a few of the most dramatic cases of misconduct to date, explore the structural pressures – publish-or-perish incentives, weak peer review, opaque correction processes, the rise of AI, and more – that let bad science persist, and what meaningful reform could look like, from changes in journal policies to better tools for detecting problems before publication.

Kate McDonald, December 11, 3:25 p.m.

History, UC Santa Barbara

Title: The Rickshaw in Twentieth-Century Japan: A User’s Manual

Abstract: The rickshaw was invented in Japan in 1869. Rickshaw pulling flourished as an occupation and rickshaws dominated cultural representations of Japan’s urban modernity. Though it declined in popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, the rickshaw was quickly reinvented as a popular – and flexible – cultural symbol. Drawing from my current book project, The Rickshaw and the Railroad: Transportation, Labor, and Technology in Modern Japan, I share my favorite rickshaw stories from twentieth-century Japan. Along the way, I show how the multi-faceted history of the rickshaw raises important questions about how historians conceptualize the “user” of transportation technologies.

Sangwoon Yoo, September 18, 3:35 p.m.

Hanbat National University, South Korea and Charles Babbage Institute

Title: Making East Asian Semiconductors in Cold War America: Migration, Knowledge Labor, and the Rise of MOS Technology

Abstract: How did East Asia emerge as the center of global semiconductor manufacturing despite the industry’s technological origins in the United States? Conventional explanations emphasize developmental states, industrial policy, technology transfer, or manufacturing labor within East Asia. This talk instead looks inside the American research system during the Cold War.

Focusing on metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) technology, I trace East Asian scientists and engineers who studied and worked in American universities and corporate laboratories before becoming important intermediaries in the semiconductor industries of Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Their careers show that East Asian engineers were not simply recipients of American technology but participated directly in producing foundational semiconductor knowledge within the U.S. military-industrial-academic complex.

I argue that the familiar geographical division of labor between American innovation and East Asian manufacturing was preceded by, and developed alongside, an earlier division of knowledge labor within American research institutions themselves. Rather than treating “American invention” as a unified national achievement, this talk looks inside the production of that invention, focusing on forms of research labor that were essential yet often difficult to see in conventional accounts

Jennifer Alexander, September 25, 3:35 p.m.

Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and in the Program for History of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of Minnesota

Title: Channeling the divine? Technology and the cultural chasm between evangelical/conservative and liberal Christianity

Abstract: With AI we have “slipped into the language and habits of mind we normally reserve for deities,” wrote NYT reporter Joseph Bernstein. Society turning technologies into gods is not new; it happened with the telegraph long before AI. This talk draws from my book manuscript Two Worlds, One God, and shows how the history of the relationship between technology and religion can contribute to current assessments of technological power. It examines the historical role of technology in the international and often acrimonious religious divide between liberal/mainline and conservative Protestants that developed after the Second World War.

Technology reveals the fundamentally different ways that the two traditions understood the world, and the different sorts of human actions they thought were possible and justified. On the evangelical side technology was seen as a gift from God, and eagerly embraced as an aid to the goal of sharing the gospel worldwide. On the liberal side, technology was seen as a matter of human hubris as well as of the will of God, and it was subjected to deep and extended critique.

These differences resulted in very different practical programs: prayer organized by scientific management at the evangelist Billy Graham’s New York crusades, 1957, that drew millions of people to Madison Square Gardens and Yankee Stadium over a four-month run; the Detroit Industrial Mission, who brokered the peace after uprisings in Detroit in the summer of 1967; computer programs at World Vision designed to help channel the Holy Spirit; and World Council of Churches support for freedom fighters in Namibia, against the apartheid in industrial labor instituted by the South African caretaking government. These different programs, and the attitudes they expressed, provide a way to analyze current linking together of AI, religion, and god.