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Critical Intersections: Conversations on History, Race, and Science

Friday, April 16, 2021
12:00pm to 2:00pm
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Online Event
Speculative Worlds: Imagining Past and Future Science
Aimee Bahng, Pomona College,
Kouslaa Kessler-Mata, University of San Francisco,
Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Novelist,
Enid Baxter Ryce, Cal State Monterey Bay,
Banu Subramaniam, University of Massachusetts, Amherst,
Lisa Weasel, Portland State University,

REGISTRATION REQUIRED.

This final event in the 2020–2021 Critical Intersections series casts a view both to the past and future, exploring how scientific work shapes and is shaped by other kinds of creative thinking and practice. An interdisciplinary panel of researchers, historians, novelists, and artists will discuss what it means to imagine "scientific stories." How do we conceptualize questions of diversity, population, health, and discovery in new ways? With what tools? What does it mean to "decolonize" science, and what would a decolonized science look like? As the Caltech community looks ahead to its own future, this panel invites us to think creatively about the relationship between science, justice, and the arts. A screening of Enid Baxter Ryce's film "War and the Weather" will be available both before and after the discussion.

Artist Enid Baxter Ryce will create a printed artwork in conversation with the topic. This will be mailed to early registrants who provide their mailing addresses when registering for the Zoom event. The number of prints will be extremely limited, so please register early if you hope to receive one.

If you wish to see a recording of this event, please email [email protected].

To RSVP for this event, please click here.

For its inaugural year of 2020-2021, the "Critical Intersections: Conversations on Race, History, and Science" seminar series is dedicated to the history leading up to and beyond eugenics. The events are jointly organized by faculty in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences [Maura Dykstra (Assistant Professor of History), Jennifer Jahner (Professor of English), and Hillary Mushkin (Research Professor of Art and Design)] and University Archivist Peter Collopy. Artists have been invited to participate in these events as part of the Caltech-Huntington Program in Visual Culture. Their participation in this series is supported by the James Michelin Distinguished Visitors Program.

For more information, please contact Cecilia Lu by email at [email protected].