History and Sociology of Science at Penn ...

by Cliopatria

A week ago, Bridgette D. Collins, who is a student in the history of science at Wisconsin, inquired in comments at Cliopatria about the History and Sociology of Science program at the University of Pennsylvania. For several years, she reported, it has received applications from students, who were then told that the program is in the process of being dissolved. I directed the inquiry to Professor Ruth Schwartz Cowan, who directs the program. Professor Cowan reports that the History and Sociology of Science program at Penn is not about to be dissolved. Indeed, she says, it has hired three new people in the past three years and is in the process of hiring a fourth new person. Any further inquiries should be directed to Professor Cowan's office.

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Jonathan Dresner - 11/29/2004

I suspect that question will be pretty well answered when we see who the new hires are.

Richard Henry Morgan - 11/29/2004

it would be interesting to see some more particulars on the program there at Penn. Many of the traditional programs in history of science started either as independent programs in history of science, or as part of a wave in the '50's and '60's, as history and philosophy of science programs.

Then came the Edinburgh school (the strong thesis in the sociology of knowledge, as opposed to Mertonian sociology, such as still survives at Columbia within the sociology department there). In the '90's Edinburgh-style programs popped up in the UK and the US. It would be interesting to see just how Penn integrates sociology into its program -- whether it tends toward the history and philosophy of science approach of, say, Pittsburgh, or the sociology of knowledge approach of the Edinburgh school.

Jonathan Dresner - 11/28/2004

It might be worth asking them by whom they were told that it was to be dissolved. There's often quite a lag (and sometimes an unadulterated error) between what departments do and think versus what administrative offices like admissions know. Prospective students get told all kinds of junk...

Bridget D. Collins - 11/28/2004

My classmates who were told that it was dissolved will be very interested to hear this.