Inter-college faculty Seminar in Humanities and Sciences, U. Massachusetts Boston

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Inter-college Seminar in Humanities and Sciences (ISHS)

A forum for discussion and interaction among faculty and professional staff at UMass-Boston. Participants from different disciplines and colleges come together to focus on topics of common interest, exchange ideas, renew their intellectual energy, and advance their work in a spirit of adventure and collaboration.

At the core of ISHS activities is a semester-long seminar, focused on a particular theme. Participation in the seminar, which meets every second week, is open to full and part-time faculty at all levels; the ethos is democratic and interactive. No single member is responsible for the full semester's activities; leadership of the seminar rotates, with participants taking it in turn to lead the discussion, and all contributing to a collective enterprise. The basis for discussion might be a set of readings (or images, or music), or a piece of writing or creative work by the presenter(s), or some combination. Where relevant we may use the internet as a resource: to provide readings or other material; to facilitate discussion; to set up an archive and maintain a work-in-progress forum.

For any ISHS seminar, participants should feel free to approach the topic in your own way, and as it relates to your own interests. What we are looking for is a group of people who would like to explore their own particular 'take' on the topic in the company of others; to enrich each other's perspectives; to deepen their own imagination and conception of the issues; and to see what results from a collaborative, interdisciplinary exercise. You don't have to be an expert; and you don't have to limit yourself to our suggestions. Ideally this will be work in progress for all, which will produce ideas we may not have anticipated.

Fall 2012--When the Social, not the Medium, is the Message

explores Community-building and Research Collaboration in Virtual Spaces

Past themes

Spring 2012--Infrastructures and agents

How infrastructures get envisaged, built, maintained, and abandoned in the material and discursive worlds that we study as well as in the support we seek for our studies Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 -- Who gets to use race--or stop using it--and at what cost?

explores current and past uses of racial and ethnic divisions as well as attempts to complicate or jettison such categories Spring 2010 -- Engaging Colleagues in Caring Collaborations

What do our theory, practice and life experience tell us about the source and strength of collaborations that we value? Fall 2009 -- Science and society at UMass Boston

weekly brown bag presentations & discussions Spring 2009 -- Science and society at UMass Boston

highlighting the range of science and society work going on on campus Spring 2008 -- Teaching across divides

the challenge of teaching courses that link humanities or social sciences to natural sciences... Fall 2007 -- Who makes sense of developments in science and technology?

delve deeply into readings from scholars interpreting science and technology (S&T) in their social context... Spring 2007 -- Placing science and technology in social context

How can we make sense for our students and other audiences of the social shaping of S&T as well as the wide-ranging discussions about S&T? Fall 2006 -- Perspectives on/from the New Sciences of Complexity

"...terms from complexity theories of recent decades have found their way into discussions in the arts, film, literature and other humanities, cross-disciplinary endeavors in the sciences, and the popular media... Spring 2006 -- Sustainability, science, and social change

What does it mean for people to promote sustainability or development that "meets the needs of present generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Spring 2005 -- Disease and difference

What makes a difference in who becomes diseased -- what counts as disease and who takes responsibility for it? What changes over time can be seen and how do perspectives vary among cultures and social groups? How are different people organizing now to influence change and improvements in health? Spring 2004 -- Social uses of 'genetic' knowledge

This theme was designed to resonate with current concerns in many fields as well as to offer scope for a historical and philosophical discussion of attempts from well before the advent of modern genetics to find explanations in nature for inequalities in society.

Possible future themes

Living and working among digital natives

Minds, bodies, contexts: Diversity and change

How and why? Diverse understandings of cause

Futures past and present

Plans and crises, Action and reaction

Local knowledges and subaltern sciences

What don't we know, and why? (Paradigms, Priorities, Censorship, Secrecy, Futurology, etc.)

Translations
- additional suggestions welcome.

ISHS is organized by the Program in Science, Technology and Values and the Graduate track in Science in a Changing World. The seminar was originally based on a model developed successfully at UMass Amherst.

Last update 21 April 2012