A forum for discussion and interaction among faculty at UMass-Boston. Faculty 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.

Fall '06 - Perspectives on/from the New Sciences of Complexity

"Life at the edge of chaos," "strange attractors," "catastrophes," "self-similarity," "simple rules make complex behaviors"-these and other 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. New ways of depicting complex phenomena shed light on the limitations of the conventional (linear, modernist) conceptual schemes and help make visible the actual (non-linear, recursive, post-xx) qualities of delineating problem and undertaking research more generally. In turn, social interpretations of science raise questions about how new the new complexity sciences are and about their adherence to technological definitions of what can be understood and changed in the world.
Depending on the interests of participants such issues and the overall theme of the seminar can be pulled in many directions. We look forward to the cross-disciplinary links, new friendships, and actions that grow out of the seminar discussions.