Fall 2004
October 1–2
Governing Regulatory Interaction: The Normative Question
Advanced Seminar; Social Science
(Note: originally scheduled for spring ’04 but moved to October ’04)
Viktor Mayer-Schönberger (Public Policy, KSG, Harvard University)
Alexander Somek (College of Law, University of Iowa)
Much ink has been spilled examining regulatory competition, and early suggestions of races to the bottom have been countered by revisionist theories of races to the top, or races apart. Recently, political scientists have been exploring possible modes—not just coordinative and competitive modes, but also the role of information—and possible locus of regulatory authority, especially in multi-layered regulatory systems like the United States, the European Union, and the World Trading System. Yet comparatively little has been written about the normative dimension of regulatory interaction: if there is some form of a regulatory market place, what ought to be the rules of that market? To address this question is—in a nutshell—the aim of the seminar.
October 4
Obesity
Exploratory Seminar; Social Science/Science
David Cutler (Economics, Harvard University)
The rising rate of obesity is one of the most important problems facing the United States and the world. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, putting them at risk for diabetes, musculoskeletal injury, and early death. Obesity and related illnesses add greatly to medical spending. Different disciplines across the social and biological sciences have addressed the issue: molecular biologists looking for the genes controlling hunger and satiation; population biologists and psychologists examining the evolutionary reasons for obesity; economists and public health researchers interested in the social and economic factors behind obesity; and political scientists interested in the public policy response to the emerging trend. This seminar will examine the state of science about obesity. The goals are to compare the findings of different disciplines, and to explore whether the University should be doing more in this area.
November 4–6
Nietzsche and Naturalism
Exploratory Seminar; Humanities
Mathias Risse (Philosophy and Public Policy, KSG, Harvard University)
The modern world is deeply divided in its attempt to come to terms with the power of naturalism (which has the success of science, in particular, to speak for it), and one of the defining features of modern life is a deep uneasiness about what place there may be for our selves and our values in the world that science is in the process of discovering. To reconcile naturalism with the fact that we do lead ethical lives, we need an account of naturalism rich enough for our moral lives that at the same time does not just “build in” the idea we want to explain. A robust naturalist moral psychology can serve to meet the challenge that arises here. This seminar intends to contribute to this endeavor by asking whether Nietzsche’s work can be interpreted as an attempt to provide such a moral psychology, and if so, whether it succeeds. So we must be concerned with an exegetical question (“Is Nietzsche indeed best understood as a naturalist, and if so, in just what sense?”) and a question about moral philosophy that is continuous with the exegetical question (“Can there be a naturalist moral psychology, and if so what would it look like, and is Nietzsche’s even a plausible contender?”). The former question is, I think, the most important question for Nietzsche exegesis at this stage, whereas the second cuts to the core of what concerns contemporary moral philosophers, in particular under the influence of Bernard Williams.
Spring 2005
February 4–5
Mechanisms of Seasonality in Directly Transmitted Infectious Diseases
Exploratory Seminar; Science
Marc Lipsitch (Epidemiology, HSPH, Harvard University)
Megan Murray (Epidemiology, HSPH, Harvard University)
Most infectious diseases show a pronounced seasonal variation in incidence and/or severity, but with the exception of vector-borne diseases, the mechanisms generating this seasonal variation are poorly understood. Leading hypotheses (of which several may be operative in any given disease) include variation in host behavior/transmission opportunities, variation in pathogen survival in the environment due to changes in weather, variation in host susceptibility due to photoperiod-controlled seasonal changes in the immune system, and variation in coinfection by other pathogens that modulate disease severity. The advent of SARS, with attendant questions about the risk of its return with the next “flu season” underlined the practical value of understanding mechanisms of seasonality, a basic question whose academic interest was already evident to some, but which has received little systematic attention. This seminar will bring together biologists, human and veterinary infectious disease clinicians and epidemiologists, mammalian and human chronobiologists, a climate expert and mathematical and statistical modelers to develop tightly constructed hypotheses and design and refine tests of these hypotheses to elucidate the mechanisms of seasonality of infectious disease. The goals include fostering interdisciplinary discussion, sparking collaborations, and facilitating the development of novel approaches to understand this important phenomenon.
February 18–19
Global France: Rethinking French Studies in the New Millenium
Exploratory Seminar; Humanities
Christie McDonald (French Language and Literature, Harvard University)
Susan Suleiman (Civilization of France, Comparative Literature, Harvard University)
Irele F. Abiola (African and African American Studies, Romance Languages and Literatures, Harvard University)
The purpose of this seminar is to bring together distinguished and imaginative specialists from the field of French studies to brainstorm—conceptualize and imagine—how an expanding view of French literature and culture carries with it the possibility and even necessity of a complete historical review. The diversity of points of view, upon which both feminist criticism and francophone studies are based, needs now to be read back into the history of French literature. The sense of otherness, even otherness within the nation, requires in this first decade of the new millennium a new and complex analysis. The global and comparative aspect of French studies will be the main arena for discussion. This seminar will jumpstart collaboration for a future Cambridge History of French Literature.
February 25–26
Economic Constructivism
Advanced Seminar; Social Science
Rawi Abdelal (HBS, Harvard University)
Mark Blyth (Johns Hopkins University)
Craig Parsons (Syracuse University)
This seminar includes a number of junior scholars who work in the field of “economic constructivism.” In the past decade or so, the field of political economy has seen the emergence of a major but as-yet-unnamed intellectual movement. Across the disciplines that feed into this far-flung field—political science, sociology, economics—scholars have focused new attention on the “ideational” or “socially constructed” elements of markets and economic governance. They draw on different vocabularies to suit their disciplinary audiences, but share a fundamental point. In contrast to the various rationalistic traditions that treat economic action and institutions as direct responses to objective problems in the environment, they portray economic arenas as shaped deeply by the subjective elements through which people interpret their surroundings. We believe the time is ripe to produce an edited volume to offer a definitive statement on the achievements and opportunities presented by economic constructivism as a research agenda in the social sciences.
March 11–12
Sexual Politics and the Cinema of Pedro Almodovar
Advanced Seminar; Humanities
Bradley S Epps (Romance Languages and Literatures, Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Harvard University)
Despina Kakoudaki (VES, Harvard University)
This seminar will bring together scholars from four countries, and with expertise in the intersecting fields of film studies and gender and sexuality studies, to exchange original papers on the subject of sexuality and politics in the films of Spanish director, Pedro Almodóvar. The seminar will build on the collaborative ethos generated at the First International Symposium on Pedro Almodóvar, celebrated in November 2003 in Cuenca, Spain and will culminate in a book-length publication, preferably bilingual (English and Spanish). The designated participants are all aware of the present proposal and are eager to collaborate on independent, but intersecting essays on a variety of topics motivated by the work of this groundbreaking Spanish filmmaker. Topics may include feminism and misogyny; dictatorship and democracy; the representation of alternative or non-normative sexualities; national identity and international visibility; tradition and innovation (particularly in form and technique); religion, repression, and eroticism; violence and scopophilia. The seminar will also enjoy the technical support (access to materials at various stages of production) of Almodóvar’s Production Company, El Deseo, in Madrid, Spain.
April 8–9
The Social Study of the Social Sciences and the Humanities
Exploratory Seminar; Social Science
Michèle Lamont (Sociology, FAS, Harvard University)
Charles Camic (Sociology, University of Wisconsin/Madison )
Neil Gross (Sociology, FAS, Harvard University)
Over the past quarter century, the interdisciplinary field of science studies has grown enormously as scholars have examined the physical and biological sciences through a variety of social and historical lenses. By contrast, the social study of the intellectual fields that comprise the social sciences and the humanities remains underdeveloped. Although a large number of scholars are interested in the social dimensions of knowledge production in the humanities and social sciences and are engaged in both theory building and empirical research in the area, their ideas and findings have yet to be interlinked and brought into dialogue with one another. As a result, there is little coherent understanding of the processes of knowledge production, organization, and distribution in the social sciences and the humanities. We aim to bring together experts working in the area to reflect on the relationships—theoretical, empirical, and methodological—between their work and the work of others, and also to consider various ways in which the field as a whole might be organized and advanced. If all goes well, the end result would be the production of an edited volume that would become a touchstone for future research in the area, outlining not only the main lines of theoretical and methodological agreement and disagreement but also the major findings of those studying key disciplines (history, economics, government, philosophy, English, etc.), interdisciplinary fields (Afro-American studies, gender, cultural studies, etc.), and the broader social and cultural changes affecting the academy in the US and comparatively.
May 19–21
The Physics of Neutron Star Winds: Shocks, Particle Acceleration and Evolution
Exploratory Seminar; Science
Bryan Gaensler (Astronomy, Harvard University)
Patrick O.Slane (Astrophysics, SAO, and Astronomy, Harvard University)
Outside the solar system, the Crab Nebula is the most studied object in all of astrophysics. The central engine for the Crab is a spinning neutron star, a remarkable object which represents the highest densities and strongest magnetic fields in the observable universe. The neutron star’s intense magnetism and rapid rotation together drive an electromagnetic relativistic wind—the nebula thus generated is an ideal laboratory for studying compact objects, relativistic shocks and particle acceleration, all key themes in a wide range of important astrophysical problems. However, the “standard model” for the Crab Nebula and other similar sources is now 20 years old. Our understanding of these objects thus lags woefully behind the explosion of new data on these systems, driven largely by the superb collection of images now being taken by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory. We propose a short focused seminar on neutron star winds and their nebulae, in which we will bring together the leading observers and theoreticians working in this area. During the seminar we will decide how to exploit the goldmine of data now available, and will discuss which observations, models and simulations can provide new physical insights into the Crab and its brethren.
