International Summer School on the Philosophy, History, and Sociology of Particle Physics (Wuppertal, 23–30 July 2018)

The DFG/FWF research group “The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider” has organised a summer school that draws upon interdisciplinary perspectives of past, present and future particle physics. The summer school features keynotes from physics, philosophy, sociology and history, including Prof. Martina Merz (AAU), and a series of working groups. There will be 30 international participants from advanced students to early-career researchers.

Helene Sorgner and Sophie Ritson have organised and will lead a working group on contemporary perspectives on practices in high-energy physics. The working group is dedicated to exploring the recent approaches developed from a practice-oriented perspective in science and technology studies, and history and philosophy of science. This presents an opportunity for participants to engage with contemporary contributions in discussions of high-energy physics, in diverse areas such as measurement practices, organisation, visual practices, and communications.

Further information: https://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/news-events-publications/news/summer-school-2018.html

Gastprofessur SoSe18

Herr PD Dr. Johannes Lenhard ist im Sommersemester 2018 zu Gast am Institut für Wissenschaftskommunikation und Hochschulforschung. Seine Lehrtätigkeit umfasst ein Seminar an der AAU in Klagenfurt mit dem Titel: „Theorien und Themenfelder der Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung„, in dem Studierende einen historisch fundierten Einblick in begriffliche Grundzüge wissenschaftlichen Wissens erwerben und lernen kritisch zwischen verschiedenen wissenschaftlichen Herangehensweisen zu unterscheiden. Auf dieser Grundlage können sie unter Anleitung eigene Fallstudien unternehmen (aktuelle Themen des Unsicherheits-Diskurses betreffend).
Mehr dazu siehe: https://campus.aau.at/studium/course/91906

Gastwissenschaftlerin

Von 1. bis 31. März 2018 wird Fr. Dr. Elisabeth Simbürger, Soziologin an der Universidad de Valparaíso in Chile, am Institut für Wissenschaftskommunikation und Hochschulforschung zu Gast sein.

Vortrag von Dr. Elisabeth Simbürger mit dem Titel: „Looking for connected sociologies in the global south: the case of Chile before, during and after the military dictatorship (1973-1990). A historical reconstruction of the epistemological development of a discipline“
(Sprache des Vortrags nach Bedarf Englisch oder Deutsch)

Wann:     Do 29.3.2018, 15h00 bis 16h30
Wo:       Standort Wien der AAU, Schottenfeldgasse 29, SR 5 (5. Stock), 1070 Wien

Mehr zu Fr. Dr. Elisabeth Simbürger: http://uv-cl.academia.edu/ElisabethSimbuerger

Research Group Meeting in Vienna „The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)“

Meeting in Vienna from 6th to 8th of Feb. 2018 „The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)“.

In 2016 the German Research Foundation (DFG) together with the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) set up the Research Unit “The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider” which was tasked with investigating the philosophical, historical and sociological implications of activities at the world’s largest research machine, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva.

The Research Unit builds on today’s physicists’ expectations of a fundamental change in the theoretical foundations of physics. It asks about the deeper reasons behind these expectations and links them to the complex conditions of physical research, in order to inquire whether these expectations are substantiated. It regards the complexity of these conditions as a challenge for the quest towards ever more encompassing and simpler descriptions of nature. The Research Unit studies these new epistemic conditions, using as its principal case study the LHC at CERN.

The Research Unit builds on a very close and successful interaction and cooperation of philosophers of science, sociologists of science, historians of science, and physicists over the course of several years which resulted in three previous projects. The Research Unit continues, but also significantly restarts, this interdisciplinary cooperation. While it still focuses on questions in the philosophy of physics and science, it also includes the historical development of physical knowledge and its embedding in social contexts. Integrating the perspectives of these different disciplines within a single Research Unit opens novel pathways for understanding the production of scientific knowledge and its structure in particle physics.

Alongside work at the individual project level and at the level of the collaborative Research Unit as such, two scientific events are planned for the first three-year period: an international conference and an international summer school on particle physics and philosophy.

Project Homepage: https://www.lhc-epistemologie.uni-wuppertal.de/home.html