EPFL CAMPUS LECTURE – Lorraine Daston

“The Origins of International Governance in Science”:

Lorraine Daston, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), Berlin

Monday
May 30th 2022
5pm – 6:30pm
Forum Rolex and online

In English

Information and Registration

Faced with two crises of planetary dimensions, climate change and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, politicians responded nationally and scientists responded internationally. Why?

Science has been cosmopolitan and collective since at least the seventeenth century, but there’s big difference between exchanging letters, publications, and occasional visits among citizens of the Republic of Letters, on the one hand, and, on the other, subordination of individual and national research traditions, priorities, and practices to binding agreements reached by international disciplinary bodies empowered by no one but themselves. Only in the late 19^th century did scientists begin to attempt international governance – arguably still the most effective form of international governance we have.

Program

5:00 pm  Welcome address

Jan Hesthaven, Vice President for Academic Affairs, EPFL

5:10 pm  Lecture

“The Origins of International Governance in Science”

Lorraine Daston, Director at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), Berlin

📍 Lecture in the presence of the speaker

6:00 pm  Pannel discussion

Lorraine Daston

Béla Kapossy, Director of the College of Humanities (CDH), EPFL

6:15 pm  Q&A

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