Dear all,

 

A few people have encountered problems with the booking system for this Thursday’s biography workshop at the Science Museum – if you would like to attend please email me ASAP or call the booking centre on 020 7942 4000.

 

Please see below for the programme, and I hope to see you for what promises to be a very exciting day’s discussion!

 

Best wishes,

Boris

 

 

Programme

 

The Return of Biography: Reassessing Life Stories in Science Studies

 

18 July 2013

Science Museum, London

 

9.30      Registration

 

10.15    Introductory remarks

 

10.30    Panel Discussion: The Pleasures and Perils of Biography

 

- Georgina Ferry, author of Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life (1998) and Max Perutz and the Secret of Life (2007)

 

- Andrew Nahum, author of Frank Whittle: Invention of the Jet (2005) and Senior Keeper at the Science Museum

 

- Henry Hemming, author of a forthcoming biography of the inventor, educationalist and writer Geoffrey Pyke to be published by Random House in 2014.

 

12.00    Lunch

 

13.00    Biography Case Studies

 

- Salim Al-Gailani (University of Cambridge), 'Domestic Science: Life Writing, Religion and Medical Identity in Edinburgh around 1900'

 

- Kelly O'Donnell (Yale University), 'The Muckraker: Science Writing as Radical Critique, 1967-1977'

 

- Oliver Marsh (University of Cambridge), 'The Life Cycle of a Star: Media Myths of Feynman and Sagan'

 

- Peter Collins (Royal Society), 'Sources for the Biography of an Institution'

 

14.30    Keynote: Janet Vertesi (Princeton University), 'Robotic Biographies: Living with/through NASA Spacecraft'

 

15.30    Break: tea and refreshments

 

16.00    The Biographical Mode

 

- Geoffrey Cantor (University of Leeds), 'Do Scientists Have Minds?'

 

- Sally Horrocks (University of Leicester/National Life Stories), 'Do Scientists Have Lives? Oral History as a Methodological Tool for Finding Out'

 

- Thomas Söderqvist (Medical Museion, Copenhagen), 'The Material Life-Course of a Scientist'

 

- Commentary by Ludmilla Jordanova (University of Durham)

 

17.30    End of workshop: tea and refreshments

 

18.15    Tour of Codebreaker: Alan Turing's Life and Legacy led by exhibition curator David Rooney

 

Presentations, registration and lunch will take place in the Director's Suite, Exhibition Road: http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum/gettinghere.aspx (entrance just north of the Museum main entrance)