Since the late nineteenth century, scientists have devised an ever-increasing number of tasks, tests, and trials in order to explore the relationships between the brain, the mind, individual personalities, and social behaviors. Standardized assessments, physiological experiments, and imaging technologies have formed a core aspect of brain and mind research. This conference is a forum to compare, contrast, and continue the histories of tasks, tests, and trials in those sciences over the past 125 years. We will discuss the social, philosophical, political, and ethical commitments that have been reflected, reinforced, denounced, or discarded by the psy- and neuro-fields, and we will explore to what extent, if at all, contemporary conceptions of mind and brain prolong and elaborate much older ideas. See conference poster attached below.

Call for Papers

SORTING BRAINS OUT

TASKS, TESTS, AND TRIALS IN THE NEURO- AND MIND SCIENCES, 1890–2015

 

CONFERENCE PROGRAM

 

 

FRIDAY, SEPT. 18, 2015

 

Kislak Center, 6th floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 3420 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104

 

12:00 pm   Registration and Lunch

12:45 pm   Welcome and Introduction

Tabea Cornel

Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Martha Farah

Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

1:00 pm   Panel I

Chair:  Dr. Matthew Wolf-Meyer, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Crime, Withdrawal, and the Addicted Brain

Sara Black

Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

The Unifying Case: The Case Study as a Research Model in Third Republic Neuro- and Mind Sciences

Zachary Levine

Ph.D. Student in the Department of History, Columbia University

Pain in the Brain? Sorting out the Subcortical in the Mid-Twentieth Century

A. Kathryn Schoefert

Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge

Testing Motivation, Measuring Race: The Racialization of Motivation during the Cold War

Kimberly Probolus

Ph.D. Student in American Studies, George Washington University

2:20 pm   Coffee Break

2:45 pm   Panel II

Chair: Dr. Scott Phelps, Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University

Beyond Everyday Consciousness: Deprivation and the Excavation of Novel Psychological Space

Charlie Williams

Ph.D. Student in the Department of History, Birkbeck College, University of London

From Free Clinic to Free Market: Testing Burnout in the 1970s and 1980s

Matthew Hoffarth

Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

Reading the History of Adult Neurogenesis Backwards: When Did Sex/Gender Become Plastic?

Tabea Cornel

Ph.D. Student in the Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

The Afterlife of Structuralism in the Cognitive Sciences

Cameron Brinitzer

Ph.D. Student in the Department of Anthropology, New School for Social Research

4:05 pm  Coffee Break

4:30 pm  Panel III

Chair: Dr. Oliver Rollins, Penn Program on Race, Science & Society, University of Pennsylvania

Normal Brains, Normal Behaviors? ADHD Diagnoses Show How Culture, Economy, and Pathology Are Entangled

Anisha Chadha

Ph.D. Student in the Department of Anthropology, New York University

Brains and Bodies: Reading Bodily Movements as Signs of Brain Pathology

Anna Starshinina

Ph.D. Candidate in Communication & Science Studies, University of California, San Diego

N. Erkut Kucukboyaci

Ph.D. Candidate in the Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, San Diego State University and University of California, San Diego

Making Facts Valuable: Stress, Wellbeing and the Mindful Brain at Work

Ties van de Werff

Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Philosophy, Maastricht University

Better Living Through Neuroscience

Kasia Tolwinski

Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Science & Technology Studies, Cornell University

5:50 pm   Break

6:00 pm   Final Discussion

Chairs:

Dr. Martha Farah

Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. John Tresch

Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

7:00 pm   Reception

Thomas Parke and Agatha Chipley Hughes Lounge, 351 Claudia Cohen Hall, 249 S 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104

 

SATURDAY, SEPT. 19, 2015

 

Kislak Center, 6th floor of Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center, 3420 Walnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104

 

10:00 am   Registration and Breakfast

10:30 am   Welcome and Opening

Ekaterina Babintseva

Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

10:45 am   Panel IV

Chair: Dr. David Barnes, Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

Towards an Ethnography of Experimental Psychology

Dr. Emily Martin

Department of Anthropology, New York University

Comment: John Tresch

“How Do Chimpanzees Perceive This World?” Japanese Primatology after Imanishiism

Dr. Nicolas Langlitz

Department of Anthropology, The New School for Social Research

Comment:  Scott Phelps

Monkeys, Mirrors, and Me: Gordon Gallup and the Study of Self-Recognition

Dr. Katja Guenther

Department of History, Princeton University

Comment: Catherina Gere, Department of History, University of California, San Diego

12:20 pm   Lunch

1:30 pm     Panel V

Chair: Dr. Russell Epstein, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

Undertaking the Neuro: The Meaning of Dead Brains and the Science of Suicide

Dr. Scott Phelps

Douglas Mental Health University Institute, McGill University

Comment: Katja Guenther

Department of History, Princeton University

Why the Tortoise Wins the Race: Dual Process Theory and the Neoliberal Subject

Dr. Catherina Gere

Department of History, University of California, San Diego

Comment: Francisco Ortega

Institute for Social Medicine, Rio de Janeiro State University

Neurodiversity Is Not Enough

Dr. Matthew Wolf-Meyer

Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Comment: Nicolas Langlitz

3:05 pm  Coffee Break

3:30 pm  Panel VI

Chair: Dr. Beth Linker, Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

The Brain Multiple in the Laboratories of Post-Buddhism

Dr. John Tresch

Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

Comment: Matt Wolf-Meyer, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz

The Neurodisciplines of Culture: Is the Brain the Clue?

Dr. Francisco Ortega

Institute for Social Medicine, Rio de Janeiro State University

Comment: Emily Martin, Department of Anthropology, New York University

4:20 pm  Break

4:30 pm  Neuroscience Response

Chair: Dr. Martha Farah, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania

4:50 pm  Group Discussion

Chair: Dr. Beth Linker, Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

5:15 pm  Closing

Matthew Hoffarth, Department of History and Sociology of Science, University of Pennsylvania

 

MAP (attached below)

for Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center and Claudia Cohen Hall, University of Pennsylvania

Admission

The event is free and open to the public. Registration at is appreciated, but not at all obligatory.