Sorting Brains Out: Tasks, Tests and Trials in the Neuro- and Mind Sciences, 1890-2015
Event
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.
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.