CAREER: Nuclear History as History of Science

职业：作为科学史的核历史

• 批准号: 9983981
• 负责人: Cathryn Carson
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-01-01 至 2008-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9983981&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CAREER; Nuclear; History; Science

SES 99-83981 - Cathryn L. Carson (University of California, Berkeley)"CAREER: Nuclear History as History of Science"This CAREER project carries out an integrated program of work with the title "Nuclear history as history of science." In research and teaching it explores the interweaving of technical and sociopolitical matters characteristic of the nuclear age. For the research component Professor Carson is framing a technically informed history of the conceptualizations of nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is a problem whose perceived nature has changed dramatically from the 1940s to the present: what was once thought to be a small technical difficulty, soluble with modest effort on the basis of readily obtainable knowledge, has become a major international field of research with intensely complex demands of modeling and experimentation. Professor Carson's study examines the changing conception of the very nature of the challenge -- what sort of scientific problem nuclear waste has been understood to be -- and so brings technical matters back into our histories of policy and politics. Focusing on the U.S., Germany, and either France or Switzerland, it takes a comparative approach as a way of opening up points of controversy. The resulting account will be of value to broader communities with practical interests, since past attitudes towards nuclear waste stand in the background of many of its present problems. At the same time the project addresses itself to historians thinking about theoretical questions, using the exemplary site of nuclear waste management to investigate the interface between the sociopolitical and the technical.The education component then pursues the project's theme in a new undergraduate course that Professor Carson is devising at the University of California, Berkeley. As a history of science course on the nuclear age, the class brings together students from the sciences, engineering, humanities, and social sciences. In their encounters with this complex period, with its interweaving of technical and sociopolitical problems, the students will explore models of historical explanation that will serve them past the semester's end. The course title, "Nuclear Berkeley, Nuclear World," indicates its double focus: the local history of the university, the community, and the region, and the global context framing the developments at home. Along with standard pedagogical strategies of reading, lecture, and discussion, Professor Carson's course makes considered use of a web infrastructure for information and interaction. Moreover, as the culmination of the class experience it engages students in hands-on historical research, teaching them what goes into creating histories through the experience of practicing it themselves. The local focus of many student projects -- given the area's unparalleled resources -- will then return their work to the community, as their reports will be made available on the website as a gateway beyond the university.The two components of the project are mutually supportive. They explore technical optimism and historical inevitability at scales large and small: thus nuclear waste takes its place in the educational framework, while the course's overarching narrative provides the backdrop for the research. And the student projects, for their part, make connections back to Professor Carson's research, establishing contacts, unearthing sources, and opening up new fields to study.

SES 99-83981 - Cathryn L.卡森（加州大学伯克利分校）“职业生涯：核历史作为科学史“这个职业生涯项目进行了一个综合的工作计划，标题为“核历史作为科学史。“在研究和教学中，它探索了核时代特有的技术和社会政治问题的交织。对于研究部分，卡森教授正在构建一个技术上知情的核废料概念化的历史。从20世纪40年代到现在，人们对核废料问题的认识发生了巨大变化：曾经被认为是一个小的技术难题，在容易获得的知识的基础上通过适度的努力就可以解决，现在已经成为一个主要的国际研究领域，需要非常复杂的建模和实验。卡森教授的研究考察了对挑战本质的不断变化的概念--核废料被理解为什么样的科学问题--因此将技术问题带回了我们的政策和政治历史。聚焦美国，德国，以及法国或瑞士，它采取了比较的方法，作为一种打开争议点的方式。由此产生的说明将对具有实际利益的更广泛的社区具有价值，因为过去对核废料的态度是目前许多问题的背景。与此同时，该项目致力于历史学家对理论问题的思考，利用核废料管理的示范网站来调查社会政治和技术之间的接口。教育部分然后在卡森教授正在设计的一个新的本科课程中追求该项目的主题，该课程在加州大学伯克利分校。作为核时代的科学史课程，该课程汇集了来自科学，工程，人文和社会科学的学生。在他们遇到这个复杂的时期，其交织的技术和社会政治问题，学生将探索历史解释模型，将服务于他们过去的学期结束。课程名称“核伯克利，核世界”表明其双重重点：大学，社区和地区的当地历史，以及在国内发展的全球背景。沿着阅读、演讲和讨论的标准教学策略，卡森教授的课程考虑利用网络基础设施进行信息和互动。此外，作为课堂经验的高潮，它让学生参与实践历史研究，教他们通过自己实践的经验来创造历史。鉴于该地区拥有无与伦比的资源，许多学生项目的本地重点将把他们的工作回报给社区，因为他们的报告将在网站上提供，作为大学以外的门户。他们在大大小小的尺度上探索技术乐观主义和历史必然性：因此，核废料在教育框架中占据了一席之地，而课程的总体叙述为研究提供了背景。而学生的项目，就其本身而言，使连接回到卡森教授的研究，建立联系，发掘来源，并开辟新的领域来研究。