Abstract: Transitioning away from fossil fuels requires the production of energy from non-fossil sources. However, quantitative analyses and historical assessments of previous shifts in energy use indicate that the expansion of non-fossil energy sources – _in the absence of direct efforts to suppress fossil fuel extraction and challenge the power of the fossil fuel industry […]

Modeling Across Disciplines: A conversation with an atmospheric scientist, a family sociologist, and a philosopher about how we can (and cannot) use models to better understand our world. The world is almost as messy as it is complex. This is a big problem for anyone attempting to understand…well… anything. How are we to tease apart […]

Workshop on a pre-circulated chapter-in-revision, “The Widening Gap: The 1980s Crisis of Black Infant Survival.” WANGUI MUIGAI, PHD, ASSISTANT PROF., BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 545 Park Hall, 10:45am to 12:15pm, and can also be attended by Zoom at https://buffalo.zoom.us/j/97306125070?pwd=VDlQMFR1Y0paemhFZEJTM0hKSFpTdz09 The chapter traces the historical origins of the Black infant mortality crisis, and how new medical theories and […]

Formal talk, “To Protect the Mother and Baby: Black Infant Death in Historical Perspective.” WANGUI MUIGAI, PHD, ASSISTANT PROF., BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY 532 Park Hall, 3-5pm, and can also be attended by Zoom at https://buffalo.zoom.us/j/91630026180?pwd=djdDM2ZDN3NlNFF0bTVSUVVmY3FwZz09 Dr. Muigai will trace the long history of efforts to reduce Black infant mortality. Through exploring how politicians, physicians, midwives, and […]

In this lecture, Professor Holleman will discuss the vital lessons we can learn from one of the first global environmental problems of modern capitalism, which reached its apogee in the “dust-bowlification” of agricultural lands in the 1920s and 1930s. Based on award-winning research, Prof. Holleman explains that the regional crises of soil erosion in this […]

This talk will examine the capacity of chemical manufacturers to influence the scope of U.S. regulatory decision-making through mobilizing the scientific field surrounding PFAS (per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances). Drawing on participant observation at two offices within Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in-depth interviews, and analyses of industry documents, Richter will share a portion of her research investigating […]

The HI Science Studies Research Workshop will host a talk by Scott Frickel of Brown University. This talk introduces new research that aims to reconstruct a history of soil contamination science and policy and its relationship to broader socio-ecological processes of environmental inequality and urbanization. Set mainly in Providence, Rhode Island the study is anchored […]

The HI Science Studies Research Workshop will host a pre-circulated chapter workshop with Antoine Johnson, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Dr. Johnson will workshop a pre-circulated draft book chapter on a Black gay AIDS activist who founded or participated in multiple organizations in […]

As part of the Humanities Institute’s Science Studies Workshop Series on Race, Health, and Science, Dr. Antoine Johnson will be presenting from his research “More than Pushing Pills: Black AIDS Activism in the Bay Area” at two events on Wednesday, April 24, 2024. 12:00 - 1:30 - Workshop on a pre-circulated draft book chapter in 545 […]

The UB RENEW Institute and the HI Science Studies Research Workshop will host James Elliott of Rice University for his talk, "How and Why Social Inequities Matter for Climate Resilience”. Despite their global nature, climate change and related hazards are not things we experience “together.” Rather they reveal and exacerbate social inequities that call for […]