Discorsi

Issue 5, January 1997

Index

Kathryn Brammall Named 1996-97 Mellon Fellow

Jamil Ragep to Receive 1996 Kuwait Prize

Oklahoma, Arizona State, Minnesota Begin NSF Training Program

Visitors and Speakers

Graduate Student Research Activities

Recent Degrees Granted

News Notes of Faculty and Staff

Gifts and Contributions to the Program

History of Science Collections News

Alumni News

Kathryn Brammall Named 1996-97 Mellon Fellow

The department is now in the third and central year of its postdoctoral program, "Historical Intersections of the Biological and Social Sciences." Funded under the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program permits scholars to devote their full attention to their research topic, and the opportunity to teach an undergraduate or graduate seminar in their area of interest. This year's Mellon Fellow is Kathryn Brammall.

Kathryn's research focuses on the changing perceptions of monstrosity prevalent in seventeenth-century English science and society. Monsters had for centuries been explained with reference to Aristotelian philosophy and Christian divination; even those monsters whose appearance could be explained by 'natural' processes were, according to medieval and early Tudor observers, signs from God reiterating a past warning or threatening imminent destruction. Both these traditional modes of thought were challenged in the seventeenth century, however, as natural philosophers such as Francis Bacon and later experimental investigators attempted to display and explain the independence of a powerful, playful Nature. Such scholars were determined to demonstrate that monsters were, in fact, simply among the most astounding of Nature's creations. In freeing monsters from peripatetic theories and an interfering divinity, and thereby naturalizing the abnormal, such philosophers and scientists threatened to undermine the powerful rhetoric of monstrosity that was manipulated in an array of heated early modern debates. At the same time, however, these scholars propped up this rhetoric by assisting their less scientifically minded contemporaries in creating a type of behavioral and moral monstrosity that remained polemically viable for decades, even centuries.

The study of monsters provides a remarkable case through which to examine the interactions between science and society and, perhaps more importantly, to investigate the role of scientific practitioners in their alternative social, political, moral, and religious roles. Natural philosophers like Bacon, and later the founders of the Royal Society, often held positions of power and respect within the wider cultural milieu, and few of them abandoned the priorities attached to these roles. Indeed, many such intellectuals had, by virtue of their status, religious leanings, and political ideologies, a vested interest in upholding the established social order. Their attempts to negotiate the tensions of their society and their involvement in many of the most heated debates of the day indicate just how problematic is the assumption that the great minds of past science had no agendas external to the discovery and dissemination of the "truth." Many of the men present in Kathryn's study confirm and elucidate a picture of monstrosity closely allied with that employed by moralists, clerics, crown officials, and balladeers, despite their simultaneous efforts to distance themselves and their work from the "vulgar error," "superstition," and incorrect method associated with traditional notions of deformity and abnormality.

Kathryn takes an interdisciplinary approach to her subject which deals with literature and rhetoric as well as the history of science widely defined to include the social, political, religious, and cultural context. She will be emphasizing this cross-disciplinary approach this spring when she leads a seminar on Monsters in Early Modern Science and Society.

The Fellowship award for 1997-98 will be announced by the end of March 1997. Inquiries about applications for 1998-99 program or the Mellon program workshop planned for 1998-99 should be addressed to: Dr. Gregg Mitman, Department of the History of Science, 601 Elm, Room 622, the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019-0315; Telephone: 405-325-2213; Fax: 405-325-2363; E-mail: gmitman@ou.edu.

Jamil Ragep to Receive 1996 Kuwait Prize

The department has just learned that Professor F. Jamil Ragep will be presented the prestigious Kuwait Prize in the Arabic and Islamic Scientific Heritage, and specifically for the history of astronomy. The Kuwait Prize is awarded for a specific research achievement, in Professor Ragep's case his monumental edition and critical study of Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's Memoir on Astronomy (published in 1993 by Springer-Verlag). The 1996 Prize, which includes a cash sum of 30,000 Kuwaiti Dinars (approximately $100,000), will be presented later this year by the Amir in Kuwait. The selection committee decided upon two recipients, and Professor Ragep will share the award with Professor George Saliba, of Columbia University.

To the general history of science community, Tusi's reputation rests on his creation of an ingenious mathematical model -- the so-called Tusi couple -- that modified Ptolemy's models and dispensed with the necessity of an equant point. Historians of early modern Western astronomy have recognized that Tusi's model lies behind the new astronomy of Nicolaus Copernicus in the sixteenth century, and thus on these grounds alone Tusi's work is of extraordinary significance. But while Professor Ragep's book includes detailed analysis of this aspect of the Tadhkira, one of the central theses of his book concerns the long tradition of hay'a literature that combines mathematical models with physical assumptions. Professor Ragep's work does much to locate this tradition within the more general features of Tusi's career and Islamic science and culture in general. But it also augments the evidence for a corrective to a popular view of early science, the so-called instrumentalism of Greek and Islamic science.

The department congratulates Professor Ragep on the recognition he so richly deserves.

Oklahoma, Arizona State, Minnesota Begin NSF Training Program

The NSF training and research grant on "Nature, History, and the Natural Historical Sciences in the Twentieth Century" began its road tour this fall in Norman, Oklahoma. By early September, graduate students Juan Ilerbaig and Karin Matchett from the University of Minnesota, Jon Snyder from Arizona State University, and postdoctoral fellow Kevin Dann had all arrived. The co-PI's John Beatty and Jim Collins spent a whirlwind week in Norman during the second week of September, arranged by Kevin, which left us little time to catch our breaths. We initiated the program with breakfast at Pepe Delgado's, and everyone received a T-shirt, handsomely illustrated by the zoological illustrator on campus, Coral McAllister. Bruce Hoagland from the Department of Geography and the Oklahoma Biological Survey helped orient the group to the local landscape of the Cross Timbers, and we also spent an adventurous day in the field in Elk City hosted by Laurie Vitt and Jan Caldwell from the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History. Students donned waders and seined muddy stock ponds in search of Jim Collins' illustrious beast, Ambystoma tigrinium. We were successful in finding two tiger salamanders, and all the graduate students, after spending considerable time picking off sand burs, got a real appreciation for the practice of field biology.

While the next ten weeks were spent reading prodigious amounts of environmental history and the history of ecology, and engaged in deep discussion about the meanings of nature in natural history, they were also filled with many social gatherings and additional field trips. In late October, we undertook an excursion to the Arbuckle Mountains to acquaint ourselves with the cultural and environmental history of the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, formerly known as Platt National Park. This park had the fourth largest attendance of all the national parks in the twenties and thirties, and Ken Fucht, the landscape architect for the National Park Service, treated us to a wonderful tour that raised many intriguing issues about changing historical conceptions of nature over the course of the twentieth century. That night, Ken, along with the mayor of Sulphur, joined us around our campfire and treated us to a night of bluegrass music, accompanied by Kevin on mandolin, Gregg on guitar, and Karin on banjo.

The seminar ended with a pivotal event, the birth of Gregg and Debra's son Keefe. Debra went into labor after the last night the group spent together--a potluck hosted by Gary and Kim, and bowling at Three Flags over Norman. Kevin and his wife Joyce headed for Arizona the next day to prepare for the group's eventual arrival in late January, so they never got to see the group's new mascot. The cohort is taking a much needed respite, and gearing up for a semester in search of tiger salamanders in Arizona.

Visitors and Speakers

Nineteen ninety-six was another banner year for speakers. The department and its students sponsored or co-sponsored the following speakers during the year:

January 19, Steven Livesey and Stephen Wagner (University of Oklahoma), "Scholarly Research and Communication in the Electronic Age: Prospects and Problems." January 26, Clara Sue Kidwell (Native American Studies, University of Oklahoma), "Francisco Hernandez and New World Natural History."

February 16, Ken Knoespel (Georgia Tech), "Newton in the School of Time: The Origines in the Principia." February 23, Joy Harvey (Virginia Polytechnic Institute), "Darwin's Phylogenetic Trees." February 29, Betty Smocovitis (University of Florida), "Celebrating Darwin," and March 1, "Unifying Biology: New Directions in Evolutionary Studies." Discussion led by Betty Smocovitis with responses by Joe Cain (Mellon Fellow, University of Oklahoma) and Katherine Pandora (University of Oklahoma).

March 8, John Lewis (National Severe Storms Laboratory, University of Oklahoma), "Winds Over the World Sea: M.F. Maury and W. P. Köppen."

April 5, Laurel Smith (University of Oklahoma), "Representing Ethnicity: Flaherty, Nanook of the North and the Innuit." April 12, Elizabeth A. Williams (Oklahoma State University), "A Hippocratic View of Medicine? Montpellier Physicians of the Eighteenth Century." April 26, Joe Cain (University of Oklahoma) "An Intimate Partnership: Research Collaboration between George Simpson and Anne Roe."

August 30, students and faculty of History of Science and the History of Science Collections, "What We Did This Summer."

September 6, Gregg Mitman (University of Oklahoma), "High Over the Borders: Visions of Conservation from Pan-Americanism to the Arusha Conference." September 13, John Beatty (Program in the History of Science and Technology, University of Minnesota), "Genetics in the Atomic Age." September 20, Kevin T. Dann (NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Oklahoma), "The Geography of Feeblemindedness." September 30, Paul Hoyningen-Huene (Philosophy, University of Konstanz, Germany), "Paul Feyerabend and Thomas Kuhn."

October 4, Judith S. Lewis (History, University of Oklahoma), "The Princess of Parallelograms and her Daughter: Math and Gender in the Nineteenth-Century English Aristocracy."

November 1, Gordon L. Herries Davies (Geography, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland), "The Problem of Valleys: Lessons from a Bygone Controversy." November 15, Michael A. Mares (Director, Oklahoma Museum of Natural History and Professor of Zoology, OU), "How Scientists Can Impede the Development of Their Discipline: Egocentrism, Small Pool Size, and the Evolution of 'Sapismo'." November 22, David B. Kitts (David Ross Boyd Professor of History of Science and Geology, Emeritus, University of Oklahoma), "Darwin's Analogical Argument for Natural Selection."

December 6, Dee Fink (Director, Instructional Development Program, University of Oklahoma), "What Should You Learn if You Want to be a College Teacher?"

All history of science colloquia take place 3:00-4:30 p.m. in the History of Science Collections, The Harlow Room, Bizzell Library. For more information about the 1997 colloquia or to add your name to our mailing list, contact Peter Barker [e-mail: Barkerp@ou.edu; telephone: (405) 325-2213].

Graduate Student Research Activities

The Graduate Student Research Award for 1996 was shared by Mark Eddy, for a portion of his master's thesis, and Kiyoon Kim (Ph.D. 1995) for a selection from his doctoral dissertation.

Stephen Gatlin's paper, "Charles Darwins Idee der natürlichen Selektion im Journal of Mental Science (1859-1875)," was published in Die Rezeption von Evolutionstheorien im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Eve-Marie Engels. Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp 1995. pp. 262-280.

Several students in the program attended the Midwest Junto for the History of Science in Kansas City (March 29-31). Gary Kroll delivered a paper entitled "The Hooks on Which the Sky is Hung: The Patronage Implications of Johannes Kepler's Nested Polyhedra"; Kevin Tapp's paper was "The Scandinavian Sea Serpent 1500-1800: The Evolution of Criteria for Credibility." Gary and Kevin also presented posters at the university's annual graduate student research day.

Gary Kroll is spending his second year in the Department of the History of Science as a participant in a two-year NSF-funded traveling seminar devoted to exploring the history of the natural historical sciences in the twentieth century. Gary has just completed all coursework required for the doctorate and will become a candidate for that degree by fall 1997. He is also conducting research for his intended dissertation on the intersection of oceanic science and twentieth-century American environmental history. He will present a paper on "Thor Heyerdahl and Kon-Tiki Fever in Postwar America" at the biennial conference for the American Society of Environmental Historians in March 1997; and he has recently co-authored (with Peter Barker) a review published in the journal Centaurus.

Maureen McCormick received funds from the Graduate Student Senate to consult the Julian Huxley papers at Rice University. In March 1997, she will present a paper entitled "Lonesome George: International Scientists and Organizations Collaborating for Conservation in the Galapagos" at the biennial conference for the American Society of Environmental Historians in Baltimore. She is also a participant in the NSF traveling seminar on twentieth-century natural historical sciences.

This year has been mainly one of travel for JoAnn Palmeri, whose dissertation topic is "Harlow Shapley, Cosmography and Culture in 1950s and 1960s America." She completed a substantial portion of her archival research during this time. From late May through August, she worked at the Harvard University Archives, mostly on the Shapley papers: the collection of personal papers as well as the records of his tenure as director of the Harvard College Observatory. She spent about four weeks at the American Institute of Physics in October and November, looking at American Astronomical Society records and the oral histories of twentieth-century astronomers. The Harvard trip was funded by an NSF dissertation grant; the AIP trip was funded by a grant from that institution.

With assistance from the department, Aaron Poffenberger spent several weeks in June and July at the Medieval Institute at Notre Dame, where he was enrolled in an Institute paleography course.

Kevin Tapp was a summer intern at the Bakken Library of Electricity in Life, Minneapolis, during which he worked in educational programs with school children and assisted the librarian with cataloging and reference. He also received a research fellowship during the period to pursue a project in Mesmerism in nineteenth-century America, which he plans to present this year at Mephistos. Kevin also prepared a display on monsters that appeared first in the Collections' cases, and subsequently moved to the department's display case in the Physical Sciences Building.

Recent Degrees Granted

Patrick S. Cross was awarded the Ph.D. in late August following the completion of his dissertation, "The Organization of Science in Dublin from 1785 to 1835: The Men and their Institutions." The work examines the phases of scientific development between the founding of the Royal Irish Academy (1785) and the fifth meeting, in Dublin, of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (1835). Among the institutions surveyed are the Dublin Society and Trinity College, Dublin. The committee was composed of Kenneth L. Taylor, chair; Steven J. Livesey; Marilyn B. Ogilvie; Peter Barker; and Tibor J. Herczeg, the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Cross is currently the academic counselor in the Department of Mathematics.

Aaron K. Poffenberger completed a 1996 master's degree in the history of science with his thesis, "The Intersection of Humanist and Scholastic Dialect in the Logic of Domingo de Soto." The thesis analyzes those places in Soto's works that display strong evidences of humanist influence by comparing and contrasting his logic with that of his countryman, Juan Luis Vives. It also shows the limitations of that humanist influence by describing those areas that remained tied to scholastic approaches to logic. The thesis director was Steven J. Livesey, and other members of the committee were Peter Barker, F. Jamil Ragep, and Luis Cortest (from the Department of Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics). Aaron now begins to prepare for the general examinations in the doctoral program.

Todd Timmons completed a 1996 master's degree in the history of science with his thesis, "Edmund Stone and the Calculus Textbook Tradition of Eighteenth-Century England." The thesis focuses on the autodidact Stone's Method of Fluxions Both Direct and Inverse (1730), which was at the crossroads of the English calculus textbook tradition. Timmons argues that before Stone, no real attempts had been made to write an introductory text in English. In the two decades which followed Stone, dozens of such texts were published. The thesis traces the influence of Stone's work on one of these subsequent authors, Thomas Simpson. The thesis director was F. Jamil Ragep, and other members of the committee were Peter Barker and Kenneth L. Taylor. Todd now proceeds to the doctoral program and general examinations.

The department extends its congratulations to the following students who graduated in 1996 with a minor (15 credit hours) in the history of science: Jesse Wade Butler, B.A. with Special Distinction, Philosophy, May 1996; and Michelle Johnson, B.A. Anthropology, August 1996. The department also recognizes Richard W. Possett II, who completed an honors essay, supervised by Steven Livesey, "English Surgical Practice in the Late Sixteenth Century: The Paradigm Case of William Clowes."

News Notes of Faculty and Staff

Having not had the chance to teach undiluted history of science to undergraduates for over ten years, 1996 offered Peter Barker an embarras de richesses in teaching, and his first encounter with OU undergraduates. By his own account, he was quite impressed -- and apparently enough of them were also to ensure some "repeat business" in fall classes. He was also organizing the colloquium series, which as you will see elsewhere in the newsletter, is thriving. He joined a large contingent going to Midwest Junto in Kansas City, where Gary Kroll and Kevin Tapp gave excellent presentations. In April he read a paper at the first conference sponsored by the History of the Philosophy of Science Interest Group (HOPOS). They turned out to be interested in reasoning quia and propter quid, like many of his colleagues. With the assistance of grants from the university, he traveled to Italy to present a paper on "Kuhn and the Sociological Revolution" at the quadrennial meeting of Pittsburgh's Philosophy of Science Center fellows. He went on from there to visit the new Max Planck Institute for the history of science in Berlin, where he presented a version of "Kuhn and Cognitive Science." Finally, he spent ten days in Kassel reading Christopher Rothmann's manuscripts, reaching two conclusions: Rothmann has much better handwriting then he does, and Tycho Brahe did not tell the whole truth about the date of Rothmann's apostasy from Copernicanism. During the summer Pierre Duhem: Essays in the History and Philosophy of Science appeared in a smart paperback edition from Hackett Publishing in Indianapolis. This is a collection of Duhem's basic papers on physics at the turn of the century, and his views on the history of science, translated by Peter Barker and Roger Ariew of Virginia Tech. Most of this appears in English for the first time, although they retranslated the last part of To Save the Phenomena. Tired translators and Winnie- the-Pooh fans are encouraged to read page 15ff. Peter was "adopted" by the international Students' Floor in Couch Hall. Philosophical Psychology published "Kuhn's Mature Philosophy of Science and Cognitive Science" by H. Andersen, P. Barker and X. Chen -- the first letters of the authors' last names are a message. He was also pleased to see the appearance of his first publication co-authored with someone from Oklahoma: a review of Bill Eamon's Science and the Secrets of Nature, prepared with Gary Kroll for Centaurus. During the fall, Peter and others have also been struggling to tame a new computer system set up in the History of Science Collection, one that he hopes to use for preparing electronic documents.

As the 1996-1997 Mellon Post-doctoral Fellow, Kathryn Brammall is intrigued by the interplay between early modern science and society. In particular, she is investigating the ways in which the scientific and medical advances of the seventeenth century modified the "rhetoric of monstrosity" as employed in various early modern English cultural, social, and political debates (see article on Mellon program). Kathryn earned her Ph.D (1996) in history from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, with a dissertation on the changing perceptions of abnormality and deformity in late Tudor and early Stuart England. While completing her dissertation, Kathryn was also managing editor for an encyclopedia of historical writing and a lecturer at several Canadian universities.

Kathryn's research methods and interests are cross-disciplinary, and her additional studies currently focus on the historical place of the "other" in scientific, religious, political, moral, and popular writing. She is particularly interested in how the importance of humanism in the Renaissance and natural philosophy and experimental investigation during the seventeenth century assisted in the marginalization of those individuals or groups identified as irrational.

Kathryn has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to continue her research project in 1997-1998 at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

After leaving Norman, Joe Cain (Mellon Fellow, 1995-96) traveled south to the University of Texas in (beautiful) Austin for an NEH-sponsored seminar on post-modernist studies of the British Empire. This allowed him total immersion in scholarship surrounding eighteenth-century explorations of the South Pacific, especially Cook. The goal was curriculum design (for Joe's survey courses), not novel research. Of the exciting materials found, he strongly recommends Bernard Smith's Imagining the Pacific for anyone interested in this domain: a first-class work combining history of art/artists and history of science. The summer over too quickly, Joe moved to London, where he is now a lecturer (=assistant professor) at University College London and is completely absorbed in London's robust (and hectic) academic life. No change in accent yet, but new words are sneaking their way into his vocabulary. Visitors traveling through London are more than welcome to contact him. Free -- though rugged --accommodations are possible, too. Joe's new address: Joe Cain, Department of Science and Technology Studies, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT. Fax: 0171-916-2425; office telephone: 0171-419-3041; email: J.Cain@UCL.AC.UK.

David and Nancy Kitts returned to Norman this fall, with David participating in OU President David Boren's Retired Faculty Teaching Program. David offered an undergraduate honors seminar on "The Mental Life of Animals," in which students met all day for several Saturdays to discuss readings ranging from Aristotle to Darwin. Since retirement, David has been engaged in a project involving extensive analysis of the structure and argument of the first edition of Darwin's Origin of Species, part of which he presented in the department's colloquium series.

Steven J. Livesey is completing his third and final year as chair of the department. At the end of the spring semester, he delivered a paper, "De viris illustribus et mediocribus: A Biographical Database of Franciscan Commentators on Aristotle and Peter Lombard's Sentences," in a special session honoring Girard J. Etzkorn (The Franciscan Institute, St. Bonaventure University) at the Thirty-first International Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Together with other essays solicited for the session, the paper will be published in a forthcoming Festschrift for Professor Etzkorn. In July, he attended the Third British-North American History of Science Meeting in Edinburgh, at which he delivered a paper, "Holding the Centre and Testing the Boundaries: Scientific Disciplines in the Late Middle Ages." After the meeting, he stayed on in the U.K. to work in libraries in Worcester, Oxford, London, and Cambridge and consult colleagues with similar interests. Late in the year, his essay "Unique Manuscripts and Medieval Productivity: How Shall We Count," appeared in Computing Techniques and the History of Universities, ed. Peter Denley. Halbgraue Reihe zur historischen Fachinformatik, A30. His essay, "Scientific Writing in the Latin Middle Ages," will be published as part of a new edition of Thornton and Tully's Scientific Books, Authors, and Collectors (Scolar Press). Beyond this, he continues to work on his biographical database, which now contains some 35,000 records.

Gregg Mitman spent the 1995-1996 academic year on leave as a visiting associate professor in the Department of the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, ensconced in their Wisconsin cabin in the woods, working toward the completion of a book titled Framing Nature: Wildlife on Camera in American Culture, to be published by Harvard University Press. The book is a historical analysis of how nature films, at the intersections of art, science, and entertainment, have shaped scientific and popular interactions with and conceptions of nature over the course of the twentieth century.

In May, Gregg attended the second NSF Workshop on Biology and the Law at Arizona State University, helping develop case studies within the environmental and conservation arena that generate major researchable questions at the interface of biology and the law. In June, Gregg had the good fortune of being invited to attend a conference on "Changing Images of Primate Societies: The Role of Theory, Method, and Gender," that was sponsored by the Wenner-Gren Foundation and hosted at the Hotel Rosa dos Ventos in Teresópolis, Brazil. The conference was unique in its interdisciplinary gathering of ethologists, primatologists, anthropologists, cognitive scientists, and scholars from the science studies community. Gregg also gave talks to the departments of Zoology and History at Oklahoma State University and the History and Philosophy of Science Department at Indiana University in the fall of 1996. His article, "When Nature is the Zoo: Vision and Power in the Art and Science of Natural History," appeared in the recent Osiris volume on Science in the Field and his 1993 Isis article, "Cinematic Nature," has been reprinted in a collection edited by Ronald L. Numbers and Charles E. Rosenberg on The Scientific Enterprise in America.

Gregg's secret aspiration of producing a nature film was realized this fall semester in an Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Environment class team-taught with Bob Rundstrom in the Department of Geography. This senior practicum in the IPE program focused on issues of culture, wildlife, and sovereignty. As their final assignment, students made a video addressing the multiple perspectives entailed in conflicts between Native Americans and the federal government over the use of bald eagle parts for ceremonial and religious purposes. PBS has yet to come knocking on our door, but we can always hope.

Marilyn Ogilvie spent much of the summer in Europe buying books for the Collections. While in Europe, she presented a paper at the British-North American joint meeting of the History of Science Society. Upon returning, she found that her book-length annotated bibliography had come out, as well as a long overdue chapter in a book entitled Creative Couples in Science. Several years ago, Ogilvie attended a conference at the Rockefeller Archive Center on philanthropy in east and southeast Asia, but only recently found that the conference proceedings will be published. Most of her research time this year was spent in working on a 3,000-entry biographical dictionary of women in science. Ogilvie taught an honors section of History of Science 3023 last spring and a regular section this fall. She was still on the Women's Prize Committee of the History of Science Society, a member of the executive board of the College of Liberal Studies, and gave talks to various civic and educational groups.

At summer's end, Katherine Pandora was especially pleased to turn over her completed book manuscript, entitled Rebels within the Ranks: Psychologists' Critique of Scientific Authority and Democratic Realities in New Deal America, to Cambridge University Press to begin production for publication in the fall of 1997. Pandora's text examines how the legacy of radical theories of knowledge articulated by such intellectual provocateurs as William James converged with depression-era debates over the meaning of democracy in the work of a cohort of social and personality psychologists who experimented with the idea of science as they dissented from the status quo.

Pandora expanded on her research for her next book, on natural history as a cross-disciplinary model in twentieth-century human and social science, with a trip to the Library of Congress to work in the Luther Burbank papers. She also explored preliminary themes for this project in a paper on the development of the field of ecological psychology in the 1940s by psychologist Roger Barker, which she presented at the 1996 History of Science Society Meeting and which she was also invited to deliver to OU's psychology department.

Over the summer, she also worked with an interdisciplinary group of faculty on a proposal to establish an Institute of Human-Technology Interaction (IHTI) at OU, which received approval by the administration in December. IHTI's initial research plan calls for work in such areas as computer-mediated communication, computer-supported cooperative work, and automation and human-computer interaction. Pandora is interested in pursuing questions about the social and political impact of information technology, and is currently a member of a city task force that is launching a community FreeNet in Norman and chair of a IHTI committee that will study the FreeNet as a social phenomenon.

Jamil Ragep is currently spending his sabbatical year in Istanbul, Turkey, with side trips planned to Syria and Egypt. Before he and his family departed Norman, he and Sally Ragep, with the assistance of Steve Livesey, were able to get the proceedings of the 1992 and 1993 conferences on premodern science into print as Tradition, Transmission, Transformation (E.J. Brill, 1996). The volume is dedicated to A. I. Sabra, who recently retired as Professor of Arabic Science at Harvard University.

Jamil and family have been easing into their new lives in Istanbul, which is an exciting city with all the advantages and disadvantages of any contemporary metropolis. Getting around is often frustrating, but having the Bosphorous outside one's window considerably softens the blow. Jamil and Sally have become fixtures at the main manuscript library, where they are examining as many Islamic astronomical manuscripts as they can get their hands on.

Jamil's research in the Middle East is being funded by the Social Science Research Council, the American Research Institute in Turkey, and the University of Oklahoma President's International Travel Program.

Besides instruction in established courses in our curriculum (surveys, Eighteenth-century science), Kenneth L. Taylor's teaching in 1996 included trying out a new sophomore-level course, Lives in Science: History of Science Through Biography. Enrollment was small, but we will try again in 1997 and see if it catches on. During the summer, Ken taught again in the College of Arts and Sciences' high-school-student Summer Scholars Program, collaborating with our graduate student, Maureen McCormick, in directing the Bridging class (bridging as in linking different disciplines). Another summer venture was a seminar in Values and Ethics in Science for the physics department's NSF-sponsored Research Experiences for Undergraduates program.

In 1996, Ken was busy in collaboration with colleagues in England and Brazil, helping to organize a symposium in history of geology for the 1997 International Congress of History of Science at Liège, Belgium. He has also been involved in some interesting professional work, including service as an officer of the History of Earth Sciences Society, on committees for the Geological Society of America and the History of Science Society, and on an NEH panel. His essay, "La genèse d'un naturaliste: Desmarest, la lecture et la nature," is due to appear shortly in a volume published in Paris, De la géologie à son histoire.

As a result of work Mike and Ken and their kids have been doing a few weeks each summer at Plaisance, their sanctuary high in the Sangre de Cristo of southern Colorado, the house is almost finished.

In the Collections, Steve Wagner has devoted much of his time to working with the Cataloging Department on the backlog of rare books and gift books. This will enable patrons to search for materials on OLIN by subject and keyword, thereby greatly expanding access to our holdings. You should notice a significant difference for books from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Steve has also negotiated for the transfer of over 100 (and counting) titles in medical history from other libraries.

Steve continues his research in the archives of science, technology, and medicine. His article "Integrated Archives and Records Management Programs at Professional Membership Associations: A Case Study and a Model" has been accepted by the American Archivist, which will also be publishing his book review of Joan Krizack's Documentation Planning for the U. S. Health Care System and Nancy McCall and Lisa Mix's Designing Archival Programs to Advance Knowledge in the Health Fields. Steve presented a paper "Ethical Issues for the Archival Community Arising Out of the Brown and Williamson Collection" at the 1996 meeting of the Society of American Archivists (SAA). Steve also guest-lectured for several sessions of the History of Books, Printing, and Publishing graduate class in the OU School of Library and Information Studies and attended the week-long class on descriptive bibliography at the Rare Book School of the University of Virginia last summer.

Steve stepped down after four years as chair of SAA's Science, Technology, and Health Care Roundtable, although he remains on the Steering Committee and continues as editor of Architext. He completed work on selecting the winner of the American Association for the History of Medicine's Welch Medal, the most prominent award for new books in medical history. He also served as a reviewer of manuscripts for the American Archivist.

Gifts and Contributions to the Program

The History of Science Collections and the History of Science Department have been pleased to receive gifts to several funds that support research and teaching activities of faculty and students. Gifts can be designated through the University of Oklahoma Foundation for these and other purposes. Recently, the department and Collections have begun work on a project to support long-term goals in conjunction with the university's recently announced five-year Reach for Excellence Campaign. Among these goals are establishment of endowments for a distinguished professorship in the history of science, graduate fellowships in the history of science, a fund for small travel grants to enable scholars and students to travel to Norman to use the resources of the History of Science Collections, additional endowments for Collections acquisitions, and an annual history of science lecture and publication series.

During 1996, donors to the department and the Collections were: José Alfredo Bach, Peter Barker, Richard Bedard, Leon Ciereszko, Herman Curiel, Kevin T. Dann, Sarah Stanley Edwards, Jonathan Erlen, Betty Falato, Marcia and George Goodman, George Gorin, Tibor Herczeg, Kuang-tai Hsu, Wendell Huffman, The Oklahoma Museum of Natural History, Larry Frank, Michael Keas, Edwin Kessler, David B. Kirkpatrick, M. E. Korn, Librairie Thomas Scheler, Douglas Lynn McPherson, Mary Jo Nye, Marilyn B. Ogilvie, Leroy E. Page, Ralph Rieger, James Robinson, Marjorie Roller, Liba Taub, Martha Ellen Webb, Elizabeth White, Hatten S. Yoder, and an anonymous donor.

Donors are reminded that many companies have programs to match contributions to non-profit organizations, thus doubling one's support of the history of science. Gifts can be made through the OU Foundation, 100 Timberdell Road, Norman, OK 73019-0685; Tel. 405-321-1174 (Ron D. Burton, Executive Director) or the OU Office of University Development, Whitehand Hall 118, Norman, OK 73019-5143; Tel. 405-325-3701 (David L. Maloney, Vice President for University Development).

The Collections have had a busy and productive year. Scholars and visitors from all over the world used the Collections' books and/or viewed exhibits and facilities. President Boren has been a good public relations person for the Collections, often bringing visiting dignitaries to view the rare books. Itineraries for job candidates in the humanities, natural sciences, engineering, and social science departments often include the Collections. Classes in modern languages, Latin, natural sciences, English, art, library science, and, of course history of science, visit the Collections frequently. A graduate library school class (History of Books, Printing, and Publishing) used the Collections as a resource for term research projects.

This year the Collections have displayed two new exhibits. Kevin Tapp, a graduate student in the joint M.A. (history of science) and M.L.S. (library studies) program, produced one on "monsters," and Kerry Meek, one of our library technicians, provided a second one based on our fine collection of herbals.

Acquisitions highlighted the Collections' year. Marilyn Ogilvie went on a book-buying trip last summer to Paris, Clermont-Ferrand, Munich, Leipzig, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and Cambridge. During a three-week period, she was able to buy 186 items for the Collections, many of which filled in gaps in the holdings. For example, she purchased a French translation of Darwin's work on orchids (1891), a little-known book by Lavoisier (Instruction sur les moyens que l'on peut employer pour connaître la qualité des saltpetres, 1787), numerous books in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century physics, and works in the human sciences. Very recently, one of the book dealers that Marilyn visited in London wrote that he had found one of the Collections' desiderata -- the 44-volume first edition of Buffon's Histoire naturelle. We were able to purchase it and, to the best of our knowledge, only one other complete set of this work exists in the United States. During 1996 our holdings in the secondary literature were increased by approximately 1,000 volumes, and the total now exceeds 85,000 volumes. We were able to add to our holdings in twentieth-century science and medicine through gifts and transfers from the science and health libraries. Through connections made at archives and history of medicine conferences, Steve Wagner has received donations of 136 volumes in medical history that augment our holdings in this area.

The Collections and the department have continued their close collaboration in various projects. One project involves cataloging the slide collection, using equipment and resources obtained through a joint grant, with history of science graduate students doing most of the work. The varied weekly departmental colloquia are held in the Collections' Seminar Room and have attracted visitors from all over the campus.

We have been fortunate in keeping Sylvia Legare and Kerry Meek as our library technicians. Their knowledge and experience have been invaluable. The student help is also outstanding. Jeanie O'Connell remains the graduate assistant. Student workers Sean Heaton, Ed Cox, Jennifer England, Maria Paleologu, Kelly Inman, Erika Tracy, and Paula Bolger have helped to keep the Collections running smoothly. Marcia Goodman has continued to assist us with name authority work and gives us the benefit of her special memory and knowledge of the Collections.

We have been able to decrease some of our cataloging backlog because the library cataloging department has allowed Elaine Bradshaw -- who previously worked for us on a grant project -- to come up one afternoon a week. They have also assigned another cataloger, Katherine Wong, to work on the Collections' uncataloged books in storage. You should be able to notice the difference for eighteenth- to twentieth-century books in the on-line catalog. For the moment, we are still able to provide researchers with a comprehensive short-title catalog of the Collections on microfiche.

The holidays brought the annual chili party. With everybody's cooperation, it was a great success!

Alumni News

In his capacity as director of exchange programs at Kanazawa Institute of Technology, Jun Fudano (Ph.D. 1990) made several trips to related programs in the United States. In February, he made a presentation on engineering ethics education to the Japan Science Council, and in June presented a jointly authored (with Hiroko) paper at the annual meeting of the American Society of Engineering Education in San Diego.

Yasu Furukawa (Ph.D.1983 ) teaches history of science at Tokyo Denki University and serves as treasurer of the Japanese Society for the History of Chemistry. His recent publications include "Americanism in Chemical Research" in Ideas in Exact Science (in Japanese), ed. Y. Nitta et al. (Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten, 1995), pp. 291-315; "Staudinger's Scientific Activity and Political Struggles," in Science, State, and Religion (in Japanese), ed. C. Kamatani et al. (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 1995), pp. 192-217; "Rudolf Clausius' Copy of Sadi Carnot's Reflexions," Historia Scientiarum 6 (1996) 31-36. Forthcoming are "From Chemistry to History: Historians of Chemistry and Their Community in Japan," Historia Scientiarum; "Polymer Chemistry," in Science in the 20th Century , ed. J. Krige and D. Pestre (Reading: Harwood Academic Publishers); and a book based on his Oklahoma dissertation, Staudinger, Carothers, and the Emergence of Macromolecular Chemistry (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press).

Sarah Goodfellow's (M.A. 1992) article, "'Such masculine strokes': Aphra Behn as Translator of a Discovery of New Worlds," appeared in Albion 28(1996) 229-150.

Timothy Kneeland (M.A. 1993; Ph.D. History 1996) completed his Ph.D. in the Department of History with a dissertation entitled, "The Use of Electricity to Treat Mental Illness in the United States, 1870 to the Present." The chair of the committee was David W. Levy; Katherine Pandora of the department was a member of the committee. He has taken up a position in the Department of History, Greenville College, Greenville, IL.

Doren Recker (M.A. 1985) is associate professor of philosophy at Oklahoma State University. Previously, he held a two-year Mellon postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. His primary research areas are Darwinian evolution, seventeenth-century science, and scientific change. He may be contacted by e-mail at drecker@okway.okstate.edu.

Liba Taub (Ph.D. 1987) has been elected to the Council of the British Society for the History of Science and to the Council of the History of Science Society; she has been told that she is the first person ever to serve simultaneously on both. She has also been elected a Fellow of Newnham College.

Mary Ellen (Sukoshi) Webb (Ph.D. 1980) is in her seventh year of Making History, her Omaha- based company for historical and consulting projects. Making History is thriving, one recent sign of which was an IRS audit. The big current project is with the Vermeer Company, a manufacturing firm in Iowa; Sukoshi is helping them design a museum, archives, and exhibit. She continues on the board of the Nebraska State Historical Society, and is on the executive board of her Rotary chapter.

Lynne Williams (M.A. 1994) gave a paper in December at the Global Summit on Science and Science Education in San Francisco.