Seminar series looks at public policy, science, democracy

Researchers in public policy, natural and social sciences, engineering and medicine are mixing it up this year at the Science, Democracy and Public Policy Seminars.

The seminars are every Wednesday from 3:30-4:45 p.m. in the Engineering Centers Building, 1550 Engineering Drive, on the UW–Madison campus.

The purpose of the seminar series is to nurture exchange on topics of science and technology policy, expertise, risk, and democratic governance of science and technology.

The series, which will continue in the spring, is sponsored by the La Follette School of Public Affairs, the Initiative on Nanotechnology in Society and the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center.

All presentations are in Engineering Centers Building room 1025 unless otherwise noted below:

• Oct. 19, Daniel Kleinman, associate professor of rural sociology, “Building Citizen Capacities for Participation in Technoscientific Decisionmaking: The Democratic Virtues of the Consensus Conference Model.”
• Oct. 26, Nicole Kaufman, social science researcher, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, “Reflections on Participant Observation.”
• Nov. 2, Sarah Park, history researcher, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, “Nanotechnology’s Role in the U.S. Military.”
• Nov. 9, Kellen Backer, history researcher, Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center, “Gray Goo Run Amok: the History of Fears of Nanotechnology in the U.S.” in room 1045.
• Nov. 16, Jeremi Suri, associate professor of history, “Henry Kissinger, Nuclear Weapons and Democracy” in room 1045.
• Nov. 30, Mrill Ingram, senior outreach specialist, Environmental Resources Center, “Good Guys and Bad Guys: Disciplining Microbes through U.S. Federal Organic Standards.”
• Dec. 7, Nicole Youngman, doctoral student in flood control in New Orleans, Tulane University, “Katrina in Context: Disaster Mitigation and the Growth Machine in New Orleans.”