Tech Progress and False Promises? The Urgent Need for Social Sciences & Humanities

Prof. Christo El Morr Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, Canada

Bridge Walk: a series of lectures on bridging the gap between different faculties and disciplines

The education and training of an engineer are based solely on technical knowledge, such as how to build a bridge or design a computer. On the other hand, researchers in the social sciences or humanities are trained to think in abstract concepts of society or the individual. Research in Humanities is also used to understand consumer behavior and how to influence it to increase corporate profits. This separation between the social and natural sciences gives the impression that technology is neutral. But technology is neither neutral nor is it produced in isolation from existing power and political constellations. Therefore, technology reorganizes political and power relations in terms of who owns the knowledge to produce the tools that are part of our conditions of survival [Timothy Mitchell, The Rule of Experts, 2002]. This separation between the natural and social sciences is sometimes broken by individuals through personal interests developed by the student or the researcher, but it is not often done at an institutional or structural level. 

Therefore, this lecture series attempts to critically examine the division between the social and natural sciences and how to bridge the gap at the institutional level. This lecture series attempts to bring together disciplines from the social sciences, humanities, and natural sciences. The speakers will critically analyze the strong separation between these disciplines and how technology organizes political and power relations. The speakers will also consider why certain technologies have stood the test of time while others have not. 

Organizers: Mohammad Khair Nahhas (BIROMED-Lab, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel) , Fares Damien (Near and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Basel)

Funding: This seminar series is financed by the Graduate School Social Sciences (G3S) and the PhD Program Health Sciences (PPHS) of the University Basel

Time: 17:00 - 18:15 on Wednesday

Location:  Kollergienhaus, Peterspl. 1, 4001 Basel.

Registration: if you would like to take part in the seminar series, please send an email to Mohammad Khair Nahhas

Online Participation: participants unable to attend in person are kindly invited to take part online. If you would like to take part online, please send an email to Mohammad Khair Nahhas

Please note that we reserve the right to modify the schedule below according to the availability of the speakers.

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