Reilly Center to examine commerce, politics of science

Author: William G. Gilroy

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The University of Notre DamesReillyCenterfor Science, Technology and Values will sponsor an international conference titledThe Commerce and Politics of Sciencefrom Sept. 21 to 24 (Thursday to Sunday) at McKenna Hall.

The conference will examine how commercial and political interests have shaped, and continue to shape, scientific knowledge and practice. It also will consider whether one or another economic or political context is favorable or unfavorable to science and is more, or less, likely to producegood science.

Keynote speakers for the conference include Sheldon Krimsky, professor of urban and environmental policy and planning at Tufts University; Robert Berdahl, president of theAssociation of American Universities; and Philip Mirowski, Notre Dames Carl E. Koch Professor of Economics and Policy Studies.

The conference will feature sessions onDemocracy and the Commercialization of Science,Commercialization and the Philosophy of Science,Commerce, Politics, and Science in theUnited Statesand the European Union: Comparative Perspectives,Commercialization and Technology Transfer in the University,andScholarly Duties and Private Interest Science.

The conference has been organized in collaboration with the University of Bielefeld, Germany, to allow for an international dimension and regional comparisons.

In addition to theReillyCenter, the conference is sponsored by Notre Dames Nanovic Institute for European Studies and Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts.

Established in 1985, theReillyCenterseeks to make a distinctive contribution to the humanistic understanding of science and technology.

More information on the conference is at http://www.nd.edu/~reilly/compolsci.html .

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