CAREER: Science, State, and Citizenship in Latin America

University Of New Hampshire, Durham NH

Investigators

Abstract

Project Summary Objectives. "CAREER: Science, State, and Citizenship in Latin America" aims to carry out and integrate new investigations on Latin American science and technology in a two-fold process. First, the PI will develop a significant body of original research on Latin American science, resulting in a published book that will explore the crucial question of how Latin American governments of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries used the methods and rhetoric of science, especially biology, psychology, and social science, to define the parameters of citizenship and full participation in their societies. Second, the PI will conceive, produce, and distribute an electronic research and teaching tool to facilitate the adoption of Latin American perspectives in a broad range of history of science courses and projects. While the PI's scholarly book will provide a theoretical and rich narrative analysis of the topic, the goal of the electronic archive is to provide a portable treasure trove of primary sources ( maps, photographs of pre-Columbian tools, biographies of individual scientists, translations of important scientific papers and first-hand accounts by scientific explorers) to any teacher or student wishing to incorporate these topics in an undergraduate or graduate curriculum. Methods. The PI's work is interdisciplinary, incorporating questions and methods from the history of science with social theory, political and cultural history, image analysis, and quantitative data. Intellectual Merit. This project aims to provide new knowledge about the history of science in Latin America and to make that knowledge, and the primary sources on which its literature is based, widely available to students and scholars. Both aspects of the project will highlight the importance of social, political, and cultural context in a variety of Latin American nations in shaping the use and application (or neglect) of scientific findings, and the international impact of those discoveries and applications. It will reveal comparative insights from within Latin America that shed light on larger systems of scientific knowledge production and innovation in general in the West. The expected significance of the book-length study will lie in its analysis of forms of Western democracy and the role of scientific ideas in helping to shape the various and divergent paths towards political equality. Broader Impacts. This project reflects the concerns of society insofar as it contributes to current discussions about the role of science in molding state policy and legislation in a global scientific context. The project will contribute to efforts to develop public awareness of the social impact of science, in particular the relationship between science and democracy. The two components of this project, working complementarily, will shed light on imminent issues in science and technology, in particular the application of biological, technological, and social scientific ideas about citizenship and legal rights that have been, and continue to be, considered by scientists and policymakers. Specifically, the PI hopes to help clarify the issues at stake in political debates over differences among racial and national groups and in our historical understanding of the development of democratic state institutions. These debates, considered by nearly all American states, concerned setting of limits on immigration, tightening security at national borders, or integrating historically disenfranchised groups to full citizenship, will be seen in light of their intellectual predecessors, themselves rooted in scientific, even universal concepts. This work will further will establish that political and legal themes often seen as of national interest are part of interrelated transnational processes, both past and present. Finally, the PI also hopes to contribute to efforts to democratize the practice of history, making primary sources more available to individuals unable to travel to distant archives.