Colloquia - Spring 2012

Flo Leibowitz (OSU), "The Hubble Photographs as Aesthetic Objects"
Friday, February 17, 4:15PM, Eaton 307
Abstract: In my presentation, I argue that many of the now-familiar images made with the cameras on the Hubble Space Telescope are aesthetically substantial nature photographs. Their look is a product of the Hubble Heritage Teams, whose published intentions are in part aesthetic. Thus construed, the Hubble photographs, while the products of digital imaging technology, are in many respects interpretable using philosophers’ notions and questions about photography and photographic transparency. This paper is part of a larger work in progress describing what these and other digital photographs of natural objects are contributing to the ways in which we see nature.  

Alex Sager (PSU), "The Hanford Nuclear Site Clean-up: A Case Study in Democracy, Technology, and Representation"
Thursday, March 15, 4:15PM, Eaton 309
Note: Prof. Sager's co-author, Alex Zakaras (UVM), is unable to attend.
Abstract: In recent decades, environmental policy-makers have increasingly come to accept the need for public participation in decision-making. This has led to the institutionalization of public comment periods and citizen advisory boards. Unfortunately, most of the normative and empirical assessment of this democratic turn has taken place under the framework of risk-assessment and environmental policy, with only cursory engagement with democratic theory. Under the prevailing model, risk-assessment is treated as a scientific question and democratic assessment is largely constrained to ad hoc measures that are not permitted to fundamentally challenge technocratic expertise.

The Hanford Site cleanup near Richland, Washington provides an ongoing case study for the investigation into the potential for democratizing high-stakes scientific and technological decision-making. The Hanford Site is the largest nuclear cleanup site in the United States. The Department of Energy (DOE) takes measures to involve the public through public comment periods and the Hanford Advisory Board, a mostly self-selected board of stakeholders who represent local and state governments, business, worker groups, citizen environmental groups, local tribes, the general public, and others. Surprisingly, little research has been conducted to study the effect of these public measures on policy. Moreover, there has been almost no sustained reflection on the extent to which the DOE’s measures reflect democratic ideals.

We will present the early stages of a research project that seeks to situate the DOE’s democratic practices in the theoretical literature, to evaluate them according to democratic virtues and values such as inclusivity, transparency, and accountability, and to consider alternative democratic models in the empirical literature that might better involve in the public in the cleanup.