Preliminary Program

Workshop “Writing Genomics: Historiographical challenges for new historical developments”

All sessions will take place at the MPIWG, Conference Hall

Wednesday, October 29th

12.00-14.30 Coffee
14.30-15.00 Welcome and General Introduction to the Workshop

First session: Historiographical considerations regarding the study of practices in the contemporary life sciences

15.00-15.45 Bronwyn Parry: Mystification and revelation – Historicizing representation in contemporary Life Sciences
15.45-16.30 Rachel Ankeny: Historiographic considerations on model organisms – Or, how the mureaucracy may be limiting our understanding of contemporary Genomics

16.30-16.45 Coffee Break

16.45-17.30 Miguel Garcia-Sancho: A reappraisal of the ‘Genomics revolution’ in light of the history of connective tissue research at the University of Manchester

Thursday, October 30th

Second session: How to write histories of computing and bioinformatics? Historical and epistemological perspectives

9.30-10.15 Bruno J. Strasser: Collecting, comparing, computing – The natural history of molecular sequences, 1954-1966
10.15- 11.00 Edna Suárez: A room for new faces – Evolution and the growth of bioinformatics

11.00-11.15 Coffee Break

11.15-12.00 Joseph Felsenstein: Computational methods for reconstructing phylogenies – The forester’s tale
12.00- 12.45 Martin Vingron: A bioinformatician’s view on the history of the field

12- 45- 13.30 First part of the discussion panel: How does the irruption of bioinformatics in molecular biology challenge our methodologies and concepts as historians of science?

13.30-14.30 Lunch (will be provided for conference speakers)

Third session: Reflecting on organisational changes in Genomics and their representation

14.30-15.45 Stephen Hilgartner: Laboratory by any other name? Factory discourse in genomic research
15.45- 16.00 Soraya de Chadarevian: Buildings and landscapes of Genomics

16.00-16.15 Coffee Break.

16.15-17.00 Sabina Leonelli: The emergence of data dissemination policies – Re-thinking regulation in Genomics
17.00- 17.45 Vincent Ramillon: Governing through numbers : on accounting practices in Genomics and their consequences, ca. 1985-2000

19.00    Conference Dinner for Speakers

Friday, October 31st

Fourth session: Studying Genomics in the age of biotechnology

9.30-10.15 Joan H. Fujimura: Epistemic styles of practices in Japanese biotechnology, 1990-2007
10.15-11.00 Mike Fortun: Meditations on an untimely Iceland – On the use and abuse of promising for Genomics

11.00-11.15 : Coffee Break

11.15-12.00 Tim Lenoir & Patrick Herron: Mapping the development of nanotechnology and pharmacogenomics : Sticky ontologies and social networks
12.00-12.45 Kaushik Sunder Rajan: Working through biocapital: Fieldwork, concept work and the work of friendship

12.45-13.45 Lunch (will be provided for conference speakers)

Fifth session: Rethinking genealogies, writing alternative histories: Genomics within the history of genetics

13.45-14-30 Francisco Vergara-Silva: Making up Mexicans: Molecular and Genomic Strategies for uncovering the lost historical process of Mestizaje
14.30-15.15 Jenny Reardon : tba

15.15-15.30 Coffee Break

15.30- 17.00 Discussion panel: Writing the History and Histories of Genomics