- Organiser: University of Erfurt, Research Unit “Politics of Truth / Political Epistemologies”, Chair for the History of Science, University of Erfurt, the Lumina Quaeruntur project „‚Images of science‘ in Czechoslovakia 1918-1945-1968”, MUA, Prague, the working group “Political Epistemologies of Central and Eastern Europe” (PECEE)
- From – until: July 8–9, 2025
- Registration: forschungsstelle.wahrheit@uni-erfurt.de
Truth Politics between Science and Society. Political Epistemologies of the 1990s Science WarsTagung: Truth Politics between Science and Society.
July 8-9, 2025, Workshop Program
07/08/2025 / DAY 1
01.00-01.30 pm Bernhard Kleeberg & Meike Katzek (U Erfurt): Introduction
01.30-03.00 pm PANEL 1: Defending Truth against Relativism in the 1990s Science Wars
// Chair: Monika Wulz (ETH Zürich)
Meike Katzek (U Erfurt): Doing Truth while Hoaxing. Re-visiting Truth Scenes from the Science Wars.
Natacha Demoule (U Paris-Cité): ‘Relativism’ in the French-speaking World Before and After the ‘Science Wars’. Genesis of a ‘Danger’
03.30-04.15 pm Myrna Perez Sheldon (U Ohio): The Accidental Creationists
// Chair: Meike Katzek (U Erfurt)
04.15-06.15 pm PANEL 2: Re-Imagining Society and Human Nature from the 1980s on
// Chair: Bernhard Kleeberg (U Erfurt)
Anna Klassen (KIT Karlsruhe): Constructing “the public“ in the West German Genetic Engineering Debate of the 1980ies
Alexej Lochmatow (U Erfurt): Why ‘Jewish Intelligence’? The Political Imaginary behind the New-Old Debate
Yiftach Fehige (U Toronto): The Offense of “New Atheism” in the 1990s Science Wars & the Defense of Scientific Pluralism for Democracy’s Sake
07/09/2025 DAY 2
09.30-11.00 am PANEL 3: Science Wars Skirmishes Beyond the Iron Curtain
// Chair: Anja Laukötter (FSU Jena)
Friedrich Cain (U Vienna): On Bourgeois Deficits and Marxist Perspective. Science Wars before the End of History
Martin Babička (U Essen): The End of State Socialism as the End of Modern Science. A Transnational History of Czech and US Science Wars
11.30-12.15 am Jamie Cohen-Cole (George Washington U): Constructivism and the Politics of Human Nature
// Chair: Erik Kaiser (U Erfurt)
01.45-03.15 pm PANEL 4: Epistemological Transformations in the Post-Soviet Era
// Chair: Jan Surman (MUA Prague)
Maksim Denim (U Bochum): The Epidemic of Disbelief in the Philosophy of Science in Post-Soviet Russia
Alexander Kochekovsky (U Bochum): Steven Greenblatt’s New Historicism and Leonid Batkin’s Post-Bakhtinism. Methodological Discussions on the Renaissance Culture as a Part of Post-Soviet Transformations in Academic Discourses of the 1990s
03.15-04.00 pm Final Discussion