Students in the Contemporary Studies Programme discussed the nature of Science in the global community Monday in a joint ‘e-seminar’ with students from a university in India. Using online video-calling technology, King’s “Science and Culture” class connected with students from the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi.
Course professor Dr. Gordon McOuat has taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University as part of the SSHRC project “Cosmopolitanism and the Local in Science and Nature, East and West”. The project focuses on the need for North American universities and scholars to form links with counterparts in India and Southwest Asia for the dissemination and exchange of knowledge about concepts of nature, philosophy, and science.
The topic of Monday’s discussion is We Have Never Been Modern, a seminal work by French Sociologist Bruno Latour. After an introduction to the text by Dr. McOuat, students from both sides leapt into discussion about Latour’s reframing of the modern dualism between nature and society.
This online seminar was a pilot project that could become a regular fixture of the “Science and Culture” core class. While on sabbatical at the Jawaharlal Institute for Advanced Studies, Dr. McOuat ran similar seminars with the participation of students and scholars from across India.
