ISE: Who are we? And how did we get here?

Bruce V. LewensteinProfessor of Science CommunicationCornell UniversityIthaca, NY 14853USAb.lewenstein@cornell.edu

CAISE Summit, Washington DC, 4 March 2010

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“Who am I? Why am I here?”

Vice Admiral James Stockdale,vice-presidential candidate onRoss Perot’s ticket, 1992

Also 8-year POW inVietnam, presidentof Naval War College,one of the most highly-decorated American Navy officers in history

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Retrieved 1 March 2010 from:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/James_Stockdale_Formal_Portait.jpg

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Lab/Field Formal paper

Preprints

Meetings Policy documents,etc.

Textbooks

Media (web, TVmagazines, radionewspapers, blogs,Twitter, books, etc.)

Where does ISE fit into “science communication”?

Sphere of Science CommunicationAdapted from Lewenstein, B. (1995). "From Fax to Facts: Communication in the Cold Fusion Saga.”Social Studies of Science 25(3): 403-436. Copyright © 1995-2009 by Bruce V. Lewenstein. (30 April 2009 version)

Lab/field work

Public discourse

Meetings

Journals

Preprints

Research news

Documentaries

Governmentreports

News media

Museums

General books

Entertainment media(Movies, sitcoms, games)

Textbooks

Policy documentsSeminars

Reference works

Grant proposals

E-mail

Patents

Websites

Industry

Blogs

Park visitorcenters

People and purposes Scientists

– Science proselytizers– Science enthusiasts

Doctors– Public health

campaigners Journalists Educators Publishers etc.

Information

Education

Entertainment

Public communication of S&T, 1

The 19th Century– The “great men”– Education for the masses

» Adult schools» Itinerant lecturers

– Natural history museums– Exhibitions– Science in magazines and newspapers

Thomas Huxley, “Darwin’s bulldog”

Michael Faraday, Christmas Lecture, Royal Institution, 1856

Images retrieved 1 March 2010 from:http://www.newscientist.com/data/galleries/christmas-lectures/003333e30e1.jpg (Faraday)http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Thomas_Henry_Huxley_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_16935.jpg (Huxley)

Louis Agassiz lecturing to Anderson School of Natural History,Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, 1873 [from Burnham, J. (1987). How Superstition Won and Science Lost: Popularizing Science and Health in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, p. 117, where it was reprinted courtesy of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh]

Ball Pettigrew Museum, Univ. of St Andrews , retrieved 25 Feb 2010 fromhttp://biology.st-andrews.ac.uk/bellpet/index.aspx, Ball Pettigrew Museum,Univ. of St Andrews

NhM Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, photo by Bruce V. Lewenstein, 2007

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New York Evening Post, reprinted from Burnham, J. (1987). How Superstition Won and Science Lost: Popularizing Science and Health in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, p. 119.

Retrieved 7 March 2010 from proquest.umi.com

Public communication of S&T, 2

The 20th Century– Scientific societies and health associations– Specialization in science, journalism, and

education– New media -- radio, TV, movies, industrial

museums, science centers … the WWW– Public interest and concern about implications

of science progress

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Retrieved 1 March 2010 from http://siarchives.si.edu/images/findingaids/slossonroof.jpg© 1998-2010 Smithsonian Institution.

Retrieved 1 March 2010 fromhttp://scienceservice.si.edu/newsletters/281222c.htm© 1998-2010 Smithsonian Institution.

Jane Stafford, 1937Emma Red Stevenson, 1935

http://siarchives.si.edu/images/findingaids/Reh1935.jpg, retrieved 1 March 2010http://siarchives.si.edu/images/findingaids/Stafford1937.jpg, retrieved 1 March 2010

Reproduced from Burnham, J. (1987). How Superstition Won and Science Lost: PopularizingScience and Health in the United States. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, p. 123, where it was reprinted courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Archives, Science Service Papers.

Retrieved 1 March 2010 from http://ecg.mit.edu/george/tos/1943-09-Cork-Products-35/box.jpg

Retrieved 1 March 2010 from http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/MechanixIllustrated/8-1950/tick_tack_toe.jpg

Deutsches Museum, Munich

Chicago Museum of Science & Industry

Franklin Institute, Philadelphia

Waldemar KaempffertNew York Times, 28 November 1956

Photo by Gottscho-Schleisner, Inc. Retrieved from Library of Congress, 7 Mar 2010http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/gsc.5a29419

Retrieved 1 Mar 2010 from New York Times, 2 Dec 1951

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Reproduced from LaFollette, M. C. (1990). Making Science Our Own: Public Images of Science, 1910-1955. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 114-115.

Origins of field of “PUS/ISE/ PCST/PEST/PLUS”

1930s: First academic publications about science literacy and public communication of science

1945: “Public understanding of science” 1982: “Informal Science Education” (NSF) 1989: “Public communication of S&T” Late 1990s: “Public engagement in S&T” Mid-2000s: “Public Learning and

Understanding of Science”

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But…

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So…

Lots of ISE activities for a long time Real growth in many areas in last 50 years Leads to growing scholarship about ISE Leads to self-identity within field ISE people find each other and each other’s

work interesting…so people move around

Some questions to ponder

What’s the gender balance of ISE people…and does that matter?

What’s the relation of ISE to “Science”? What’s the relation of ISE to “Education”? What’s the relation of ISE to “Informal”?

And: In what part of ISE will your next job be?