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<div align="center"><b><i>Modern Times, Rural Places:<br><br>
Seminar Series at MIT<br><br>
</i> <br><br>
Helen Tilley<br><br>
</b>Assistant Professor of History, Princeton University<br><br>
<br><br>
<b>Africa as a Living Laboratory: Science, Nature, and Imperial
Development in the British Tropics <br><br>
</b> <br><br>
</div>
<br><br>
Scholars have long likened colonial territories to laboratories, but the
analogy was first an actors' category and one that had multifaceted
roots. The laboratory motif provides a compelling framework to
concentrate not simply on scientific discourse, an arena already pursued
by several scholars of Africa, but on the diverse modes of scientific
production. How were natural and social phenomena actually studied? What
kinds of experimental methods were used? What were the social
networks and institutions that formed and interacted through this
process? This talk begins by exploring what effect the Scramble for
Africa had on the nature of metropolitan scientific debates about Africa
(focusing predominantly on Britain). It then turns to consider how
scientific research was incorporated into colonial state-building and how
this work helped to generate an approach to colonial development that
emphasized local specificity, natural complexity, and interdisciplinary
problem-solving. In the conclusion, it considers how an emphasis on the
production of scientific knowledge sheds new light on imperial efforts to
bring Africa into the 'modern world'. <br><br>
<div align="center"><b>Friday, February 4, 2005<br><br>
2:30 to 4:30 pm<br><br>
MIT, Building E51 Room 095<br><br>
</b> <br><br>
Sponsored by MIT's History Faculty and the Program in Science,
Technology, and Society<br>
For more information or to be put on the mailing list, please contact
Margo Collett at
<a href="mailto:mcollet@mit.edu"><u>mcollett@mit.edu<br>
</a></u>For location visit
<a href="http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg" eudora="autourl"><u>http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg</a><br>
</u></div>
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