--------Message 1 of 4---------

Subject:  Environmental Life Writing List
From: Steven Holmes <[log in to unmask]>

Dear colleagues,

Greetings! I want to invite any interested persons to join a new
e-mail discussion group on what is just now emerging as a new
interdisciplinary field, environmental life-writing - i.e., biography,
autobiography, memoir, oral history, fiction, poetry, and theoretical
and empirical studies that explore and express an individual's
relationship with his or her natural and built environment(s) over
time. The two distinguishing marks of the field are (a) a focus on
individual lives, rather than general cultural, social, or historical
patterns; and (b) attention to the processes of development over a
life-time, the sense that an individual's patterns of experience
emerge out of a simultaneously personal and sociocultural context
of past and future, relationship and selfhood, body and imagination,
memory and hope - and that this multilayered process of individual
development applies to environmental experience as much as to
any other dimension of human life.

Thus conceived, environmental life-writing may draw upon the work
and insights of a wide variety of fields (including history, literature,
psychology, humanistic geography, philosophy, anthropology, and
religious studies) in the service of understanding a common theme,
that of individual environmental development - and of creating and
exploring the particular stories that embody that theme. Of course,
many of those stories are found in writings by and about the major
historical figures who have shaped the environment and our
perceptions of it: nature writers, environmentalists, scientists,
agriculturalists, hunters, artists, politicians, planners, landscape and
urban architects - as well as industrialists, exploiters, and other
exceedingly powerful folks. At the same time, I hope that we will also
give some thought and attention to the lives of "ordinary" people
(including those of us writing our own environmental autobiographies
and memoirs), to children (both historical and contemporary), and to
reflection on the more general patterns of experience and
development that mark individual relationship with the environment.

Sound interesting? To subscribe to the list (I'm thinking of it as the
"ELF" list, by the way, for Environmental LiFe-writing), simply
send an e-mail to the following address: [log in to unmask]
This isn't an automatic server (except when I'm zoned out on coffee),
so you don't need to put "subscribe" in the body of the message etc.;
just make sure your intentions are clear. I'll send back an
introductory message, and we'll get things rolling! If you have any
questions or comments, please contact me at my personal e-mail
address, [log in to unmask] (note that this is different
than the address for the group). I also am compiling a networking
list (i.e. a literal list of names etc.) of scholars and writers
interested

in specific research topics or writing projects; if you have specific
areas you're working in, please feel free to contact me about
inclusion in that list as well. And please pass this invitation on to
anyone else you think might be interested!

Steven J. Holmes
Lecturer, History and Literature Department, Harvard University
Barker Center 122, Cambridge, MA 02138
Home address: 170 Walter St., #1, Roslindale, MA 02131
(617) 323-9764
[log in to unmask]

--------Message 2 of 4---------
Subject:  New Post in HPS

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE

University Assistant Lecturer

FURTHER DETAILS

The Position
The Department of History and Philosophy of Science intends to appoint a
University Assistant Lecturer in the field of history and philosophy of
science and medicine. The Department has particular needs in history of
medicine before 1800 and in biomedical ethics, but excellent candidates
in
all areas of history and philosophy of science and medicine are welcome
to
apply. The successful candidate will be expected to take up the position
at
an agreed date on or before 1st October 2000.

The appointment will be for three years, with the possibility of
reappointment for two years. The statutory limit of tenure of a
University
Assistant Lecturer is five years, but all holders of the office of
University Assistant Lecturer are considered for possible appointment to
the office of University Lecturer during the course of their tenure. In
recent years, the substantial majority of University Assistant Lecturers
have been promoted to University Lectureships.
The pensionable scale of stipend for a University Assistant Lecturer is
16,655 pounds a year, rising by six annual increments to 21,815 pounds
(under review).

The Department
The Department is the largest of its kind in the U.K., with an
outstanding
international reputation. It is a vigorous and expanding centre of
teaching
and research, as recognised by the award of the highest grade of 5*(A)
in
the 1996 HEFCE national Research Assessment Exercise. The Department is
built around the Whipple Museum, a world-class collection of scientific
instruments, the gift of R.S. Whipple to the University in 1943. The
large
collections of the Whipple Library, also founded on Whipple's gift of
his
rare scientific books, now functioning as the Departmental Library,
provide the basis for the research and teaching at both undergraduate
and graduate level.

The Department is an independent institution under the direct
supervision of the General Board, located in one building in the centre
of Cambridge. There are 9 established University Teaching Officers,
including two Professors, two Readers and the Curator of the Whipple
Museum. It has extensive links with other Departments and Faculties in
the University, with a range of subjects extending from the physical and
biological sciences, via Medicine and the social sciences (Psychology,
Social and Political Sciences), to the humanities (History, Classics,
Philosophy). From 1972 to 1998, the WellcomeTrust funded a Wellcome Unit
of the History of Medicine as a Sub-Department within the Department,
whose members engaged both in research and teaching.

With several teaching officers and senior research fellows active in the
field the Department remains a very strong centre of teaching and
research in history of medicine. Last year the Department secured a new
teaching position in the history of modern medicine and biomedical
sciences and it hopes that this second new post will help foster further
work in the area and thus retain continuity with this long and
distinguished tradition.

The undergraduate teaching is offered as part of the Natural Sciences
Tripos in the second and third years (the third year course is a
full-time
specialist course, with students coming from a number of other Faculties
from outside the Natural Sciences) and as part of the final year of the
Medical and Veterinary Sciences Tripos. Total undergraduate numbers are
in the range 100-160. The Department also offers an M.Phil. in History
and Philosophy of Science and Medicine, with numbers approximating 15-20
per year. From 1998 on, the M.Phil. in History and Philosophy of Science
and Medicine has been expanded to include topics in the history of
medicine.

Ph.D. students at any one time total approximately upwards of 35. There
are also a number of Research Fellows and Visiting Scholars attached to
the Department, so that the total number of persons engaged in
postgraduate and postdoctoral research in the Department is around 100.
The Research Seminars (over 6 series at any one time), running on a
weekly or fortnightly basis throughout the year, are an important part
of these research activities, and ensure that the Department is a hotbed
of intellectual activity throughout the academic year.

History and Philosophy of Science is taught at present at both Part IB
(2nd year) and Part II (3rd Year) levels. The Part II courses were
reorganised in 1998-99 and extend over a broad range of topics,
including Classical Traditions in the Sciences; Natural and Moral
Philosophies; Science, Industry and Empire; Metaphysics, Epistemology
and the Sciences; Science and Technology Studies; History and Philosophy
of Mind; History of Medicine from Antiquity to the Enlightenment and
Modern Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The general ethos of the Department fosters the interplay between
Philosophy of Science and History of Science. History of Medicine is
also a major component of all postgraduate work, including the M.Phil.
in History and Philosophy of Science and Medicine; the Department
intends to include Philosophical Issues in Contemporary Science and
Medicine, including Biomedical Ethics, as a major part of its teaching
at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Applications
Applications, including a curriculum vitae, a list of publications,
details
of teaching experience and two samples of recent work, should be sent to
the Secretary of the Appointments Committee, Department of History and
Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane,
Cambridge CB2 3RH (Tel: +44 1223 334540; Fax: +44 1223 334554; E-mail:
[log in to unmask]) from who further particulars may be obtained.

Informal inquiries by email are welcome and further information can be
found on the Department's website at http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk
Applicants are themselves requested to ask for three referees to send
references to the Secretary by the closing date. Candidates who have
been
shortlisted will be informed in early November and will be invited to
the
Department on 25th and 26th November to present seminar papers and for
interview. The closing date for applications is 15th September 1999.
The University follows an equal opportunity policy and has a policy on
arrangements for part-time work.

Tamara Hug
Department of History and Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge
Free School Lane
Cambridge CB2 3RH
Ph: +44 1223 334540, Fax: 334554
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk

--------Message 3 of 4---------
Subject:  SaC 8(3)

Science as Culture 8(2), June 1999

Special Issue: BIOLOGISTIC METAPHORS, THEN AND NOW

Sociobiology Sanitized: Evolutionary Psychology and Gene Selectionism
Val Dusek

Darwinian Ideological Discourse
Part II: Re-Anthropologizing Nature by Naturalizing Competitive Man
Julio Muñoz-Rubio

'Malthus on Man: In Animals No Moral Restraint’
Robert M. Young

Transforming Genes: Metaphors of Information and Language in Modern
Genetics
Adam Hedgecoe

Subscriptions:
Issues of Science as Culture are numbered in volumes, each comprising
four issues per year, starting in 1990.
Personal rate for four issues: £32 or $48 in North America;
Institutional rate for four issues: £92 or $138 in North America.

All orders and remittances should be addressed to:
Carfax Publishing Limited, PO Box 25, Abingdon, Oxfordshire OX14 3UE,
UK.
Tel. +44 (0) 1235 401000; Fax +44 (0) 1235 401550; E-mail
[log in to unmask]; or
Carfax Publishing Limited, PO Box 352, Cammeray, NSW 2062, Australia.
Tel. +61 (0) 2 958 5329; Fax +61 (0) 2 958 2376; E-mail [log in to unmask];
or to
Carfax Publishing Limited, 875-81 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA
02139, USA.
Tel. 1 (800) 354 1420; Fax +1 (617) 354 6875.

Les Levidow, CCC-Technology
Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
fax +44-1908-652175 or 654825
London home tel. +44-171-482 0266

--------Message 4 of 4---------
Subject: Publisher's query: hist and phil of sci

Please reply directly to Kirsten Robinson.

> From: Kirsten Robertson <[log in to unmask]>
>
> We are a small publisher in Bristol, UK,
> specialising in providing primary
> source material in the history of ideas for the
> academic communities.
>
> We are looking for ideas and proposals for our new
> series: _The Philosophy
> and History of Science_.  This series will reprint
> classic works within the
> philosophy and history of science.
>
> _Helmholtz's Treatise on Physiological Optics_ will
> be the first collection
> in the series.
> A reprint of the definitive 1924/5 edition of
> Helmholtz's classic work on
> the psychology and physics of vision, originally
> published in German between
> 1856 and 1866.  Contains an Introduction by Nicholas
> Wade, Professor of
> Visual Psychology, University of Dundee.
>
> We will also be reprinting _The Thirteen Books of
> Euclid's Elements_
> translated by Sir Thomas Little Heath (1908).
> A monumental three-volume translation of the
> _Elements_ by one of the
> world's leading authorities on Greek mathematics.
>
> - Are there any other major figures within the
> philosophy and history of
> science whose major works would benefit from a
> reprint collection?
>
> - Does anybody have any ideas about new multi-volume
> collections on specific
> themes within the subject areas?
>
> - We recently published with Routledge a
> twelve-volume set entitled Works in
> the Philosophy of Science 1830-1914, which includes
> classic works such as
> _Matter and Motion_ by James Clerk Maxwell and
> _Principles of Science_ by
> Stanley Jevons.  Would a similar collection
> containing classic works in the
> history of science be beneficial to the modern
> scholar?
>
> We would be very grateful for any suggestions/ideas
> concerning the above
> ideas.
>
> Further information about Thoemmes Press can be
> found on our web-site:
>
> http://www.thoemmes.com
>
> I would be pleased to send a catalogue to anyone interested.
>
> Thank you, and I look forward to your comments.
>
> Kirsten Robertson
> Thoemmes Press