Graduate Students
Help Organize Conference
A group
of SPP graduate students participated in the American
Association for the
Advancement of Science’s
(AAAS) annual conference, “Science and Technology
in Context: An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference,” April
23-24, in Washington, D.C.
Organized by graduate students from SPP, the Center
for International Science and Technology Policy at
George Washington University and the Science and Technology
Studies Program at Virginia Teach, the AAAS conference
included presentations from graduate students and professors
representing a variety of disciplines and speaking
on the theory and application of science and technology
as components of global society.
A trio of SPP students helped
organize “Science and Technology in Context:
An Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference,” April
23-24, in Washington, D.C. |
In addition to presenting papers, attendees had an
opportunity to interact with each other and prominent
scholars and professionals from their fields of interest.
Keynote speakers included Lee Silver, professor of
molecular biology and public affairs at Princeton University,
and Arturo Escobar, Kenan Distinguished professor of
anthropology at the University of North Carolina.
SPP Ph.D. students Bonnie Stabile, Lindsey Poulin
and Gretchen Ehle helped plan the event this year. “We
students established the agenda, chose abstracts,
invited guest speakers and moderators, arranged for
the reimbursement of travel expenses for attendees
and coordinated all food for the conference, including
a Saturday night dinner at the Hotel Helix,” Stabile
said.
The papers presented by SPP students included:
- “Event Interdiction
and Mitigation: Changing Science and Technology
Policy in
a Post 9/11 World,” Derek A. Mahin
- “State Cloning Policies,” Bonnie
Stabile
- “The Impact of National Culture and Politics
on Nuclear Power,” David Diamond
- “The
Impact of Standards and Institutional Capacity
on International Trade:
An Examination of Food and Agricultural Products,” Sung
Jae Kim
- “Foreign Science
and Engineering Ph.D.'s at American Universities,
1990 -
1999: An Analysis,” Robert Hamilton
SPP’s participants said the event exposed them
to a wider world of academic discourse. Poulin said, “I
am always amazed at the quality and variety of work
being done by my peers around the country. Also, it
was an interesting experience working with GW and Virginia
Tech and learning the ropes of academic red tape.”
Stabile also appreciated the experience. “The
most important thing I learned in organizing the conference
was the power of successful collaboration. All five
of us on the committee (three from GMU) are busy Doctoral
students (one Master’s student) with a spate
of outside commitments. Working together we really
pulled off a professionally run and organized conference of which GMU can be rightfully
proud!”
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