From owner-spoon-announcements@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU Sat Oct 26 10:03:11 1996
Date: Sat, 26 Oct 1996 11:12:20 -0400
From: owner-spoon-announcements@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 24 Oct 1996 10:07:51 -0700
From: Beatrice Skordili 
To: spoon-announcements@jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
Subject: Interdisciplinary Discussion with Alan Sokal at Syracuse University
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Reply-To: Beatrice Skordili 

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To the Spoon Collective:

Please post!
Thank you in advance.

Beatrice Skordili

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"Humanities, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences: An Interdiscipinary
Discussion, with guest Alan Sokal" will be held Friday, Nov. 8 from
1:30-5:00 in the Hall of Languages, room 500 at Syracuse University.

Sokal, a professor of physics at New York University, became the center
of a national controversy this past summer after announcing that the
article he had submitted to the cultural studies journal _Social Text_
was a hoax. The publication of "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a
Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity," Sokal claims, indicates
a "decline in the standards of rigor in certain precints of the academic
humanities." The editors of _Social Text_, in turn, questioned the
professional and scholarly ethics behind such a "prank," and others have
criticized Sokal's understanding of the philosophical issues that ground
"postmodern" inquiry in the humanities and social sciences.

Sponsored by the Department of English, the Department of Physics, and
the Writing Program, this forum is not intended to continue the
controversy but, instead, to provide an opportunity for members of the
humanities, natural sciences and social sciences to begin a dialogue on
changing methodologies within these disciplines.

Joining Sokal for a panel discussion will be Linda Alcoff (Philosophy),
Beverly Allen (Languages, Literatures & Linguistics), John Crowley
(English), Larry Hardin (Philosophy), Richard Ratcliff (Sociology),
Peter Saulson (Physics), and Charles Winquist (Religion). The forum will
be moderated by Stewart Thau, Associate Dean in the College of Arts and
Sciences; and closing remarks will be offered by James Comas (Writing
Program).
                      
For further information contact:
Peter Saulson, psaulson@syr.edu, (315)443-3901 or
Beatrice Skordili, bskordil@mailbox.syr.edu, (315)476-7721