Science, Technology, and Society Seminar: STS Circle at Harvard
Date and Time
Location
"Stanley Milgram and the Sonic Imaginary"
Speaker:
Trevor Pinch, Goldwin Smith Professor of Science and Technology Studies; Professor of Sociology, Cornell University.
Contact:
Shana Rabinowich
shana_rabinowich@hks.harvard.edu
Chair:
Sheila Jasanoff, Faculty Associate. Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies, Harvard Kennedy School.
Co-sponsored by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University.
Lunch is provided if you RSVP via our online form by Thursday of the week before the event.
Abstract:
This paper is part of the larger project of thinking through the implications of the new interdisciplinary field of “sound studies” for social science methodology. How does the emphasis upon sound change the way we think of, say, experimentation in social psychology? Taking Stanley Milgram’s early experiments as my example, I point to the crucial role played by sound in some of those experiments. Milgram’s Harvard PhD Dissertation in particular was based upon transforming Asch’s well-known visual experiment on conformity into a sonic experiment (by comparing the lengths of two sounds rather than two lines and by replacing confederates with tape recordings). Furthermore, sound played a crucial role in Milgram’s famous obedience experiments where the supposed working of the fake electric shock machine was simulated through sound effects and where the supposed trauma of the victim was again rendered sonically. This role of sound seems to have been largely ignored up until now and is worthy of attention.
Bio:
Trevor Pinch is the Goldwin Smith Professor of Science and Technology Studies and Professor of Sociology at Cornell University. He holds degrees in physics and sociology. He has authored many books and numerous articles on aspects of the sociology of science, the sociology of technology, the sociology of economics, and sound studies. His books include Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer and he is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies. He is also a musician playing ancient synthesizers with The Electric Golem, The Eric Ross Ensemble, and the Atomic Forces.