[Commlist] I International H/Story Seminar - The Popcultural Life of Science: Stories of Wonder, Stories of Facts

I International H/Story Seminar
The Popcultural Life of Science:
Stories of Wonder, Stories of Facts
University of Silesia in Katowice
20.05.2020

For decades, we have been fed scientific and popcultural stories of the 
“we use only 10% of our brain capacity” sort. Recently, a set of new 
truths has been granted to us. For instance, in his 2014 popscience book 
Hirnrissig [Harebrained], the neurobiologist Henning Beck debunks 20 of 
the most widespread neuromyths, including the ubiquitous misconception 
that our brains work like superfast computers with limitless capacity 
and the idea that you can train your brain as if it were a muscle. 
Although these revelations of his are not new to people whose data 
consumption revolves around topics of trivia, anecdotes and scientific 
myths, others may appear indeed surprising. Bearing in mind the 
popularity of the theory that mirror neurons govern our behaviour, it is 
rather surprising to read that the scientists involved have merely put 
forward some preliminary observations on the basis of experiments 
conducted on monkey brains; and that it is far too early to create 
parallels and explain complex human behaviours through mirror neurons 
theories.

Since Beck’s revelations are in no way exclusive, they support – along 
with many other recent discoveries – the view that there is a larger 
trend or predilection we, collectively, are guilty of: we take an 
interesting kernel of truth, a piece of trivia encountered by accident, 
and we run with it, creating and spreading wild theories, without so 
much as checking the source. Science and popculture are particularly 
susceptible to these kinds of interpretation: when presented to a 
non-specialist audience, a fact is filtered through relatable analogies 
and helpful metaphors which nonetheless simplify and dilute it. As a 
result, noble efforts at popularising science also open facts to abuse. 
As history teaches us, it takes only one unsubstantiated study to create 
a movement of people who distrust the scientific consensus so much that 
they will not vaccinate their children.

Thus, the paradox that haunts popculturally disseminated knowledge in 
the age of Instagram is that, to reach many, popcultural scientists 
often promote simplistic versions of complex phenomena and thus 
discourage time-consuming in-depth analyses, to the detriment of both 
the addressees and sciences themselves. However, as an important 
intellectual commodity whose influence on our everyday life is difficult 
to exaggerate, science disseminated in the popcultural form should not 
be disregarded. Not only is it an immensely popular phenomenon but, what 
is perhaps more important, it shapes the trajectory of how we see and 
how we will see the value of scientific knowledge in the future.

Having this in mind, we invite scholars of various fields to present 
their take on the popcultural life of science: examples, consequences 
and side effects of popularisation of scientific knowledge through weird 
tales, strange fictions and stories of wonder. Among the specific themes 
that might be covered in ten-minute long presentations are the following 
(the list is by no means exhaustive):
• popcultural representations of science and scientists
• scientification of popculture versus “popculturing” of science – 
mechanisms, processes, consequences and side effects
• relationships between scientific and popcultural discourses
• how to “science” in the age of Instagram – popularity, money and 
responsibility
• tale of science or tale of wonder?
• “get fact” – science in the service of clicks
• popcultural narratives of scientific problems – scientific facts or myths
• mythbusting – demystifying and remystifying science in popculture
• popculture as new mythology of science
• mythos, pathos and logos in the stories of science
• funification of science
• popcultural functions of science
• popculture as science/science as popculture
• popcultural contributions to science

We welcome scholars from various academic fields to submit their 
proposals by 20 January 2020. Abstracts (no more than 150 words) in 
English should be registered online at hstory.us.edu.pl/seminar 
<http://hstory.us.edu.pl/seminar>. Notifications of acceptance will be 
sent out by 25 January 2020. Further deadline and editorial details on 
submitting texts prior to the seminar will follow.
The seminar is intended as a workshop and speakers are to submit their 
papers beforehand. During the seminar, each speaker briefly summarises 
the main points of their work, afterwards, all the participants are 
invited to take part in a discussion.

The seminar fee is 250 PLN for participants from Poland and 60 EUR for 
international participants, and it includes a meal, coffee breaks and 
seminar materials.

A selection of papers will appear in a Web of Science indexed journal 
and/or in a post-seminar monograph issued by a prestigious publisher.

Find us on: hstory.us.edu.pl/seminar <http://hstory.us.edu.pl/seminar> 
and facebook.com/Hstory-437485846310918/ 
<http://facebook.com/Hstory-437485846310918/>
Contact us at: (hstory.seminar /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(hstory.seminar /at/ gmail.com)>

Best regards,
Justyna Jajszczok
Alicja Bemben







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