The 2025 Science, Technology, and Society Pauline Newman ’47 Distinguished Lecture by Naomi Oreskes

Vassar has one of the oldest undergraduate Science, Technology, and Society (STS) programs in the country. It was one of the first multidisciplinary programs created at Vassar. STS turns 50 this year. To celebrate, STS will present “Science and the Culture Wars: Celebrating 50 Years of Science, Technology, and Society at Vassar,” a conference and celebration.

Join us for the keynote lecture, “From Anti-Government to Anti-Science and Back Again,” by renowned scholar Naomi Oreskes, PhD, the Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University. Some proponents of the neo-liberal view are critical of science, in part because well-funded scientific agencies have called for limiting the use of fossil fuels, manufacturing chemicals, and even lucrative products such as tobacco. In her talk, Naomi Oreskes argues that attacks on science are actually motivated by something else—conservative hostility to government regulation. The best way to defend science, she says, is to defend the broader and essential role of government.

Sponsored by the Pauline Newman ’47 Endowment, the Office of the President, and the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.

This event is open to the public.