Welcome! The Seminar is back for Spring 2022 with a series of Climate Workshops organized around institutional imagination, forest life and climate science, and retooling the economy.
We will also be co-hosting an experimental eco-film series with the Center for Advanced Media Studies. And then, in Fall 2022, we will host our final events of the Seminar, a climate film series–more details to come.
Sawyer Seminar: Precision and Uncertainty in a World of Data
The Sawyer Seminar on Precision and Uncertainty in a World of Data is organized by the Departments of Anthropology and the History of Medicine and the Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine at Johns Hopkins University. Throughout its two-year run (2019-2021), the Seminar will explore questions around what kinds of ethical and social issues are new about our Big Data moment, what has carried over from the past, and what kinds of methods and approaches might help us extend our understanding of this moment’s specificity.
On this website, you can find more information about the Seminar directors and staff, our schedule of events, notes on our past events, and resources that help explore data and society. We hope for this website to serve as an archive for what we have learned over the course of the Seminar, as well as a gateway for resources on data and society that will outlive the Seminar’s run. We encourage you to check out our latest events, projects, and commentary below:
- 4 Feb 2022 – Architecture of In/Security: Mapping Bombs, Bricks, and Militarization in Lahore4 Feb 2022 | 10:00 am – 12:00 pm EST Mergenthaler 426, Johns Hopkins Homewood campus for Zoom information: https://sawyer-2-4.eventbrite.com Sadia Shirazi – Asian American, Pacific Rim,… Read more “4 Feb 2022 – Architecture of In/Security: Mapping Bombs, Bricks, and Militarization in Lahore”
- 11 Feb 2022 – Climate Change and Institutional ImaginationZoom; for details, RSVP via: https://sawyer-climate.eventbrite.com In the roundtable, the first event of the Sawyer Climate Workshop Series, we bring together an extraordinarily experienced set of individuals… Read more “11 Feb 2022 – Climate Change and Institutional Imagination”
- 12.8.21 | Primary Sources, Computational Intelligence, and Discovering Connections Between FieldsDecember 8, 2021, 7-9:00 pm EST Tom Lippincott (digital humanities, Johns Hopkins University) Chris Cannon (english and classics, Johns Hopkins University) Combining the depth and flexibility of… Read more “12.8.21 | Primary Sources, Computational Intelligence, and Discovering Connections Between Fields”
- 11.15.21 | Sandra Laugier, “The Fact and Fiction of Television”When Cavell’s “The Fact of Television” was published in Daedalus in 1982, it was still very much one among “themes out of school”. Since the early 1980s, however,… Read more “11.15.21 | Sandra Laugier, “The Fact and Fiction of Television””
- 10.15.21 | The CURRENT ECONOMY: a book discussion with Canay Özden SchilllingThe second Sawyer Seminar event of the semester will be a panel discussion of Canay Özden-Schilling’s new book, The Current Economy: electricity markets and techno-economics. In addition to… Read more “10.15.21 | The CURRENT ECONOMY: a book discussion with Canay Özden Schillling”
- 9.17.21 | Black Beyond Data: Combating Racial Injustice through the Digital HumanitiesOur first event of the semester will feature Kim Gallon (Associate Professor of History, Purdue University); Jessica Marie Johnson (Assistant Professor of History, Johns Hopkins); Sasha White… Read more “9.17.21 | Black Beyond Data: Combating Racial Injustice through the Digital Humanities”
- UPCOMING EVENTS for 2021-22We are excited to announce the series of events planned for the 2021-2022 academic year! Links for registration will be available both via the Sawyer Seminar email… Read more “UPCOMING EVENTS for 2021-22”
- 11/20/20 In Utero Exposure to Industrial Disasters: A Case Study of the Bhopal Gas TragedyThe Sawyer Seminar hosted a discussion on November 20th, 2020 with Professor Prashant Bharadwaj (UC San Diego Economics) presenting a case study, while Professor Shareen Joshi (Georgetown… Read more “11/20/20 In Utero Exposure to Industrial Disasters: A Case Study of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy”
Sponsor Institutions:
Header Images (Art Works) Credit:
Rachel Ara. “This Much I’m Worth (The Self-evaluating Artwork): Korean Version” in Vertiginous Data at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea. Photo taken by Sumin Myung.
Sylvee Kim. “Trinity: Finance-Credo-Spirituality” in Vertiginous Data at National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea. Photo taken by Sumin Myung.
Danilo Zamboni. “PerspectivischeExplosionszeichnung” in Zugang für Alle: São Paulos Soziale Infrastrukturen at Pinakothek der Moderne, München, Germany. Photo taken by Sumin Myung.
Nam June Paik. “Video Chandelier No. 1” at Nam June Paik Art Center, Seongnam, South Korea. Photo taken by Sumin Myung.
Soyo Lee. “TV Garden: Notes” in Ecological Senses at Nam June Paik Art Center, Seongnam, South Korea. Photo taken by Sumin Myung.
Precision and Uncertainty in a World of Data 