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February 2, 2007 > Opinion > Latour visit fits Rice students

Latour visit fits Rice students

By Evan Mintz | Thresher Editorial Staff

At the moment, I am probably one of very few undergraduates excited about Bruno Latour visiting next week. The only other one I can think of is Will Rice college junior Ashley Allen, the other undergraduate fellow helping the Humanities Research Center with his visit.

It seems like every few months or so, graduate students plaster the Humanities Building with flyers for some visiting scholar whom no one has ever heard of except those graduate students. But for Bruno Latour, the Humanities Research Center is taking an active effort to actually connect with undergraduates. And connect we undergrads should.

As visiting speakers go, I’ll assume most of Rice’s focus is on Bill Clinton rather than Latour. This is entirely understandable. Clinton was not only the most powerful man in the world, less than a decade ago he was

Clinton. Unfortunately, this cultural icon and instant punch line will only be at Rice for two hours, giving a meticulously planned speech that has probably been heard many times before. Yes, there is something special about

being in the same room as the former president, but while Clinton stood atop the modern world, Latour has analyzed the scientific and cultural assumptions that prop it up.

As he is a larger-than-life figure in the developing and still fuzzy field of science and technology studies, Latour’s visit should be very important to Rice, where

technological research stands on equal footing with proclaimed softer sciences. Latour shares in this boundary-breaking, much to the chagrin of scientists, as he enters the lab as an anthropologist to reveal the external factors that go into the creation of scientific facts. But the other side of the quad is no friendly territory for Latour either, as he forces social critics to endure the same analysis that they employ.

Indeed, for Latour — and for Rice’s graduation requirements — science, technology and society are all the same, massive system. Of course, many Rice researchers already see this played out in the political, scientific and social inputs and ramifications of nanotechnology — Rice’s own little pet project.

Considering this crossover, Academs and S/Es alike should come to Monday’s undergraduate discussion to talk with this preeminent scholar face-to-face. And after hearing Latour’s ideas, maybe students will analyze exactly what it is they are doing in the lab or library.

But unlike the Clinton speech, students will be able to talk back and maybe influence Latour himself. Students have not had to force their way into this meeting — but have been invited. Latour’s visit is for students — not for some professor, not for endowed-chair adminstrators and certainly not for 300 VIP donors.

It is rare that a visiting scholar will go out of his way to chat with undergrads, and this is not an opportunity we should pass up. Hopefully, the visit will make sure that Latour’s name is not just known to philosophy students, but also the would-be scientists whose work Latour critiques.

Bruno Latour may never be the subject of “Saturday Night Live sketches” nor an item of hatred for talk radio. But after Clinton flies off in his private chartered jet, I’m sure the topic of his speech will merely be filed under the Rice memory of “I saw Bill Clinton!” But Latour’s ideas have to potential to resonate with Rice long after he is gone.

Evan Mintz is a Hanszen College junior, opinion and Backpage editor, and Humanities Research Center Undergraduate Fellow.

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