Event Description
While historians of Germany have made Nazi science an essential aspect of Hitler’s regime, Italian historians have always written about science and Fascism as two separate entities. This perspective confirms the assumption that good science, as a pure intellectual enterprise, can exist and function properly only in liberal-democratic regimes. Did science work differently under Fascism? In short, was there a “Fascist science”? In order to answer these questions, this presentation builds on the field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) to investigate the institutional mechanisms and power struggles of Fascist science by using the example of Italian meteorology. The analysis of the Italian Meteorological Society and the Aeronautical Meteorological Service as social and scientific networks at once is a key test of Fascism’s rhetoric claiming perfect coordination between Italian science, society, and the regime. The presentation will focus on the role of Fascist imperialism and anti-Semitism in transforming Italian meteorology. In short, the presentation offers the category of “Fascist science” as key to understand the successes and limits of Fascism as a scientific modernization project.
Event Speaker
Angelo Caglioti, Assistant Professor of History at Barnard College
Event Information
This event is free and open to the public; Registration required. Please contact [email protected] with any questions.
This event is part of the New York History of Science Lecture Series.
Sponsoring Organizations:
- The University Seminars at Columbia University
- Columbia University in the City of New York
- NYU Gallatin School of Individualized Study
- The Graduate Center, City University of New York
- The New York Academy of Medicine
- The New York Academy of Sciences
The Center for Science and Society makes every reasonable effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities. If you require disability accommodations to attend a Center for Science and Society event, please contact us at [email protected] or (212) 853-1612 at least 10 days in advance of the event. For more information, please visit the campus accessibility webpage.
