NYU Physicist Alan Sokal of “Science Wars” Fame Will Join Roundtable Discussion and Give Talk

New York University physicist Alan Sokal, who ignited the “Science Wars” of the 1990s, will visit Lafayette this week, participating in a roundtable discussion today and giving a talk Friday.

Sokal will join a discussion on “Are the Science Wars Over?” 8 p.m. today in the Oechsle Hall auditorium (room 224). The other panelists will be Owen McLeod, assistant professor of philosophy; Anthony Novaco, Metzgar Professor of Physics; and Laura Walls, professor of English.

In 1994, Sokal submitted a manuscript to Social Text, a leading journal in cultural studies, entitled “Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity.” To his surprise, the editors printed it. What they didn’t know, and what the world soon found out, was that the article was a spoof. The resulting controversy ignited the “Science Wars” that raged through the 1990s.

Questions that the panel will address include: What were the “Science Wars” about? Are they over? Can the sciences and the humanities now find common ground?

A reception will follow the event, which is sponsored by the departments of mathematics and physics, and the Values and Science/Technology Program.

Sokal will speak on “Graph Coloring, Chromatic Polynomials, and Statistical Physics” noon Friday in Pardee Hall room 227.

“No prior knowledge of graph theory or statistical physics is needed to understand this talk — just a basic understanding of calculus and complex numbers,” he says.

The lecture is sponsored by the Mathematical Adventures and Diversions series.

Sokal earned a doctorate in physics from Princeton University, and master’s and bachelor’s (summa cum laude) degrees in physics from Harvard University. His academic interests include statistical mechanics, quantum field theory, mathematical physics, and computational physics.