History and Philosophy of Science

About Us
History and Philosophy of Science studies science just as science studies the world. From global warming to gene technologies, from cyber-relationships, to religion and politics, science and technology mediate change and help us understand the world and our place in it. HPS brings together teaching and research in the history of science and medicine, the philosophy of science, the social studies of science and technology, Social Theory and Computer Applications.

HPS seeks to bridge the two cultures of the sciences and the humanities. And with science and technology's central place in modern life, we need to think about scientific knowledge and its applications in a systematic, critical way. While most of us are not professionally trained to manipulate scientific knowledge independently, we can acquire a form of scientific and technological literacy that enables us to understand 'where the science is coming from' and what it means for us and our needs.

The University of Melbourne began teaching HPS in 1946, one of the first places in the world to do so. It is one of the most eclectic programs in the university, embracing interests in 'almost everything'.

In this section of the website you will find:

Associate Professor Helen Verran
Contact
Rm 204, Old Quad
The University of Melbourne
VIC 3010 Australia

T: (03) 8344 0229
E: hrv@unimelb.edu.au

Academic profile
Helen Verran has taught in HPS at University of Melbourne since 1990. Before that she worked briefly in science studies and education at Deakin University after spending most of the 1980s working at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife, Nigeria. In 2003 her book Science and an African Logic in which she examines her experiences of working across knowledge traditions in Nigeria, won the Ludwik Fleck Prize.

Since returning to Australia Helen has been involved with several Yolngu Aboriginal groups and individuals as they negotiate valid ways for Yolngu knowledge traditions to work with the sciences. An early publication from this work is Singing the Land Signing the Land. Recently Helen has worked in close collaboration with Michael Christie of Charles Darwin University on the Indigenous Knowledge and Resource Management in Northern Australia project and the Indigenous Consultants Initiative. She is currently collecting the many papers she has written as part of this work into a book with the working title ‘Science and the Dreaming. Doing Practical Empirical Philosophy’.

Helen has a developing research interest in sustainability and its working knowledges. This interest has grown out of her teaching philosophy of biology and ecology and environmentalism. In this research she works closely with Marianne Lien of the Institute of Anthropology at University of Oslo. Together Helen and Marianne have established the Performing Natures at Worlds Ends Workshop.

Helen supervises a group of active research students across a diverse range of topics; at a methodological level they share an interest in practical empirical philosophy.