Following discussions on scientific biography carried out over the past few decades, this book proposes a kaleidoscopic survey of the uses of biography as a tool to understand science and its context. It offers food for thought on the role played by the gender of the biographer and the biographee in the process of writing. To provide orientation in such a challenging field, some of the authors have accepted to write about their own professional experience while reflecting on the case studies they have been working on. Focusing on (auto)biography may help us to build bridges between different approaches to men and women's lives in science. The authors belong to a variety of academic and professional fields, including the history of science, anthropology, literary studies, and science journalism. The period covered spans from 1732, when Laura Bassi was the first woman to get a tenured professorship of physics, to 2009, when Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Carol W. Greider were the first women's team to have won a Nobel Prize in science.
Inhaltsverzeichnis
1;Table of Contents;5 2;Body;7 3;Paola Govoni: Crafting Scientific (Auto).Biographies;7 3.1;I. Positioning Biography and Autobiography within the History of Science;10 3.2;II. The Trouble with Biography;14 3.3;III. Featuring Diversity;18 3.4;IV. Back to (Auto).Biography;20 4;Part I Between Biography and Autobiography;31 5;Evelyn Fox Keller: Pot-holes Everywhere: How (not) to Read my Biography of Barbara McClintock;33 5.1;I. Act One: Circa 1977;33 5.2;II. Act Two: Feminist Responses after the Nobel Prize;37 5.3;III. Act Three: The Scientific Community Responds to the Nobel Prize;40 6;Londa Schiebinger: Following the Story: From The Mind Has No Sex? to Gendered Innovations;43 7;Georgina Ferry: Telling Stories or Making History? Two Lives in X-ray Crystallography;55 7.1;I. Dorothy Hodgkin's Life and Work;56 7.2;II. The Biographical Process;58 7.3;III. Max Perutz;59 7.4;IV. The Reception of Scientific Biography;61 7.5;V. Science on Stage;62 7.6;VI. Conclusion;63 8;Part II Shaping Biographies;65 9;Marta Cavazza: The Biographies of Laura Bassi;67 9.1;I. Towards a Laura Bassi Metabiography?;69 9.2;II. Rhetorical Strategies;78 9.3;III. Appendix: Laura Bassi's Biographies;82 10;Paula Findlen: Listening to the Archives: Searching for the Eighteenth-Century Women of Science;87 10.1;I. Between the Archive and the Encyclopedia;90 10.2;II. The Biographer's Subjectivity;102 10.3;III. Observing the Biographer at Work;106 11;Massimo Mazzotti: Rethinking Scientific Biography: The Enlightenment of Maria Gaetana Agnesi;117 11.1;I. Scientific Biography as a Genre;118 11.2;II. The Enigma of Agnesi;123 11.3;III. Mysticism and Logic;130 11.4;IV. Conclusion;135 12;Part III Networking;139 13;Vita Fortunati: Mirror Shards: Conflicting Images between Marie Curie's Autobiography and her Biographies;141 13.1;I. Biographies, Biographers, and Biographees;142 13.2;II. The Case of Marie Curie;146 13.3;III. Between History and Fiction;154 14;Zelda Alice Franceschi: Women in the Field: Writing the His
tory. Genealogies and Science in Margaret Mead's Autobiographical Writings;161 14.1;I. Margaret Mead: Autobiography and History of the Discipline;167 14.2;II. Her Mentor's Biography: An Anthropologist at Work (1959);179 14.3;III. Conclusion;185 15;Paola Govoni: The Making of Italo Calvino: Women and Men in the `Two Cultures' Home Laboratory;187 15.1;I. The `Old Russian Writer': Olga Resnevic Signorelli;192 15.2;II. Signorina Beatrice Duval;198 15.3;III. Efisio Mameli, His `Uncle the Chemist';200 15.4;IV. Anna Mannessier Mameli, His `Aunt the Chemist';205 15.5;V. Eva Mameli: From Sardinia to Lombardy;207 15.6;VI. Mario Calvino, Agronomist and Traveler;211 15.7;VII. The Calvino Mamelis: In South America and Back to Fascist Italy;213 15.8;VIII. Conclusion;219 16;Pnina G. Abir-Am: Women Scientists of the 1970s: An Ego-Histoire of a Lost Generation;223 16.1;I. Prologue: How did I Come to Focus on this Trio of Women Scientists?;223 16.2;II. The First ever Team of Women Nobel Laureates: Elizabeth (Liz) Blackburn and Carol W. Greider;237 16.3;III. The Discrete Charm of `Ellen's Story': Why Historicize a `Scientist, Interrupted'?;244 16.4;IV. Conclusions;256 16.5;V. Appendix: Career Trajectories as Historical Data;258 17;Afterword;261 18;Zelda Alice Franceschi: On the Margins of the Margins: Awareness and Delay;263 18.1;Biographies and the Writing of Biographies;272 19;Contributors;277 20;Acknowledgments;279 21;Name Index;281
