Home>Interview with Professor Coline Ferrant
04.04.2023
Interview with Professor Coline Ferrant
During the 2023 Pre-College Programme, Professor Coline Ferrant will be teaching the elective course “Science & Society.”
Your course Science & Society is one of our new elective courses for the 2023 Pre-College Programme. How does your course help students to understand the sciences as grounded in a social context?
Students will understand science through a (social) scientific perspective -- as a way to produce knowledge about the natural and the social world that is based on methodical observation and experimentation, as responsive to changing historical conditions, and as conducted within a collegial community.
Students in your course will develop a critical understanding of scientific knowledge, in comparison to other forms of knowledge. What methods do you use to decipher facts and research across the social sciences?
We will examine science as this form of knowledge which methodically obtains reliable, valid, and generalizable insights about the world -- both social and natural. We will consider major social scientific insights and unravel how they were obtained.
In your classes, discussions about modern science have a multicultural and dialogical approach. This is particularly interesting, given that students at the Summer School come from a variety of backgrounds and countries. How does this approach impact interactions during the classes?
The history of science -- much like human history at large -- is a story of intercultural exchange much more than civilizational conflict. I hope that such a renewed realization will prove inspiring and uplifting.
what do you think will surprise students the most about your course?
Students will grapple with a paradox. On the one hand, science is part of human culture (it is a social & historical construct) and is "just" one, perfectible form of knowledge. On the other hand, science must be defended as a methodically obtained and ever-progressing set of insights about ourselves and our world, against pseudoscientific fallacies that are endangering the public and the planet.
PROFESSOR BIOGRAPHY
Coline Ferrant is an Assistant Professor in Social Development & Policy at Habib University (Karachi, Pakistan). She obtained her Ph.D. in Sociology from Sciences Po and Northwestern University.
