William Lynch
Professor
313-577-2525 (fax)
3161 Faculty/Administration Building
Social media
Media
William Lynch
Department
History
Ph.D., Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, 1996
Research interest(s)/area of expertise
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Science and Technology Studies
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Environmental History
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History of Evolutionary Science
Research
- The new sciences of cultural evolution
- The science and politics of chemical and radiological hazards in the twentieth century
- Dissent and diversity in science
Education
- Ph.D., Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, 1996
- M.A., Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, 1993
- M.S., Science and Technology Studies, Virginia Tech, 1989
- B.S., Physics, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1987
Awards and grants
Board of Governors Faculty Recognition Award, 2022
Selected publications
Minority Report: Dissent and Diversity in Science. Collective Studies in Knowledge and Society series. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2021.
“Behind the Screens: Post-truth, Populism, and the Circulation of Elites,” Analyse & Kritik 43 (2), (2021): 367–393.
“Method and Control: Naturalizing Scientific Culture in Bacon’s Novum organum,” Epistemology & Philosophy of Science 58 (3), (2021): 69-77.
“Between Kin Selection and Cultural Relativism: Cultural Evolution and the Origin of Inequality,” Perspectives on Science 27 (2) (2019): 278-315.
“The Domestication of Animals and the Roots of the Anthropocene,” Journal of the History of Biology 52 (1) (2019): 201-217.
“Imre Lakatos and the Inexhaustible Atom: The Hidden Marxist Roots of History and Philosophy of Science,” Epistemology & Philosophy of Science, 55 (3), 2018, 25-34.
“After the Gold Rush: Cleaning Up after Steve Fuller’s Theosis,” Philosophy of the Social Sciences, 48 (5), 2018, 505–523.
"Cultural Evolution and Social Epistemology: A Darwinian Alternative to Steve Fuller’s Theodicy of Science." Social Epistemology, 31 (2), 2017, 224-34.
“Second-Guessing Scientists and Engineers: Post Hoc Criticism and the Reform of Practice in Green Chemistry and Engineering,” Science and Engineering Ethics, 21 (5), 2015, 1217-40.
“Thresholds of Change: Why Didn’t Green Chemistry Happen Sooner,” Technology’s Stories, Society for the History of Science, 3 (1): April 2015, http://www.technologystories.org.
Citation index
684 citations (Google Scholar)
Courses taught by William Lynch
Fall Term 2023 (future)
- GLS5540 - World Environmental History since 1900
- HIS3440 - American Medicine in the Twentieth Century
- HIS5540 - World Environmental History since 1900
- HIS7540 - Readings in World Environmental History
- HON4250 - Seminar: Global Perspectives on Historical Studies
Winter Term 2023 (current)
Fall Term 2022
- HIS1400 - The World Since 1945
- HIS3440 - American Medicine in the Twentieth Century
- HON4250 - Seminar: Global Perspectives on Historical Studies