Humanities and Science: Culture and Technology

Dr Maria Blanco (Associate Professor in Spanish) examines how the question of culture’s interaction with technology gets interesting—not to say sticky—when we broaden our scope beyond the confines of Western Europe and the United States to encompass other parts of the world. In response, Professor Fritz Vollrath (Academic Research Leader, Zoology and Head of the Oxford Silk Group) looks at the history of spider silks, Professor Andrew Wilson (Head of the School of Archaeology and Professor of the Archaeology of the Roman Empire) considers technology and cultural change in Roman Britain, and Professor Lionel Tarassenko (Head of Engineering, University of Oxford) brings us back to the twenty first century.

The discussion is chaired by Professor Gregory Radick (Professor of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Leeds and Director, Leeds Humanities Research Institute).