This award is for an International Workshop on Lysenkoism that will be held 21-23 June 2012 at the University of Vienna. The workshop will bring together scientists and historians from around the world to present their research on one of the most important controversies in the history of Twentieth Century biology, the Lysenko Affair: In 1948 the Soviet agronomist T.D. Lysenko received the support of Joseph Stalin and the Central Committee of the Communist Party to ban genetics in the Soviet Union, an edict soon enforced throughout the Communist Bloc.
Intellectual Merit The workshop will contribute to ongoing research in the fields of history and philosophy of science, environmental history, and the Cold War. It will bring together scholars at every level and across disciplines and strengthen relationships with scholars working in related areas of research. Workshop participants will address a variety of pertinent topics such as the impact and reaction to Lysenkoism in various international contexts, the role of Darwinism and Lamarckism in the Lysenko controversy, and the relationship between Lysenkoism and other topics in the history of Cold War science, the history of biology, and the histories of other scientific disciplines.
Potential Broader Impacts The workshop will be part of a series of activities inaugurating the University of Vienna's graduate program, titled "The Sciences in Historical, Philosophical and Cultural Context." Partnering with a European university will significantly expand the scope of research and foster international ties in the field. The results of the workshop are to be published.
was held June 21-24 at the University of Vienna. The meeting brought together thirty-five historians from the United States, Russia, Mexico, France, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Italy, Great Britain, Bulgaria, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Canada, Norway and Poland, to present their research on one of the most important controversies in the history of 20th century biology. Papers covered topics ranging from Lysenko's devastating impact upon genetics in the Soviet Union and allied States such as Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic, but also the reaction in countries such as Japan, France, Italy, the United States and Great Britain. Researchers covered the scientific (e.g., "Monod, Lysenkoism, and the Concept of Cellular Memory," by Dr. Laurent Loison, Centre François-Viète, Université de Nantes, France) as well as cultural (e.g. "Lysenko, ‘Michurinism’ and Art at the Moscow Darwin Museum 1930s-1950s" by Dr. Patricia Simpson, University of Hertfordshire, England) aspects of "Lysenkoism." Presenters also covered the impact upon education (e.g. "The Survival of Mendel in the Lysenkoist Classroom, 1934-1964" by Dr. Margaret Peacock, The University of Alabama, USA), the role of journalism (e.g. "The Rise of T. D. Lysenko to the Presidency of VASKhNIL in Light of its Coverage in the Newspaper Pravda: On the Description of Scientific Matters in the Press Organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) from 1927 to 1938" by Lukas Joos, Master of Arts, University of Zurich, Switzerland) and how Lysenkoism fits in with the broader history of totalitarianism (e.g., "From Michurinism to Lysenkoism: Terminology of the New Biology as an Example of Newspeak" by Dr. Agata Strz?da?a, University of Opole, Poland). Selected papers from the workshop are currently being revised into book chapters for a prospective edited collection, and planning is already underway for the next meeting, hopefully to be held at Charles University in Prague.
