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Section: Science Technology and Innovation Studies
Lawrence Dritsas
- Name
- Dr Lawrence Dritsas
- Title
- Lecturer and Programme Director for MSc in Science, Technology and International Development
- Organisation
- Science Technology and Innovation, School of Social and Political Science
University of Edinburgh - Address
- Top floor, Chisholm House High School Yards Edinburgh UK EH1 1LZ
- Telephone
- +44 (0)131 650 4011
- L.Dritsas@ed.ac.uk
- URL
- http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/stis/dritsas_l
Outline Biography
Lawrence Dritsas began his studies in the United States (BA, Penn State; MS, Virginia Tech) and has interdisciplinary training in the natural and social sciences. He taught secondary school with the US Peace Corps in Malawi in the late 1990s. In 2005 he completed his PhD at the Centre of African Studies in Edinburgh with a study of the scientific exploration of Africa in the mid-nineteenth century. He is a Lecturer in Science, Technology and International Development, a member of the Science Studies Unit and is programme director for the MSc in Science, Technology and International Development.
Research Interests
Generally, the history and sociology of science in Africa. Within this large frame, Lawrence is interested in the history of tropical veterinary medicine; African fisheries; historical geographies of scientific knowledge in relation to colonial empires; the links between science, technology and development practices; the history of scientific expeditions (particularly the exploration of Africa); climate change and, tangentially, the 'science studies of science fiction'. A wider intellectual project cutting across these themes is his interest in uncovering the continuities and discontinuities between colonial and postcolonial scientific research in Africa.
Selected Publications
2011 'Expeditionary Science: Conflicts of Method in Mid-Nineteenth Century Geographical Discovery', in Charles WJ Withers and David Livingstone, eds. Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Science. University of Chicago Press.
2010 Zambesi: David Livingstone and Expeditionary Science in Africa (IB Tauris)
2006 'Civilising Missions, Natural History and British Industry: Livingstone in the Zambezi', Endeavour, 36, no. 2: 50-54
2005 'From Lake Nyassa to Philadelphia: a Geography of the Zambesi Expedition', 1858-64, The British Journal for the History of Science 38, no. 1: 35-52
2004 'Treasures of Kew: David Livingstone, John Kirk, and Buaze Fibre', Kew, n.46 (September), p. 41
Current PhD Students
with working titlesKevin Bardosh Inputs, outputs and the business of livestock: negotiating livelihoods and disease control in northern Uganda and Nigeria
Alli Coyle Scotland and Malawi: An insight into partnership, participation and knowledge exchange. What are the implications for education institutions and the process of their development?
Shaun Ruysenaar What is driving biofuels policy development in South Africa and what kind of development will the biofuels strategy drive?
Shishusri Pradhan: Biofuel as a technology in India: Examining its development, policy processes, uptake and outcome.
Annalisa Urbano 'The creation of the Somali Republic (1900-60). A comparative analysis of Somalia and Somaliland'
Liz Ng'ang'a (Open University) Scientific leadership in developing countries: A case study of the Academy of Sciences for Developing World (TWAS).
Teaching
MSc Programme
Msc in Science Technology and International DevelopmentMSc Option
Foundations of Science, Technology and DevelopmentUndergraduate Option
Science and Society 1B: Nature and EnvironmentTopics interested in supervising
Lawrence is currently programme director of the MSc in Science Technology and International Development. He is also happy to supervise MSc and PhD students interested in the history of science in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly topics related to exploration, science and imperialism, science and colonialism, science in Africa and science, technology and international development. Prospective students are encouraged to contact him directly.
If you are interested in being supervised by Lawrence Dritsas, please see the links below for more information:
PhD In African Studies; PhD in Science and Technology Studies
This page was published on 3 May 2011