Dorothy Nelkin
| Dorothy Nelkin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
July 30, 1933 Boston, United States |
| Died | May 28, 2003 Manhattan, United States |
| Citizenship | American |
| Fields | Sociology |
| Institutions |
Cornell University New York University |
| Alma mater | Cornell University |
| Known for | Relationship between science and society |
| Notable awards | John Desmond Bernal Prize (1988) |
Dorothy Wolfers Nelkin (July 30, 1933– May 28, 2003) was an American sociologist of science most noted for her work researching and chronicling the unsettled relationship between science and society at large. Her work often drew attention to the ramifications of unchecked scientific advances and the unwariness of the public towards scientific authority. She was the author or co-author of 26 books, including Selling Science: How the Press Covers Science and Technology, The Molecular Gaze: Art in the Genetic Age, and Body Bazaar: The Market for Human Tissue in the Biotechnology Age. She was a supporter of the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), and in 1981 testified for the plaintiffs in McLean v. Arkansas. She had a broad impact in science studies, the history of science, bioethics and in the public assessment of science and technology. She was one of the founding members of the Society for the Social Studies of Science and served on governmental and other advisory boards. She often addressed the legal community, political leaders and the general public.
Nelkin was born on July 30, 1933, in Boston. She grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, the daughter of Henry L. Wolfers, who founded and ran the Wolfers Lighting Company in Boston. She was the first member of her family to attend college.
Coming of age as a scholar in the 1960s, Nelkin was part of that generation of female scholars who saw dramatic changes in the prevailing practices of American academe. She was a faculty wife, married to the physicist Mark S Nelkin. Like many other female scholars then and now the course of her career was shaped by motherhood. She stayed home for almost a decade. She never earned any graduate degree. She rose through the academic hierarchy with a 1954 BA from the Department of Philosophy at Cornell University, and no other formal credentials. Her early book jacket covers identify her as “Mrs. Nelkin.” By the early 1970s she was a senior research associate at Cornell. She rose to the rank of University Professor at the New York University (NYU) despite holding no advanced degrees.
...
Wikipedia