ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Histories of Habitability

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

English Abstract

What conditions are needed for life? What constitutes habitability? How have answers to these questions changed over time, from place to place, and from academic discipline to academic discipline? This roundtable seeks to expand discussions that have been taking place as part of a project on the histories of habitability funded by the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research (CIFAR). It brings together five scholars who have been part of ongoing CIFAR discussions on histories of habitability (Patrick McCray, Matt Shindell, Dawna Schuld, James Wynn, and Adrian Howkins), and one historian of habitability from outside this project to offer critical distance and new perspectives (Emma Puranen). Each participant will briefly introduce their work, then the vast majority of the session will be spent engaging in an open discussion around the theme of the history of habitability.
Our work on histories of habitability began with a focus on efforts the understand the conditions for microbial life in space and exoplanets. But we quickly started to think about other questions related to habitability, especially human habitability, recognising that the two histories have frequently been linked, if not always directly. The history of astrobiology, for example, has taken place alongside the history of putting humans into space, even if the intersections have not also been what we might expect. In all of this we are interested in habitability as a place (such as the idea of a “habitable zone” used by astrobiologists) as well as a condition. If habitability is a social and scientific construct, and if there are varying interpretations and definitions for different professional disciplines, how do we bring these sometimes competing interpretations and definitions into a meaningful dialogue? Our roundtable seeks to model a constructive response to this question.

Sub Unit

• Roundtable

Chair

• Patrick McCray, University of California, Santa Barbara

Participants

• Matthew Shindell, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

• Dawna Schuld

• James Wynn, Carnegie Mellon University

• Emma Johanna Puranen, Open University

Session Organizer

• Adrian Howkins