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Events
Jun. 30 | 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Bode-Pearson Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies due
Jun. 30 | 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize
Nominations for the 2012 Mary C. Turpie Prize for Outstanding Contributions to American Studies Teaching, Advising, and Program Development due
Oct. 1 | Travel Grants for Graduate Students
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Resources: Abstracts of American Studies Dissertations
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Hanson, Todd. "Quantum Entanglements: Collaboration and Communication in a Scientific Community of Practice," American Studies, University of New Mexico, May 2007. Advisor: M. Jane Young
This dissertation explores the entangled nature of collaboration and communication in a quantum physics community of practice. Based on three years of ethnographic fieldwork among quantum information physicists at Los Alamos National Laboratory and professors and students affiliated with the Southwest Quantum Information and Technology (SQuInT) Research Network in the American Southwest, the study sought to join current conversations in the anthropology of work, community studies, and the social studies of science. It is concerning primarily with the role of collaboration and scientific discourse in contemporary quantum physics and with the ways in which certain forms of community are constituted and sustained in the practice of scientific work. The study examines functional and cultural aspects of quantum physics work, including its workspaces, work, tools, language, and forms of discourse, such as poetics, humor, and occupational folklore. In so doing, the study also considers several of the effects that commitment, gender, and power differentials have on the quantum work, on the production and use of social space in science, and on the creation of community. The study’s principal finding is that through close association, dynamic collaborations, and frequent communication, the quantum information physicists of Los Alamos and SQuInT have created and continue to sustain a remarkably robust and intuitively coherent social structure that validates Wenger’s model of a community of practice in the stewardship phase.
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