Single Review on past events

Hari Sridhar is an independent researcher and an honorary fellow of the Archives at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, in Bangalore, India. Since early 2016, he has been interviewing authors of well-known papers in ecology and evolution. He is a Writer in Residence and has been invited by Gisela Kopp.

This event is part of the "Departmental seminars" series.

During his time at the Zukunftskolleg, Hari Sridhar will work towards finishing a book manuscript based on his interviews of authors of classic papers (commissioned by Cambridge University Press) and creating a digital exhibition of scientific papers annotated with material from the interviews. He would also like to use this time to write a long-form essay on the
role of serendipity and chance events in science, illustrated with examples from his interviews. In addition to these concrete research outputs, Hari Sridhar’s presence at the Zukunftskolleg will be of great value to other fellows and the University’s academic community: 1. Hari Sridhar’s vast experience in researching, conducting and processing interviews (> 170 interviews) could be of use to scholars in other fields that use interviewing as a research method. The Zukunftskolleg community will also benefit from Hari Sridhar’s skills as a writer and magazine editor. 2. Hari Sridhar’s research on the making of scientific knowledge, from the perspective of ecology and evolution, will be of interest to Philosophers of Science, especially those interested in the emerging field of Philosophy of Science in Practice. 3. The research groups in Konstanz that study collective animal behaviour will benefit from Hari Sridhar’s knowledge of collective behaviour from a mixed-species social group perspective. At the same time, this opportunity will help Hari Sridhar discuss and get critical feedback on his research, both from the ecology and evolution groups in the University, as well as scholars from other relevant fields.