CaféTheoria is an interactive, hybrid workshop series where renowned experts discuss core social science theories, and where you have the opportunity to engage your peers and colleagues in lively discussion and debate. Professor Ilana Löwy will be joining for the second workshop to discuss the influential scholarship of theorist Ludwik Fleck.

The workshop is aimed at postgraduate students (PGT) and doctoral scholars (PGR) in the School of Global Affairs. They are intended to introduce students to key thinkers' works, so you are not expected to be familiar with the text or to read in advance!

The workshop can be attended online on Zoom or in-person on the Strand campus. Refreshments (food, light beverages) will be provided to in-person attendees. Virtual attendees will receive the link via e-mail a day before the event.

About the speaker

Professor Ilana Löwy is a biologist by training who worked for ten years in a cellular immunology lab at the Institut Pasteur before transferring to history of science. She has studied the history of organ transplants, "Pasteurian sciences" – bacteriology, immunology, and virology – and her research lies at the intersection between biomedicine and gender studies, notably in the field of reproduction and treatment of female cancers, and the epistemology of the pioneer in social studies of science, Ludwik Fleck.

Professor Löwy has published, among other works, Preventive Strikes: Women, Precancer, and Prophylactic Surgery (Johns Hopkins UP, 2009), A Woman's Disease: A History of Cervical Cancer (Oxford UP, 2011), Imperfect Pregnancies: A History of Prenatal Diagnosis (Johns Hopkins UP, 2017) and Tangled Diagnoses: Prenatal Testing, Women and Risk (Chicago UP, 2018.) Her most recent book is Viruses and Reproductive Injustice: Zika in Brazil (Johns Hopkins UP, 2024) which brings together her research on the Zika epidemic in Brazil.

About CaféTheoria

CaféTheoria is funded by the SSPP Faculty Education Fund. It is an interactive and innovative hybrid workshop series running in the 2023-2024 academic year. The project is led by Dr Shagufta Bhangu and Dr Rishita Nandagiri.