The Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) is remembered as a paramount example of the “cultural cold wars.” In my talk I will discuss the history of this influential transnational organization and its quest to promote “science studies” as a distinct – and politically relevant – area of expertise, and part of the CCF broader agenda to offer a renewed framework for liberalism. The vision of “science studies” the CCF-associated intellectuals promulgated was different from the science studies we know today. Yet, this alternative vision, in which the issues of science politics appeared inseparable from those of science policy, science organization, and science governance, constituted the “pre-history” of science studies today.
Elena Aronova is a Lecturer at the Department of History at the University of California at San Diego, where she is completing her second PhD in History having previously earned a PhD in Biology/History of Science from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 2003. She was a Fulbright Scholar at the Science Studies Program at UC San Diego (2004), and a Scholar-in-Residence at the Rockefeller Archival Center in New York (2005). In 2006 she joined the Salk Institute for Biological Studies as a Visiting Scientist and UCSD Science Studies Program as a Visiting Scholar. Since 2007 she is with the UCSD History Department.