Uncertainty Across the Arts and Sciences: A Conversation (Spring 2021)

Surprising as it may seem at first, uncertainty is the principle that makes knowledge, and the university as we know it, possible. Uncertainty generates creativity, curiosity, and the desire to know and see more; it is the very wellspring of the principle of research and of the scientific method, which starts from a position of hypothesizing, not one of knowing. The series of panels listed below, sponsored by the LSU Center for Collaborative Knowledge and co-sponsored by the Voegelin Institute, features LSU faculty speaking on the theme of uncertainty as is figures in their disciplines and their work. Presentations will be via Zoom webinar on the dates indicated (central time zone).

Tuesday, February 23, 3:00–4:30 pm [VIDEO RECORDING]

Session Chair: Suzanne Marchand, LSU Systems Boyd Professor (History)

Willis Delony, LSU Systems Boyd Professor (Music), “Making Music and the Art of Painting Yourself Out of a Corner”
Emily Elliott, Professor and Chair (Psychology), “Open Science Methods and Practices: A Psychologist’s Journey”
John Pojman, Professor and Chair (Chemistry), “Epistemological Implications of Chaos Theory”

Tuesday, March 9, 3:30–5:00 pm [VIDEO RECORDING]

Session Chair: Aaron Sheehan-Dean, Professor and Chair (History)

Gabriela González, LSU Systems Boyd Professor (Physics and Astronomy), “How Certain Are We of Physics Discoveries?”
Len Apcar, Wendell Gray Switzer Jr. Endowed Chair in Media Literary (Mass Communication) and longtime reporter and editor, “Thinking and Verifying: Taking in the News in an Age of Distrust”
Michelle Zerba, Maggie B. Martin Professor (English and Comparative Literature), “On Uncertainty and the Search for Knowledge: The Value of Ancient Skepticism Today”

Wednesday, March 24, 1:30–3:00 pm [VIDEO RECORDING]

Session Chair: Inessa Bazayev, Paula G. Manship Associate Professor (Music)

Steve Nelson, John H. Seabury Professor of Medicine and Dean, School of Medicine, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, “Diagnostic Error in Health Care”
Barry Keim, Professor and Chair (Geography and Anthropology) and LA State Climatologist, “Our Uncertain Future in Weather and Climate”
James Stoner, Hermann Moyse, Jr. Professor (Political Science) and Director (Eric Voegelin Institute), “Moral Certainty”

Wednesday, April 14, 3:00–4:30 pm (“Uncertainty in Louisiana”) [VIDEO RECORDING]

Session Chair: John Hamilton, Hopkins P. Breazeale Professor of Journalism (Manship School of Mass Communication)

Nancy Rabalais, Professor and Shell Endowed Chair in Oceanography and Wetland Studies (Oceanography & Coastal Sciences), “Should Uncertainty Prevent Wise Resource Management?”
Craig Colten, Carl O. Sauer Professor of Geography (Geography and Anthropology), “Cultural Adaptation in a Landscape of Uncertainty”
Michael Desmond, Professor (Architecture) and Trustee (Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation), “Never Let a Good Crisis Go To Waste”