Sheila Jasanoff

Jay and I lived in Ithaca from 1978 to 1998. Our home for all but one year was 115 Glen Place, spectacularly perched on the edge of Cascadilla Gorge. I began my academic career in STS at Cornell, where I founded and chaired the Department of Science and Technology Studies.

This was briefly home for me and Jay in 1969-70, a momentous year when Jay began his career as Assistant Professor of Linguistics at UC Berkeley. The academic year ended dramatically, with the university virtually shutting down after the Cambodian incursion in April and the May 4 shootings at Kent State University.

I began my graduate career in Bonn, earning a Masters degree in Linguistics from the University of Bonn in 1966.

I have spent many of the most formative years of my life here. I attended Radcliffe College and received a bachelor’s degree in 1964. I completed a Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1973 and a J.D. at Harvard Law School in 1976. I also practiced environmental law in Boston from 1976 until 1978. Jay and I were married here in 1968, and we lived here again from 1970 until 1978 while Jay taught Indo-European linguistics at Harvard. Our two children, Alan and Maya, were born in Boston in those years. Jay and I returned to Cambridge in 1998, joining, respectively, the Department of Linguistics and the John F. Kennedy School of Government.

My family moved to Scarsdale when my father joined the United Nations Technical Assistance Board in 1956. I graduated from Scarsdale High School in 1960.

I moved to Bombay with my family in 1954 and attended Cathedral Girls’ School for two years before leaving for the United States.

I was born here. I lived with my family at 48, Old Ballygunge Road next to the Calcutta Cricket Club. I attended Miss Higgins’ School, where I first learned English, and then La Martiniere for Girls. I returned to Kolkata for a year as a newlywed with my husband Jay Jasanoff, and began my doctoral research here.

I served as a Leverhulme Visiting Professor in the Departments of Geography and History and Philosophy of Science in 2005-2007. I am a life member of Clare Hall and an Associate Fellow of the Centre for Science and Policy.

My work has frequently led me to Berlin. Formal engagements include a year as a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg in 2001-2002 and a summer as the Karl W. Deutsch Guest Professor at the Wissenschaftszentrum (Science Center Berlin) in 2004.

I spent a sabbatical year at Yale University in 1990-91 as Visiting Professor in the Law School and the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

I was a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College and the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies in 1986 and 1996.

I have paid many visits to the University of Vienna’s Department of Science and Technology Studies. I served for ten years on the international committee awarding Austria’s highest prize for science, the Wittgenstein Award. In 2008, I received an Ehrenkreuz from the Government of Austria for my services as committee chair.

I received an honorary doctorate from the University of Twente in 2006, the first woman to be so honored.

My work intersects with the interests of two prominent centers at Sussex University: SPRU and the Institute for Development Studies. Reflecting these shared concerns, I served on the advisory committee of the STEPS Centre (Social, Technological and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability).

I have been associated with the European School of Molecular Medicine (SEMM) in Milan as doctoral co-adviser. I guest taught there in 2008 and 2010.

I was a 2016 Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellow in the Law School and Faculty of Science at the University of Melbourne.

I have many close ties to STS colleagues and research centers in Paris. I guest taught an annual module on risk at Sciences Po from 2008-2012. I held a Visiting Professorship at Paris Sciences et Lettres in 2014, and for several years I chaired the Scientific Committee of IFRIS (Institut Francilien Recherche Innovation Société).

As a frequent guest lecturer at universities in London, I delivered the 2015 STS Haldane lecture at University College London. In 2016 I was the Shimizu Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Jay and I spent a wonderful summer at Kyoto University in 1999 as visiting professors of linguistics and sociology, respectively.

I serve on the Advisory Board of the College of Arts of Letters at the Stevens Institute of Technology. It is a service I greatly enjoy because of the special people I know there!

In 2011, I was awarded Ghent University’s Sarton Medal for History of Science.

In 2013-15, I participated in the training workshops organized by Harvard Law School’s Institute for Global Law and Policy in Doha under the auspices of the Qatar Foundation.

I am a Foreign Member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

On rare occasions, Jay and I travel simply for the fun of it, as on our fantastic trip through Peru’s Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu in 2011.

Work met play in 2010 when a meeting of the Halle-based LOST Project, for which I served as an academic adviser, was held in Moshi, on the lower slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Jay and I were guided on a safari through some of East Africa’s most renowned national game reserves, including Maasai Mara and Serengeti.

A birthday trip for Jay in 2012 allowed my family to make a long awaited trip to the hilltop mausoleum of Antiochus at Nemrut Dagi. The trip began in Istanbul and included visits to Sanliurfa, Lake Van (Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross), Diyarbakir, and Ishak Pasha Palace.

My birthday celebration took me, Jay, and our son Alan’s family to Ethiopia in 2013. A high point was the visit to the spectacular monolithic rock-cut churches of Lalibela.

Jay and I took advantage of my visit to Santiago and Punta Arenas in 2014 to make a memorable side trip to Easter Island.