Event – SPIN Panel Session – Prof. Linsey McGoey: on the oracular and Prof. Perry Zurn: on curiosity

October 16th 2024 – 15:00-16:00 (GMT+1), 10:00 (EST)

Professor Linsey McGoey (Essex)

Professor Perry Zurn (Columbia/American)

Chair: Dr Elspeth Van Veeren

About the Event

SPIN is delighted to welcome two speakers this month.

On October 16^th we will be joined by SPIN-ster Professor Linsey McGoey (Essex) and guest Professor Perry Zurn (Columbia/American).

The event will be held online, through Zoom. Please email secrecyresearch@gmail.com for an invite link.

Professor Linsey McGoey – Oracles and Power: new connections

Oracles have been neglected in social science and social theory. They are marginalized and dismissed, treated as a diminished force in decision-making in secularized societies. This talk reverses that dismissal, calling for a broader treatment of oracles as ‘judgement machines’. I show how defining oracular judgement and oracular authority in a broad way helps to generate new theories of expertise, secrecy, and the power to monopolize the future.

Professor Perry Zurn – What (Studying) Curiosity Un/covers

Typically, curiosity is theorized as a drive or motivation to uncover information and amass knowledge, stretching from banal facts to fundamental truths. I will argue, however, that curiosity covers over as much as it illuminates, degenerates as much as it accumulates, and disorients as much as it directs.