Transnational Education

Research in this domain examines the phenomenon of mobility of scientific knowledge at two complementary levels: (1) the transnationalisation of academic organisations and their educational models; (2) the mobility of knowledge between epistemic spaces and cultures. The main aim of the module is to shed light on (a) the various transnationalisation strategies used by higher education organisations in different contexts, (b) the consequences that these strategies have on host countries’ educational standards and employment markets, and (c) the ways in which these processes are re-shaping academic institutions in their countries of origin. A complementary objective is to develop and to integrate a mobility perspective towards a better understanding of the mutual shaping of scientific disciplines and disciplinary communities and, more broadly, of the phenomenon of knowledge translation between producers (research and innovation) and users (public and stakeholders).

Involved Professor

Francesco Panese is Associate Professor of Social studies of science and medicine in the University of Lausanne (Switzerland) and at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) where he is Director of the “Collège des Humanités” (CDH). His main research and teaching specific focus is the social and historical studies of scientific and medical knowledge, with a particular interest in the uses of visualizations. From a methodological point of view, his work can be associated with a social and historical epistemology of science based on the analysis of empirical data, techniques and practices. He is currently involved in a research project devoted to the processes of biomedicalization of psychiatry in the context of the rise of contemporary neuroscience. In the context of this ongoing project, he is investigating the influences of neuroimaging on clinical work. More broadly, his present work aims at understanding the historical and contemporary processes of medicalization and the influence of biotechnologies on health practices. He is also involved in numerous Science & Society activities. He is, among other things, since 1999 the Director of the Fondation Claude Verdan (Lausanne), a museum for scientific culture where he realizes exhibitions and events centered upon the transformations of human beings and society by contemporary scientific, medical and technological innovations.

Institutional website: http://www.unil.ch/unisciences/FrancescoPanese

Postdoctoral Researcher

Kate Geddie will be joining the MOVE network as a postdoctoral researcher in early spring 2010.

Key Texts

  • Panese F. (2009). The neural basis of what? Discontents in defining “human nature”. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 3(41).
  • Panese F. (2009). Décrire et convaincre : rhétoriques visuelles de la cinématographie en médecine», Gesnerus : Swiss Journal of the History of Medicine and Sciences, vol. 66, pp. 40-66.
  • Panese F., Barras V. (2009). Ambivalences de la médicalisation : patients, maladies, clinique. In Sanni Yaya (éd.), Pouvoir médical et santé totalitaire : conséquences socio-anthropologiques et éthiques, Laval, Les Presses de l’Université Laval, 2009, pp. 33-58.
  • Panese F. (2007). The meaning of displaying scientific objects in museums. In Maria Esther Alvarez Valente (éd.), Museums of Science and Technology : Interpretations and Activities to the Public, MAST ; CIMUSET ; ICOM ; UNESCO, Rio de Janeiro, pp. 29-36.
  • Panese F. (2006). The Accursed Part of Scientific Iconography. In L. Pauwels (ed.), Visual Cultures of Science: Rethinking Representational Practices in Knowledge Building and Science Communication, Dartmouth College Press/University Press of New England. pp. 63-89.