Michael E. Lynch

Professor Emeritus and Graduate School Professor

Overview

Professor Michael Lynch has written numerous books and articles on discourse, visual representation, and practical action in research laboratories, clinical settings, and legal tribunals. He received the 2016 J.D. Bernal career award from the Society for Social Studies of Science, and also received the 1995 Robert K. Merton Professional award from the Science, Knowledge and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association for his book Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action. He also received the 2011 Distinguished Publication Award from the Ethnomethodology/Conversation Analysis Section of the American Sociological Association for his book (co-authored with Simon Cole, Ruth McNally and Kathleen Jordan), Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting. He is Co-Director of the Cornell Law and Society Program. He was Editor of Social Studies of Science from 2002 until 2012, and President of the Society for Social Studies of Science in 2007-2009.

Research Focus

  • The production and uses of evidence in science and law
  • Ethnomethodology & conversational analysis
  • Social theory & philosophy of social science

Publications

  • "The epistemics of Epistemics", special issue of Discourse Studies (guest edited with Douglas Macbeth), Volume 18, no.5, 2016

  • Law at Work (edited with Baudouin Dupret and Tim Berard), Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015

  • Representation in Scientific Practice Revisited (edited with Catelijne Coopmans, Janet Vertesi, and Steve Woolgar), Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014.

  • Science after the Practice Turn in Philosophy, History and the Social Studies of Science (edited with L. Soler, S. Zwart, M. Lynch, and V. Israel-Jost), London & New York: Routledge, 2014

  • Science and Technology Studies, Critical Concepts in the Social Sciences (edited, 4 Volume Set). London and New York: Routledge, 2012.

  • "Science, truth, and forensic cultures: The exceptional legal status of DNA evidence," Studies in History and Philosophy of Science, Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biology and Biomedical Science, Vol. 44, 1: 60-70, 2013.
     
  • Truth Machine: The Contentious History of DNA Fingerprinting (with Simon Cole, Ruth McNally and Kathleen Jordan).  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. 
     
  • Handbook of Science & Technology Studies (edited with Ed Hackett, Olga Amsterdamska and Judy Wacjman).  Third Edition.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008

STS Courses - Spring 2024

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