“Evidence: The Use and Misuse of Data”

Inspired by the 2021 exhibition Dr. Franklin, Citizen Scientist, this week-long virtual symposium explored the nature of evidence. The symposium reflected Benjamin Franklin’s many different uses of information and data throughout his life.
Program
Papers

[NOTE: In support of the #ShutDownSTEM and #ShutDownAcademia movement, the Wednesday session was rescheduled for Thursday, June 11, at 3:00pm EDT.]

“Evidence: The Use and Misuse of Data” was held by the American Philosophical Society on June 8-12, 2020 on Zoom.

The symposium kicked off on Monday, June 8, at 1:00pm EDT with an opening discussion with Drs. Richard Shiffrin (Indiana University, Bloomington), Stephen Stigler (The University of Chicago), and Kathleen Hall Jamieson (The University of Pennsylvania) on their paper, “The Weighing of Evidence Requires Expert Judgment and Consensus.” The discussion was moderated by Linda Greenhouse, Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law, Senior Research Scholar in Law, and Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence at Yale University and President of the American Philosophical Society.

The symposium continued with sessions at 3:00pm EDT Monday, June 8, and at 1:00pm EDT each day on Tuesday, June 9 through Friday, June 12. It concluded on Friday, June 12 with a final discussion featuring Dr. John R. McNeill (Georgetown University). 

Each session included brief presentations by the conference participants, comments by a moderator, and a live Q&A session. Sessions were also recorded and are available on the Society's YouTube channel.

The symposium was free of charge and open to all.

Program

“Evidence: The Use and Misuse of Data” Symposium Program 
June 8-12, 2020

All events were held via Zoom (times listed in EDT)

Monday, June 8

1:00 - 2:30 p.m.: Opening Keynote 

“The Weighing of Evidence Requires Expert Judgment and Consensus” (Click Here To Watch)
Richard Shiffrin, Indiana University, Bloomington 
Stephen Stigler, University of Chicago
Kathleen Hall Jamieson, The University of Pennsylvania

In conversation with Linda Greenhouse, Joseph Goldstein Lecturer in Law, Senior Research Scholar in Law, and Knight Distinguished Journalist in Residence at Yale University and President of the American Philosophical Society

3:00 - 4:00 p.m.: Panel 1: Evidential Standards (Click Here To Watch)

"Archival Profusion, Archival Silence, and Analytic Invention: Reinventing Histories of Nineteenth-Century African American Debate"
Angela Ray, Northwestern University 
Extended Q&A with Angela 

"President Andrew Jackson: Fake Quotations, False Facts, and the Debasement of History" 
Daniel Feller, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 

"Bunk History and the Standards of Historical Interpretation"
Andrew Schocket, Bowling Green State University

Moderator: Kyle Roberts, Associate Director of Library & Museum Programming, American Philosophical Society

Tuesday, June 9

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.: Panel 2: How do We Know: Reading Evidence in the 18th Century (Click Here To Watch)

"What did eighteenth-century readers know, and when did they know it?"
Gordon Fraser, University of Manchester 

"The Morbid Lives and the Afterlives of the Elizabeth (1737) Reproduction, Data, and Enslaved People's Lives in History of the Intra-American Slave Trade"
Elise Mitchell, New York University 

“Peculiar Blue Spots: Evidence and Causes around 1800”
Jutta Schickore, Indiana University, Bloomington 

Moderator: Joyce Chaplin, Harvard University 

Thursday, June 11

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.: Panel 3: Making Data: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (Click Here To Watch)

“Bad Data: Settlers Measuring Dust, 1930-1940” 
Sara Grossman, Bryn Mawr College 

“Polishing Data: How Data Cleaning Produces Demographic Regularities”
Alexander Kindel, Princeton University 

“Narrative Data and the Psychiatric Method”
Lindsey Grubbs, The Johns Hopkins University, Berman Institute for Bioethics

Moderator: Sarah Igo, Vanderbilt University 

3:00 - 4:00 p.m.: Panel 4: Envisioning Evidence (Click Here To Watch)

"How Not to Analyze Data: John W. Tukey Against the Mechanization of Statistical Inference"
Alexander Campolo, The University of Chicago 

“‘Aren’t we kind of splitting hairs?’: Reframing the Pascua Yaqui Tribe and the Anthropology of Edward Spicer in the United States Congress”
Nicholas Barron, Mission College 

“How the Universe Went Missing in 1974”
Jaco de Swart, University of Amsterdam

Moderator: Adrianna Link, Head of Scholarly Programs, American Philosophical Society 

Friday, June 12

1:00 - 2:00 p.m.: Panel 5: Data in the Digital Age (Click Here To Watch)

"The Use and Misuse of Anthropological Evidence: Digital Himalaya as Ethnographic Knowledge (Re)Production"
Mark Turin, The University of British Columbia 

“When Voices Become Data: Reading Data Documenting Contemporary Reading”
Jennifer Burek Pierce, The University of Iowa

“Historical Evidence in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” 
Joshua Sternfeld, Unaffiliated Independent Scholar 
(presentation removed upon request)

Moderator: Jamie Cohen-Cole, George Washington University 

3:00 - 4:15 p.m.: Wrap-up Keynote Discussion featuring John R. McNeill, Georgetown University, and Robert M. Hauser, Executive Officer, American Philosophical Society, in conversation with Patrick Spero, Librarian & Director, American Philosophical Society Library & Museum. (Click Here To Watch)

Read J.R. McNeill's American Historical Association Presidential Address, "Peak Document and the Future of History"

 

Papers

Download Papers

Conference papers are available for download to registered participants prior to the conference. You will be required to enter a password provided by conference organizers to access them.

Papers are not to be cited or circulated without the written permission of the author.