STLCC-Meramec Faculty Share Expertise with Colleagues around the World

St. Louis Community College has a longstanding commitment to bringing a global perspective to classroom instruction. Faculty members are encouraged to share their expertise not only with students, but with colleagues around the world. 

Two faculty members this year from the Meramec campus are making presentations at conferences in Burma, Spain and Argentina. 

Collins Examines Public/Private Cooperation with Military Technology

Steven G. Collins, Ph.D., professor in history at STLCC-Meramec, will present “Victorian Innovation? Yankee Enterprise versus English Conservatism in Military Technology” at the International Committee for the History of Technology’s 39^th Symposium, slated for July 10-14 in Barcelona, Spain. Collins was chosen to present by Barton Hacker of the Smithsonian Institution, who is organizing a symposium on the social history of military technology at the conference. 

Collins’ presentation will focus on how government policies and the business climate enhanced or thwarted military technological progress in England and the United States by comparing the Springfield Armory in Massachusetts and the Enfield Armory in England in the 1850s. Using the diaries of James Burton, who worked as the Master Armorer at the Harpers Ferry Armory, as a contractor in the Connecticut Valley, and as an engineer at the Enfield Armory, Collins investigated how the United States and England differed in their views of private and public cooperation. 

“The Springfield Armory worked closely with contractors and reaped the rewards of innovation,” Collins noted. “The Enfield Armory, however, remained secretive and jealous of private firms and, arguably, lost out on the benefits of cooperation.” 

Martino-Taylor Sheds Light on Military Weapons Testing on Civilian Populations

Lisa Martino-Taylor, instructor in sociology at Meramec, will present “Behind the Fog of the Cold War: The Manhattan-Rochester Coalition and Tests on Vulnerable Populations without Consent” at the International Sociological Association Forum this August in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The forum is devoted to discussion related to the challenges to and possibilities for promoting social justice and democratization in the 21^st century. 

Martino-Taylor’s paper was selected from more than a thousand abstracts submitted to the ISA from around the world. Her research focused on U.S. military weapons testing on civilian populations during the Cold War. At that time, the U.S. military engaged in a series of secret tests on civilian populations in various North American cities, to test new types of weapons that were being developed by a network of scientists involved in a secret spin-off group from the Manhattan Project. In at least one series of tests between 1953 and 1965, officials sprayed an aerosolized compound in an urban area where low-income persons of color resided, in St. Louis, Mo. Their task was an ultra-secret project that involved in part, human subject testing related to weaponized radiation. This vast project transcended national boundaries, Martino-Taylor noted, and ultimately targeted tens of thousands of unwitting, disempowered and dehumanized civilians, who were purposely tested for, and exposed to, toxic compounds without their knowledge or consent, in a blatant violation of civil and human rights. 

“Through understanding the specific elements and mechanisms of complex institutional deviance that disengage critical analysis, and pave the path towards victimization of populations, we can develop public policies that prioritize the public’s right to know, and construct checks and methods to minimize the chance of covert projects that are contrary to societal norms, human dignity and human rights,” Martino-Taylor said.

Established in 1962, St. Louis Community College is the largest community college district in Missouri and one of the largest in the United States.  STLCC has four campuses – Florissant Valley, Forest Park, Meramec and Wildwood – and annually serves nearly 80,000 students through credit courses, continuing education and workforce development programs.  For more information about STLCC, visit www.stlcc.edu.