Curiosity Studies: A New Ecology of Knowledge

by Perry Zurn (Editor), Arjun Shankar (Editor), Pam Grossman (Contributor)

The first English-language collection to establish curiosity studies as a unique field

 

From science and technology to business and education, curiosity is often taken for granted as an unquestioned good. And yet, few people can define curiosity. Curiosity Studies marshals scholars from more than a dozen fields not only to define curiosity but also to grapple with its ethics as well as its role in technological advancement and global citizenship. While intriguing research on curiosity has occurred in numerous disciplines for decades, no rigorously cross-disciplinary study has existed—until now. 

Curiosity Studies stages an interdisciplinary conversation about what curiosity is and what resources it holds for human and ecological flourishing. These engaging essays are integrated into four clusters: scientific inquiry, educational practice, social relations, and transformative power. By exploring curiosity through the practice of scientific inquiry, the contours of human learning, the stakes of social difference, and the potential of radical imagination, these clusters focus and reinvigorate the study of this universal but slippery phenomenon: the desire to know. 

Against the assumption that curiosity is neutral, this volume insists that curiosity has a history and a political import and requires precision to define and operationalize. As various fields deepen its analysis, a new ecosystem for knowledge production can flourish, driven by real-world problems and a commitment to solve them in collaboration. By paying particular attention to pedagogy throughout, Curiosity Studies equips us to live critically and creatively in what might be called our new Age of Curiosity.

Contributors: Danielle S. Bassett, U of Pennsylvania; Barbara M. Benedict, Trinity College; Susan Engel, Williams College; Ellen K. Feder, American U; Kristina T. Johnson, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Narendra Keval; Christina León, Princeton U; Tyson Lewis, U of North Texas; Amy Marvin, U of Oregon; Hilary M. Schor, U of Southern California; Seeta Sistla, Hampshire College; Heather Anne Swanson, Aarhus U.

Genres: Philosophy

352 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2020

Reviews

[DW · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never liked the academic disciplines. Beyond the Harry Potter like division between them (and the snide remarks their members make against their rivals), I felt like it never made sense to me to regard specialization as a religion. Oh, it is political all right. Curiosity makes problems.

Interdisciplinary studies is a thing, which is cool. Again, though, it always felt like a miscellaneous place for odd-balls (and I love me an odd-ball!) but not a specialization in its own right.

I came upon this book.

It was an incredibly engaging book. Total trip. Not all chapters are as strong, but most are spectacular.

Two quotes are required, then I'll let the Table of Contents speak for itself and that will conclude my review.

"Curiosity is the purest form of insubordination." - Nobokov

"Stay with the trouble." - a researcher from the Aura Group providing advice to his colleagues for finding out ways that unexpected cross-overs between areas of study can connect and form totally new ideas.

***Table of Contents***

Part I. Interrogating the Scientific Enterprise

1. Exploring the Costs of Curiosity: An Environmental Scientist’s Dilemma

Seeta Sistla

2. Curious Ecologies of Knowledge: More-Than-Human Anthropology

Heather Anne Swanson

3. Curiosity, Ethics, and the Medical Management of Intersex Anatomies

Ellen K. Feder

Part II. Relearning How We Learn

4. A Network Science of the Practice of Curiosity

Danielle S. Bassett

5. Why Should This Be So? The Waxing and Waning of Children’s Curiosity

Susan Engel

6. The Dude Abides, or Why Curiosity Is Important for Education Today

Tyson E. Lewis

7. “The Campus Is Sick”: Capitalist Curiosity and Student Mental Health

Arjun Shankar

Part III. Reimagining How We Relate

8. Autism, Neurodiversity, and Curiosity

Kristina T. Johnson

9. Obstacles to Curiosity and Concern: Exploring the Racist Imagination

Narendra Keval

10. Curious Entanglements: Opacity and Ethical Relation in Latina/o Aesthetics

Christina León

11. Transsexuality, the Curio, and the Transgender Tipping Point

Amy Marvin

Part IV. Deconstructing the Status Quo

12. Peeping and Transgression: Curiosity and Collecting in English Literature

Barbara M. Benedict

13 Curiosity and Political Resistance

Perry Zurn

14. Curiosity at the End of the World: Women, Fiction, Electricity

Hilary M. Schor

Conclusion: On Teaching Curiosity

Arjun Shankar and Perry Zurn

Afterword

Helga Nowotny

[Ryan McGranaghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this could be a threshold book on a subject that might define the curriculum for living in the 21st century: curiosity as a science.

The collection of essays are a nice introduction to this new way of thinking, and I would recommend them as well as the bodies of work of each of the authors. My only issue with the collection is that it is, to some fault, extremely scholarly. It reads like an collection of academic publications wrapped in a popular science guise.

Yet the ideas in this book are too important to our society for everyone not to spend the time they require to understand and drive our own self-reflection on what curiosity is, its role in shaping our culture, and how we can cultivate it.

[Dan Cooper]

Not what I expected. It is a series of essays that have varying degrees of connection to the idea of curiosity. Not for anyone who is curious about curiosity.