The case of science-based dissent during the Cold War: transdisciplinary and evidentiary challenges

The case of science-based dissent during the Cold War: transdisciplinary and evidentiary challenges

A lecture by Ioana Macrea-Toma (Associate Research Fellow at the Archivum, Faculty Fellow at IAS)

Futurology was both a state-endorsed science and a ground for autonomous research and critical vision during state socialism. This presentation focuses on the political radicalization of a Romanian mathematician futurologist and investigates the relationship between epistemology and politics during the Cold War. Mihai Botez (1940-1995) was one of the most brilliant scientists tasked to lead core institutions in the 70s in Romania and he gradually became an opponent of the regime while analyzing its unrealistic socio-economic goals. The guiding questions are: what were the possibilities of transgressive criticism at that time and how does one reconstruct such exceptional intellectual biographies with the help of ideologically opposed archives, such as those of Radio Free Europe, of the socialist state, of international organizations, and of the communist secret police? The research is part of a larger book project about truth-seeking practices during the Cold War.