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Megan K. Halpern, Ph.D.

Megan K. Halpern
  • Associate Professor
  • LBC Leadership Fellow–Faculty Affairs
  • LB Course Subject Area: Science and Society
  • Director, MSU CIRCLE
  • Pronouns: she/her

LBC COURSES

  • LB 321: Science Communication
  • LB 322: New Media & Society
  • LB 322: Future Design Studio
  • LB 492: Drawing Comics as a Way of Knowing About Science in Society

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Megan K. Halpern is an Associate Professor at Lyman Briggs College, at Michigan State University and was the inaugural Scholar-in-Residence at MSU’s Center for Interdisciplinarity. Her research interests include art-science studies, interdisciplinary collaboration, public engagement with science, feminist approaches to science communication, and research through design. She teaches science communication, science and technology studies, and drawing comics as a way of knowing about science in society. She earned her PhD in Science Communication at Cornell University and completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at Arizona State University’s Center for Nanotechnology and Society and Center for Science and the Imagination. Before earning her PhD, Dr. Halpern was a theatre artist and the co-founder and Artistic Director of Redshift Productions, a company that created performances inspired by science in collaboration with scientists.

EDUCATION

  • Postdoctoral Research Associate, Center for Nanotechnology in Society, Arizona State University
  • Ph.D., Science Communication, Cornell University
  • M.S., Communication, Cornell University
  • B.A., Studio Art, Smith College 

RESEARCH

  • Science and Society @ State 2020 (Kevin Elliott, PI)
  • MSU HARP development grant to finish a single author book manuscript. (2019-2021, $25,000)
  • Science and Society @ State (S3) Grant to examine physics demonstrations as experience. Co-PI. PI: Katie Hinko (2018-2019, $10,000)
  • Science and Society @ State (S3) Grant to develop Future Design Studio. PI (2016-2018, $10,000)
  • Science and Society @ State (S3) Grant to develop a science communication course for graduate students. Co-PI. PI: Jo Latimore (2016-2017, $10,000)
  • USDA Hatch Grant to design an audience participation system for the iOS platform. PI: Bruce Lewenstein. (2011-2013, $55,225)

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

  • Halpern, M. K. & Elliot, K. C. (2022). Science as Experience: A Deweyan Model of Science Communication. Perspectives on Science. https://doi.org/10.1162/posc_a_00398
  • Rogers, H., Halpern, M. K., Hannah, D., & de Ridder-Vignone, K. (Eds.). (2021). Routledge International Handbook of Art, Science & Technology Studies. New York, NY: Routledge. Halpern, M.K. & Rogers, H.S. (2020) Art-Science Collaborations, Complexities, and Challenges. In Trench, B. & Bucchi, M. (Eds.) Routledge Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology. Third Edition. New York, NY: Routledge.
  • Halpern, M.K. & O’Rourke, M. (2020). Power in science communication collaborations. Journal of Science Communication, 19(4), C02. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.19040302
  • Davies, S. R., Halpern, M. K., Horst, M., Kirby, D., Lewenstein, B. (2019) Science stories as culture: Experience, identity, narrative and emotion in public communication of science. Abstract accepted for a special issue: Stories in Science Communication. JCOM, the Journal of Science Communication. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.18050201
  • Halpern, M.K. (2019) Comment: Feminist standpoint theory and science communication. JCOM, the Journal of Science Communication. https://doi.org/10.22323/2.18040302
  • Halpern, M., Sadowski, J., Eschrich, J., Finn, E. & Guston, D. (2016). Stitching Together Creativity and Responsibility: Interpreting Frankenstein Across Disciplines. Special Science Fiction Issue of the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 36 (1), 49-57.
  • Halpern, M. & Humphreys, L. (2016). Iphoneography as an Emergent Art World. New Media & Society, 18(1), 62–81.
  • Halpern, M. & Rogers, H. (2013). Inseparable Impulses: Haeckel and Harper’s Science and Aesthetics. Leonardo. 46 (5), 465-470.
  • Halpern, M. (2012). Across the great divide: Boundaries and boundary objects in art and science. Public Understanding of Science. 21(8) 922–937.

HONORS & AWARDS

2021-22 Lilly Fellow, Michigan State University

LINKS

Personal website