Stuart Leslie, a professor in the History of Science and Technology Department, specializes in the scientific history of industry and regional economic geography. He has studied the history of regional development efforts, such as attempts at recreating Silicon Valley.
On Wednesday, the News-Letter spoke with him about some of his work on regional development and his 15 minutes of fame in Las Vegas.
News-Letter (N-L): What originally attracted you to study the history of science and technology?
Stuart Leslie (SL): When I applied to university, I applied to the art history program. After looking at my transcript, they decided maybe this kid isn't really suited for art history, and they placed me in the history of science and technology instead. I haven't really looked back since.
N-L: How have you been able to incorporate this original interest in the arts in your study of science and technology?
SL: I've been able to come back to the arts. I do a lot of work looking at how laboratory and hospital spaces are designed and the architecture of these structures.
I've looked at what happens when schools and institutions ask big name architects to design spaces for them, such as I.M. Pei, and it turns out that often times, although these spaces are very beautiful, they're not very practical. It just confirms that scientists can work anywhere ... Students often take an interest in this, learning about the history of the lab. It's important to know about the history, given that many of them are probably going to be spending a lot of time in these spaces.
I've also been able to incorporate art in the documentation of science ... One good example of this is the use of photography in science. You see these photos of milk drops, and the coronas that form from the droplets hitting the water. Many of these were taken by Harold Edgerton at MIT using high-speed flash photography. He would say that he isn't an artist, but his work still hangs in places like MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). So, sometimes scientists can, even despite themselves, engage in art.
N-L: A lot of your work deals with 'regional advantage.' What does this mean, and where have you studied it?
SL: One thing that I studied was the efforts to replicate Silicon Valley in other areas around the country ... [I found] most of these efforts were completely unsuccessful ... Korea was able to create a Silicon Valley, but it did so under a dictatorship. It's a lot easier to just say "this is the place" in an authoritarian regime, and to marshal all the things necessary in an authoritarian than in a pluralistic system. If the U.S. tried to do this, the debate over where this would go would go on forever.
N-L: So, what efforts at regional development have worked?
SL: I'm a skeptic when it comes to people who say they can come in and revitalize a region. I see them as snake-oil salesman ... Look at Baltimore, if all you needed was universities and federal money, Baltimore would be a huge success story. Johns Hopkins draws in lots of NIH (National Institutes of Health) money, and a lot of good research gets done here, but other than salaries and direct spending, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot that it does to help the community.
There are a lot of factors necessary to create a Silicon Valley that are outside the University's control.
N-L: What is your favorite course to teach here at Hopkins?
SL: I definitely enjoy teaching Monuments and Memory. In this class, we look at monuments such as route 66 or the Lincoln Memorial. We look at what they look like but also why they are the way they are ... [For the class,] students have to find a monument from their hometown. Most people come from places that don't have big famous monuments. Students always come back to me saying they found something really cool that they never knew about their hometown before.
I used to teach a class about the history of Las Vegas. We used to talk about the history of the city, how it developed, the use of lights and technology in the design of the strip. The highlight of the class was a trip to Vegas. Usually there would be 13 or 15 students whom I would supervise. They wouldn't really go to sleep much while we were there, though. I stopped doing it because it became too much work to supervise a bunch of college kids in Las Vegas ... [but] we always enjoyed it.
For my 25th [marriage] anniversary, I had always told my wife that I would take her to Paris. So we stayed at the Paris, Las Vegas. We also met Oscar Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas. One year he told us about his plans for a mob museum, so the next year the class had a group assignment to design the museum. When we went to Las Vegas, we showed him the plans, and he told us to meet him at the press conference tomorrow. We didn't know what he meant, but we met him at 11 a.m. He had been in an argument with the Nevada Preservation Society, their conservation group, and when we arrived he announced, "I have the plans for the Mob Museum, designed by the Johns Hopkins University!
They ended up using the same architects who designed the Spy Museum, but that was the 15 minutes of fame for our class.
I also really enjoy On the Road, where we talk about the history of the automobile and car culture.
The main assignment in that class is an autobiography about a car experience, which usually means students talk to their parents, but it may also be their own experience from high school. Students get to hear from parents about when they were 17 years old and did these really fun road trips. I sometimes get notes from parents saying that this is a great assignment.
N-L: Do you have a favorite car trip experience?
SL: When my daughter first went to college at USC [University of Southern California]. We packed up all her shoes and blue jeans and all the things a young woman needs nowadays. We packed it all into a van, and there still wasn't room for it all. When I went to school, you just took a suitcase, you could've hitchhiked to school. We hopped into the van, and we drove all the way from Baltimore to L.A. It was one of the best times I've ever spent with my daughter.
But, nowadays, young people aren't nearly as into their cars as we used to be. When I was growing up, I spent hours fixing up my car ... but gas was only 30 cents a gallon back then. Nowadays, students are all into their cell phones and computers. Your road trips are all virtual now.
- Additional reporting by Pooja Shah.
