Susan Abrams, the University of Chicago Press editor for the history, philosophy, and social studies of science, died on 29 June.
In a career of 24 years with the Press, Susan built the finest and most extensive list of books in the area. Along the way, she made a substantial and invaluable contribution to science studies. Every great editor makes a contribution to her field by seeking out and encouraging promising authors and their works. Susan did a lot of that, and the size, depth, and quality of the list she built reflects her efforts. What isn't so clear from the weight of the catalog however, is her habit of seeking out younger scholars and graduate students, and encouraging them even when she knew they wouldn't have finished manuscripts for years. At meetings, she also organized sessions designed to explain the publishing process to younger scholars.
Her position made her one of the few people with a wide range of acquaintance in all of the specialties which came together a generation ago to form science studies. At a time when some historians, philosophers, and sociologists thought of one another as pathogens rather than colleagues, she made a point of connecting scholars to one another, patiently encouraging the cross-disciplinary connections needed to build a real discipline. That sort of institution-building rarely makes it into the official accounts, but it is critical to the formation and strength of a field.
And now she's gone, and our meetings will be duller, dimmer affairs.
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