# HISTSCI 2993: Agnotology: The History of Knowledge and Ignorance Semester: Fall | Year offered: 2026 | Link: [Course Website](https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/169396) With Professor Naomi Oreskes on Monday at 3:00-5:00 pm Historians of science have traditionally been concerned with the production of scientific knowledge, but in recent years have turned their attention to the production of ignorance. This course focuses on the production of ignorance as a social, political, cultural, economic and epistemic question, with attention both to techniques of deliberate ignorance production, and to the inadvertent and often uncontested production of ignorance that arises from accepted research practices and from the conditions that shape the direction and forms of scientific inquiry. --- [### Naomi Oreskes ](/people/naomi-oreskes) Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences ON LEAVE SPRING 2026 Primary Areas of Research: Agnotology; the Political Economy of Scientific Knowledge; History and Philosophy of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Science and Technology Studies (STS); the History of Climate Change Disinformation Secondary Areas of... ![Naomi Oreskes](/sites/g/files/omnuum9516/files/styles/hwp_4_5__690x865/public/hos/files/naomi_oreskes.jpg?itok=Wv6gFtmR)