9e colloque de l'ESHS

9th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS)

Call for Papers

Bologna, 31 August-3 September 2020

The 9th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS), hosted by the Centre for the History of Universities and Science at the University of Bologna (CIS) and by the Italian Society for the History of Science (SISS), will take place in Bologna, from the 31st of August to the 3rd of September 2020. The theme of the 2020 meeting is “Visual, Material and Sensory Cultures of Science”. Sessions and talks might address the history of the sensory approaches to scientific objects, their material culture, as well as the building of scientific practices based on the use of the senses (vision, hearing, touch and smell), with particular attention to the history of the relationship between the visual arts and the sciences across nations, periods, and historiographies; visual epistemologies and the cultural practice of thinking scientifically with images; and the relationship between different media (print, photography, digital imaging, etc.) and scientific disciplines in various social, political, and economic contexts. Given the developments of the discipline in the past twenty years, we see this theme as particularly topical and capable of generating broad historical questions at the same time. This theme will provide ample opportunity to take stock and reflect on “sensory cultures” and on the “visual turn”, to assess their strengths and weaknesses, but also to explore their relationship with competing or overlapping historiographical trends such as the material and global history of science, medicine and technology.

The Scientific and Organizing Committees of ESHS 2020 invite proposals for symposia to be held during the conference, according to the following standard format: Four speakers in a 120-minute slot. The organiser will chair the symposium or may propose a chair (who may not be a speaker in the session) and if requested also a commentator. Each speaker presents one after another. The session is then open to questions and general discussion, which may be introduced by a commentator, if requested. In addition to the symposium abstract an abstract is required for the presentation of each speaker (but not for the commentator).

About Bologna: Bologna is one of the major centers for the study of the history of science in Italy, and this distinguished tradition goes back a long time. Since the later Middle Ages Bologna has been at the core of significant developments in European medicine, natural philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and a wide spectrum of other emerging scientific disciplines. Over the centuries, the city and its university have collected and preserved a vast amount of documentation that traces the practice and evolution of these disciplines within a variety of institutional and civic contexts. As a result, Bologna can praise itself for hosting some of the richest archives for the history of science and medicine in Europe. The anatomical teaching of Mondino de’ Liuzzi in the 14th century, the birth of one of the first proper scientific museums through the legacy of Ulisse Aldrovandi, and the development of mechanical philosophy around Marcello Malpighi are only three of the many scientific achievements associated with the city and its university that have attracted international scholars. By the late 19thcentury, Bologna hosted the first chairs in the history of medicine and mathematics, and immediately after the process of Italian unification it became one of the leading universities where different traditions in the historiography of science first developed in Italy. These traditions, now open to global influences, have continued to flourish to this day.

• Submission of symposium proposals closes 23.59GMT: 15 December 2019 
• Submission of individual paper proposals opens: 16 December 2019

For more information, please see: http://www.eshs.org/Bologna-ESHS-Conference.html and the conference dedicated website https://sites.google.com/view/eshsbologna2020/home