Symposium à la mémoire de John Pickstone

John Pickstone Memorial Symposium

Friday 20 June 2014

10.30 am – 5.00 pm

Grand Hall, Sackville Street Building, 

North Campus, University of Manchester

The aim of the day is to remember and celebrate John Pickstone’s contribution to the history of science, technology and medicine, and the history of the north-west, and to do so together with his family, friends, colleagues, the HSTM community and those working on the history of Manchester and the north-west.  John enjoyed discussion and conviviality.  We reflect these in the format for the day with four one-hour “seminars” and time for socialising, with a good lunch and drinks to end the day.  Each “seminar” will discuss one area of John’s work – we cannot cover it all!

10.30               Registration

11.00-11.05    Welcome

11.05-12.00    Physiology

Professor Christopher Lawrence (UCL) will introduce a discussion on John’s early work on French physiology.  The key text is 'Bureaucracy, Liberalism and the Body in Post- Revolutionary France', History of Science, 1981, 19, 115-42.

12.05-1.00      Fever and Public Health

Professor Christopher Hamlin (Notre Dame) will introduce a discussion on John’s work on public health medicine.  The key text is 'Dearth, dirt and fever epidemics: Revising the history of British public health 1780-1850', in P Slack and T Ranger, Epidemics and ideas: Essays on the historical perception of pestilence, CUP, 1992, 125-148.

1.00-2.00        Lunch

2.00-2.55        Big Picture Histories of HSTM

Professor Jon Agar (UCL) will introduce a discussion on John’s work on Big Picture histories.  The key text is 'Ways of Knowing: Towards a historical sociology of STM, British Journal for the History of Science, 1993, 26, 433-58.

2.55-3.20        Tea

3.20-4.15        Public Histories

Professor Hannah Barker (Manchester) will introduce a discussion of History and its publics.  The key reference point is the Manchester Histories Festival, which John founded. Details of the Festivals held in 2009, 2012 and 2014 are available at http://www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.uk/information/about

4.15-5.00        Reception

There is no charge for attendance at the Symposium, but registration is essential.  Please reserve a place by emailing chstm@manchester.ac.uk using Subject ‘JVP Memorial Symposium’ - giving your name, contact information and details of special dietary requirements.

The Sackville Street Building is adjacent to Piccadilly Station.  (Building 1 on campus map – see http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/maps/  

We will endeavour to make key texts available to attendees.