Colloque de la BSHS

The British Society for the History of Science Annual Conference

Call for papers

The British Society for the History of Science Annual Conference will take place from Wednesday 20 July to Saturday 23 July 2022 at the Queen’s University of Belfast.


The Conferences Committee now invites proposals for individual papers and for sessions from historians of science, technology, and medicine, and from their colleagues in the wider scholarly community, on any theme, topic or period. Proposals are welcomed from researchers of all nationalities at all stages of their careers. The Committee is particularly anxious to encourage diversity in its sessions, therefore please follow the guidance on our website when proposing sessions [see, https://www.bshs.org.uk/about-society/equality-and-diversity-statement].


Submission of abstracts is not restricted to members of the society, but membership will be included and added to the conference fee for any non-members whose papers/abstracts are accepted


Offers of papers and sessions should be submitted to programmes@bshs.org.uk

Proposals for individual papers should include an abstract of no more than 250 words, be comprehensible to a non-specialist audience and avoid footnotes. Sessions, of either ninety minutes or two hours, should normally consist of three or four papers. They may also have a commentator. Proposals for alternative types of session, such as ‘round-tables’, are strongly encouraged. Please discuss your ideas for such alternative sessions well in advance of the submission deadline.

All enquiries about the programme arrangements should also be addressed to programmes@bshs.org.uk

The deadline for proposals is Friday 4 February 2022.


Please note that this conference will be held in person only. Unless forced to move completely online there will be no facility for presenting or attending remotely. Note that in 2023 we will host a completely online event.

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Conference Venue and Events

The 2022 BSHS conference will take place on the main campus of Queens University Belfast. The QUB campus is on the southern edge of Belfast city centre, adjacent to Botanic Gardens. It is within walking distance of City Hall, just over a kilometre away, and is also connected to the city centre by bus. Botanic, a five minute walk, is the nearest train station. Belfast is well connected by ferry to Scotland and England, and by bus and rail to Dublin, which also has ferry connections to Wales.

Belfast has a rich scientific and industrial heritage. It is the birthplace of distinguished scientists such as Lord Kelvin, John Stewart Bell and Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the site of John Tyndall’s infamous presidential address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1874, and the home of inventions as diverse as milk of magnesia, artificial fertiliser, the pneumatic tyre, the portable defibrillator and the ejector seat.

The conference will run from the evening of Wednesday 20th July until the early afternoon of Saturday 23rd July (with sessions starting on the 21st July). There will be plenary addresses by the President of the BSHS, Charlotte Sleigh, David Livingstone, and Jaipreet Virdi. Alongside three days of thematic parallel sessions, visits and workshops with local archives, including Special Collections at QUB, and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, have been arranged, as have activities with local heritage organisations such as the Irish Linen Centre and the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society. A welcoming reception on the opening night will feature dinner in the Great Hall at Queens, and the conference dinner will be served in the atrium of the Ulster Museum, just across Botanic Gardens from campus.

The conference package will include bed and breakfast accommodation in Queens Elms, a short walk from campus along the Malone Read. Belfast has much to offer visitors, with museums such as the Titanic Museum, Crumlin Road Gaol, and the Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, heritage tours on themes from the Troubles to Game of Thrones, and St George’s Market. The UNESCO world heritage site at the Giant’s Causeway is within easy reach by public transport, as is Dublin and the walled city of Derry.

Host Institution

Queens University Belfast was established by royal charter in 1845, as one of the constituent colleges of the Queen’s University in Ireland. A member of the Russell Group, it is ranked 8th in the UK for research intensity. Its historians of science include Peter Bowler, David Livingstone, Diarmid Finnegan, and Hiroki Shin.