The Scientific Conference: a Social, Cultural, and Political History

L'atelier "The Scientific Conference: a Social, Cultural, and Political History" se tiendra les 10 et 11 mai 2022 à Londres.

A collaborative research project funded by HERA’s fourth joint research programme, “Public Spaces: Culture and Integration in Europe”

International conferences are standard features of scientific life today. Since their emergence, in the second half of the nineteenth century, some 170 000 of them are estimated to have taken place. Still the reasons for this rise, and the functions that conferences have fulfilled in scientific practice, have rarely been studied.

In a new joint research project, “The Scientific Conference: a Social, Cultural, and Political History” (SciConf), a European team of scholars will study conferences, not as a background for other, ‘real’ action, but as a phenomenon to be grasped in itself. What happened at scientific conferences? How have they exchanged knowledge and shaped expertise? What forms of sociability have developed in these meetings, what rituals have been performed? How have scientific conferences embodied social hierarchies and international relations? How have they informed policies on relevant subjects? The project will look at conferences as “public spaces” and address these questions through that lens.

Plus d'informations sur le projet : https://sciconf.nu/

Partenaires principaux : Centre Alexandre-Koyré (Charlotte Bigg, CAK, CNRS) ; Uppsala Universitet, Uppsala, Suède ; Birkbeck, Londres, UK ; Maastricht University, Maastricht, Pays-Bas ; Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Pays-Bas