CFP. “Science and Religion in the Periphery”



CFP. “Science and Religion in the Periphery”
Dear STEPers,
In the run-up for the next meeting in Lisbon in September next year I would like to open a CFP for contributions within a panel on science and religion in the (European) periphery. Two are the main areas of interest I am thinking of:
1) "Science and Religion” is a topic of much interest among historians of science, scientists and the general public in the English-speaking world (Britain and the USA), but it does not have the same impact in countries at the European periphery. My first interest would be to explore why this is the case. Some elements that come to my mind are the differing roles of national religions and churches (not necessarily synonymous) in European countries, the lack of freedom of speech in some clerical contexts, or the propaganda by some positivistic stances in denying any public or epistemic role to such religions and churches.
2) Specific case studies on the way religious ideas and church institutions may or may have not influenced the development of specific scientific ideas or practices. Could one, for example, think of episodes in the history of science in local European contexts along the lines of Crosbie Smith’s study on the influence of certain brand of puritanism in the development of modern thermodynamics? (Crosbie Smith, The Science of Energy, 1998)
I am sure that some of you will have better ideas that may add up to an interesting panel.
If you are interested, please send me an e-mail to jaume.navarro@ehu.es by December 1st, since we need to submit a final proposal by mid-December.

Dr. Jaume Navarro
Ikerbasque Research Professor
UPV/EHU
Santamaria Zentroa, D10
Plaza Elhuyar 2, 20018, Donostia (Spain)
Phone: +34 943017424