9th STEP MEETING - Session on scientific biography - CfP

9TH STEP MEETING - LISBON, 1-3 SEPTEMBER 2014

SESSION PROPOSAL

by:

Luís Miguel Carolino  (ISCTE – Lisbon University Institute)

Pedro M. P. Raposo (Inter-University Centre for the History of Science and Technology, Lisbon)

Teresa Salomé Mota (Inter-University Centre for the History of Science and Technology, Lisbon)

Life at the centre: is scientific biography the next STEP?  

RATIONALE:

In the course of the twentieth century, biography was often disregarded in history of science due to its perceived positivist leanings. Social studies of science did not value it either, as they assigned a lesser role to individual contributions. However, over the last decades scientific biography has unmistakably gained historiographical currency. It is now widely accepted that biography can be used to integrate the individual and the collective, the intellectual and the institutional contexts of science, and generally the cultural, political, social and economic factors involved in the production of knowledge. Used in varied ways, the genre has grown in popularity. As a result, the role, scope and impact of biographical studies are now discussed by an increasing number of historians. By proposing this session, we intend to bring this discussion into STEP. We are especially interested in exploring biography in connection with transnational and comparative approaches.  Questions we would like to address include: what can biography tell us about the interplay between individual and collective dimensions of knowledge production, in geographical areas, networks and communities usually associated with the notion of “periphery” (European or otherwise)? Are there scientific lives that we may call “peripheral”? Is the centre-periphery dichotomy of any use to elucidate idiosyncratic and existential aspects of the scientific life? Does the dichotomy resist when such aspects are brought to the fore?

If you would like to contribute please send your abstract (max. 300 words) to: pmraposo@fc.ul.pt before 31 December.