ESHS Symposium CFP: “Science Center History” - Lisbon, 4-6 Sept. 2013
Dear
colleagues,
I would like to suggest a symposium for the 2014 conference of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS), which seeks to explore the history of the “Science Center” - broadly understood.
I would like to suggest a symposium for the 2014 conference of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS), which seeks to explore the history of the “Science Center” - broadly understood.
Symposium “Science Center History”
Key
questions comprise:
*
When and why did a new “medium” for science communication became necessary?
Given
the 400+ science centers in operation today, this question may receive a
variety of different answers depending on time, location and central actors.
*
What forms of interactive science museums can we find in history and in what
sense are they precursors of today’s science centers and their philosophy?
Interactive
exhibits can be traced back to the 19th century and even earlier; for general
audiences one may mention the Berlin Urania, Museums in Munich and Vienna, the
Children’s Gallery of the London Science Museum, Science and Technology Museums
in Chicago, New York and Boston, the Paris Palais de la decouverte etc.
*
To what extent are science centers idiosyncratic creations of strong
individuals?
The
San Francisco Exploratorium is mostly seen as Frank Oppenheimer’s sole
creation, as was the Deutsches Museum with Oskar von Miller, the Bosten Museum
of Science with Bradford Washburn, the Bristol Exploratory with Richard
Gregory, the CosmoCaixa in Barcelona with Jorge Wagensberg etc.
The conference takes place in Lisbon, Sept. 4-6, 2013, cf. http://eshs2014.ciuhct.com/
If
you are interested to contribute to one of the topics indicated, please send a
brief proposal, preferably already in terms of title and abstract, to Arne.Schirrmacher@hu-berlin.de
until Jan. 8.
--
Dr. Arne Schirrmacher
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
Institut für Geschichtswissenschaften
Unter den Linden 6 | 10099 Berlin
Office: Mohrenstraße 40/41, Raum 340
Tel. -49-30-2093-70528 oder -49-30-850121-09
http://histscicom.hu-berlin.de/