“Science and satire: Satirical representations in the circulation of scientific knowledge in the public sphere”
Call for Papers for a session at the ESHS conference
(Lisbon, 4-6 September 2014)
“Science and satire:
Satirical representations in the circulation of scientific knowledge in
the public sphere”
Organisers: Markian Prokopovych (University of Vienna)
and Katalin Straner (Central European University, Budapest)
The study of the circulation and communication of
scientific knowledge in the public sphere, especially in the urban space, has
received increasing attention by historians of science in recent years. The
“urban turn”, that is, the study of the increasingly complex relationship of
the scientific community and urban society, provides a useful spatial and
cultural framework for the study of the public dissemination of scientific
ideas. Public image has increasingly become a central concept in situating
science in its contemporary cultures and as boundaries between the scientific
community and the public have become increasingly blurred, new visual, textual
and discursive representations of scientific ideas have emerged. Satire and
caricature became popular forms of cultural and social commentary by the 19th
century, and as such, not only did they often “present the voice of the public”
[Browne 2003: 183], indicating a level of familiarity with scientific
developments in the public sphere, but they also served as (often visual) aids
for science dissemination and popularization.
The papers in this session will engage with the new,
satirical constructions of the scientific world view in the urban public sphere
of the 19th century. Expressions of popular humour – such as satirical
literature, articles in the urban press, caricatures, or cartoons – reflected
different perceptions about the role of science in society: the urban press and
its audience created new cultures of science where they used satire to
participate in and reflect on a world otherwise limited to them, at the same time
often expressing uncertainty with the rapidly growing body of new, potentially
controversial knowledge about scientific development and its social and
cultural consequences (e.g. the popularity of evolutionary theory as a source
of humour). The session will thus be concerned with the satirical constructions
of the scientific world view communicated towards, but also created by the
public: papers in the session will address, on one hand, the role of satire in
the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge (at least according to
the agendas of writers, journalists, caricaturists, or their editors and
publishers), and on the other, the formative effect of the urban press and its
readers on the circulation of science in the public sphere.
Please send your proposed title and abstract by 6 January
2014 to Katalin Straner (stranerk@ceu-budapest.edu)
Dr Katalin Straner
Junior Research Fellow
Pasts, Inc. Center for Historical Studies Central
European University Nador u. 9
H-1051 Budapest