CfP: Perspectives for the history of the life sciences: New themes, new sources, new approaches
Date: October 30 – November 1, 2015
Location: Munich, Germany
Organizers: Kärin Nickelsen (LMU Munich) and Robert
Meunier (University of Kassel)
There are themes in the biological and biomedical
sciences that, for good reasons, play a disproportionate role in the
historiography, such as evolutionary theory, genetics, molecular biology or
medical bacteriology. In recent years, the history of the life sciences has
widened its scope and looked beyond these undoubtedly important developments.
And yet, there are still many areas in the biological sciences and many aspects
of medicine that have not received the attention they deserve, such as, to name
only a few, plant physiology, agricultural sciences, microbiology, research in
metabolism, or the dissemination of biological technologies. More recent
developments in the life sciences, those from the 1970s and 80s, have hardly
been studied at all. The exploration of these, in particular, would greatly
benefit from a closer connection between historiographies of the biological
sciences, medicine and technology – as well as from an enhanced dialogue with
philosophical and social studies of science, and their conceptual frameworks.
The conference aims to bring together historians of
biology, medicine and related fields, as well as scholars in philosophy or
social studies of science who address historical questions, in order to present
and discuss new research directions in the history of the life sciences. The
conference will be limited to the modern period, with a slight preference for
contributions to the history of the more recent past. We encourage
contributions that focus on new themes, or under-investigated fields; that make
use of novel types of sources; or that develop new approaches to studying the
generation, dissemination and transformation of knowledge about life and living
things. We are particularly interested in studies that integrate approaches
from the history, philosophy and/or social studies of science; this by no means
implies, however, that “pure” historiography of relatively neglected themes and
sources will be any less welcome.
We invite submissions of abstracts for individual
presentations of 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes of discussion. Abstracts
should not exceed 250-300 words. Please submit titles and abstracts by 28
February 2015 to: K.Nickelsen@lmu.de
Hotel accommodations for two nights will be provided for
those whose papers are accepted. There may be limited financial support for
participants travelling from outside Europe. There are no conference fees, but
participation in the conference dinner will be at the attendee’s expense.