CfP: ESHS-BSHS Symposium on 20th-century Biological Syntheses
Synthesis or Syntheses?: Unity and Disunity in 20th-Century Biology
The Modern Evolutionary Synthesis (ca. 1930-1950) is supposed to
have forged a neo-Darwinian orthodoxy has provided the foundations of
evolutionary theory ever since. However, today there are active debates
surrounding the evolutionary synthesis: should
we stick with it? Extend it? Scrap it altogether? This means the
foundations of ‘The Evolutionary Synthesis’ are, as we speak, being
revisited and reflected upon by historians, philosophers and scientists
themselves.
In this symposium we are interested not just in critically
examining those foundations, but also in challenging the narrative that
there occurred
a (singular) synthesis in evolutionary biology in the early/mid
20th-century. We suspect that there were in fact myriad syntheses being
forged, amongst various disciplines and in different national contexts,
not to mention the personal syntheses negotiated
and achieved in the minds and life-works of individual scientists. By
paying attention to these various issues, we hope a picture will emerge
of a disunity of various and diverse attempts to achieve unity in
biology.
Relevant topics would include (but are not limited to):
- Challenges to standard narratives of 'The Modern Synthesis'
- Transnational evolutionary syntheses / the 'synthesis' in different national contexts
- Syntheses between biology and other disciplines (human/social sciences, philosophy, physical sciences, etc.)
- 'Personal' syntheses, i.e. in the work of particular scientists / departments / institutions
As the deadline for symposium
proposals is fast approaching, we ask that anyone interested in
partcipating send titles and abstracts to
prama@leeds.ac.uk by 12pm (noon) GMT/UTC on
Monday 4th December. Please also get in contact if you have any questions/queries about our proposal.