CfP: European Society for the History of Science, Biennial Conference, 2018
PANEL PROPOSAL AND CALL FOR PAPERS
European Society for the History of Science, Biennial Conference
UCL Institute of Education
London, 14-17 September, 2018
'Cultures, stars and numbers: intercultural exchanges in East Asian mathematics and astronomy.'
Organisers:
Christopher
Cullen (Needham Research Institute, Cambridge, UK); Daniel Morgan (CNRS
& Université Paris Diderot, Paris, France); Anjing Qu (Northwest
University, Xi’an, China); Quan Tang (Xianyang Normal University,
Xianyang, China)
Pre-modern
East Asia was the home of distinctive traditions in both mathematics
and astronomy. During the first millennium CE these traditions, first
developed in China, became common to the whole region, including Korea
and Japan. Within the broad theme of the conference, ‘Unity and
Disunity’, the aim of this panel is to encourage discussion of relevant
issues in a regional and global historical and cultural context.
Despite
their common roots, the theory and practice of mathematics and
astronomy was by no means uniform across the whole East Asian land-mass.
It is thus illuminating to trace the way that elements of these
disciplines were appropriated, adapted and developed as they moved
across regional and cultural boundaries. Moreover, pre-modern East Asia
was highly permeable to the flow of ideas from the rest of the Eurasian
continent - first from South Asia in the context of the coming of
Buddhism in the first millennium CE, then from the Islamicate world from
the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) onwards, and finally from early modern
Europe with the arrival of Jesuit Christian missionaries in the later
part of the 16th century. The complex interactions that followed from
these contacts are revealing not only of the nature of the East Asian
traditions in astronomy and mathematics, but also of the traditions that
scholars in East Asia encountered afresh.
We
seek suggestions for paper topics from scholars working in any relevant
area. Given the short time that is likely to be available for
submissions (of the order of 20 minutes or less), we are particularly
interested in suggestions for well-focussed and specific contributions
that can be shared effectively with a broadly-based audience within
those constraints. Those interested are invited to submit a title and a
short draft abstract to: tangquan74@163.com before 11 December, 2017.