Workshop CfP: Material cultures of urban knowledge communities, 1500-1800
Workshop on the material cultures of urban knowledge communities, 1500-1800 - University of Kent, 6 July 2018
Histories of early modern science and technology have been transformed
in recent decades by an engagement with artefacts, materials, and
diverse practitioners and sites of knowledge production.
This workshop seeks to explore the connections between scientific
knowledge - broadly understood as learned natural knowledge,
experimental inquiry, technical know-how, and perhaps experiential craft
skills - and material cultures in early modern cities. We are
interested in how the built and material environments of cities impacted
upon knowledge creation, display, and dissemination, and the ways in
which scientific material cultures shaped contemporary understandings of
the urban or civic.
We welcome papers on urban knowledge cultures that engage with:
• material and visual cultures
• object collections
• materials and materiality
• makers/practitioners
• the material fabric of sites of epistemological production
• urban infrastructure projects and associated technologies (e.g. fortifications, bridges, river management)
• innovative methodological approaches to early modern material cultures and epistemic contexts
• approaches to teaching ‘scientific’ material cultures.
We particularly encourage contributions that enrich our understanding of
urban ‘scientific’ networks of exchange, and vernacular practices and
knowledge cultures.
This workshop will be held on Friday 6th July 2018 at the University of
Kent, Canterbury. This event is part of the Leverhulme Trust-funded
Metropolitan Science project (https://metsci.wordpress.com) in the Centre for the History of the Sciences.
To propose a twenty-minute paper, please send a title and abstract of no more than 300 words, to J.Kilburn-Toppin-551@kent.ac.
There is no registration fee for this workshop. We will offer support
for travel to postgraduate students whose papers are accepted for the
workshop.
Organised by Rebekah Higgitt, Noah Moxham, and Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin.