CfP: Women and the chemical elements
Call for
contributions, book project Women in their
element
In 2019, the 150th anniversary of
Mendeleev’s first publication of the Periodic Table of
Elements will be
celebrated, and UNESCO has declared 2019 as the
International Year of the
Periodic Table. Of the many publications dealing with the
history of the
Periodic Table, few texts deal with women’s contributions.
We are planning a
collective volume on women and their contribution to the
building and the
understanding of the Periodic Table and of the elements
themselves. The volume
has the title Women
in their element:
Selected women’s contributions to the periodic system and
will be edited by
Annette Lykknes and Brigitte Van Tiggelen.
However, while a book on women’s
work will help make historical women chemists more visible,
we do not intend to
create new stories of heroines in the sciences. Rather, we
would like to shed
light on the multifaceted character of the work on the
chemical elements and
their periodic relationships. Stories of female input, we
believe, will
contribute to the understanding of the nature of science, of
collaboration as
opposed to the
traditional depiction of the lone genius.
While the discovery of elements will be
a natural part of our collective
work, we aim to go beyond discovery histories. We are
seeking stories of female
contributors to the chemistry of the elements, to
understanding the concept of
element, identifying properties, developing analytical
methods, finding
applications of elements and their impact on health and
environment, and other
ways in which women’s contributions are intertwined with the
history of the
Periodic Table and the chemical elements.
There are two primary readerships
for this book: academics in the history of science (a
specialist readership)
and historically interested, science curious adult audiences
(an advanced
readership). This book will also be a useful reference tool
for those who want
to introduce historical aspects or insights in the teaching
of chemistry, at
undergraduate or even high school level.
As for the selection of women, we aim
to include pre-periodic table
contributions as well as recent discoveries, unknown stories
as well as more
famous ones. The main emphasis will understandably be on
work conducted in the
late 19th century and 20th century.
Furthermore, we
intend to include elements from different groups in the
periodic table, so as
to represent a variety of chemical contexts. We propose to
include c. 35
contributions of 4-5 printed pages
each, including illustrations.
If you are
interested in contributing a chapter to this volume, please
send an abstract of
250-500 words to annette.lykknes@ntnu.no no later than 20 August. The selection will be
made no later than 1
September.
Tentative
schedule:
15 October:
Deadline for submission of manuscript
15
November: Result of review of manuscripts
20
December: Deadline for submission of final version of book
chapter