CfP: 9º ENCONTRO LUSO-BRASILEIRO DE HISTÓRIA DA MATEMÁTICA, 12-16 outubro, Setúbal. Portugal

THEMATIC SYMPOSIUM: The astronomy textbooks in higher education institutions in the Portuguese-speaking world (XVIII-XX century)

The symposium will bring together historians of mathematics and astronomy and will analyze the astronomy textbooks published in Portuguese (originals or translations) and in use in Brazil and Portugal in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries.

In this period, astronomy underwent rapid and profound changes. Throughout the 18th century, astronomy, which focused almost exclusively on astrometry and the celestial mechanics of the solar system, evolved into new scientific areas due to the great experimental innovations that were made. The study of electrical and magnetic phenomena and light are research themes that received the attention of many astronomers, and astronomy has opened up to new fields, such as astrophysics.

At the same time, with the creation of national technical and scientific education systems, astronomy education was thoroughly reorganised and systematised. New disciplines and textbooks appeared in higher education institutions.

The adopted textbooks and compendia, as well as the notebooks of teachers and students, are undoubtedly valuable sources for acquiring a more precise knowledge not only of the evolution of the astronomical sciences, but also of the subjects taught (or intended to be taught), as well as of the teaching/learning process that takes place in the various schools and institutions.

This symposium is organized by Fernando B. Figueiredo, Heloísa Gesteira, Luis Miguel Carolino and Thomas Haddad. It aims to explore and reassess the meaning and role of textbooks or written materials in general, for the teaching of astronomy, in the context of education and research in Brazilian and Portuguese institutions.

We invite proposals for paper presentations of 25 mins.

Please send your abstract (between 10 and 30 lines, including some bibliography), accompanied by brief biographical details to Fernando B. Figueiredo (fernandobfigueiredo@gmail.com), or Thomas Haddad (thaddad@usp.br), by June 1.