ESHS Symposium proposal: “Scientific practice in amateur research, c. 1850–1914: a study across disciplines”
Dear colleagues,
we would like to propose a symposium for next year’s ESHS conference (see below). We are still looking for additional speakers to complete our proposal on amateur science with talks from disciplines other than physics or astronomy.
If you are interested, we would appreciate if you could send us a title and abstract by January 6. Also, feel free to drop us a line if you are interested but have further questions.
Best wishes and apologies for cross-posting!
Johannes-Geert Hagmann, Benjamin Mirwald (Deutsches Museum)
we would like to propose a symposium for next year’s ESHS conference (see below). We are still looking for additional speakers to complete our proposal on amateur science with talks from disciplines other than physics or astronomy.
If you are interested, we would appreciate if you could send us a title and abstract by January 6. Also, feel free to drop us a line if you are interested but have further questions.
Best wishes and apologies for cross-posting!
Johannes-Geert Hagmann, Benjamin Mirwald (Deutsches Museum)
Symposium “Scientific practice in amateur research, c. 1850–1914: a study across disciplines”
Parallel to full-time professional research in science, there has always been amateur activity as well. Because “amateur science” is hard to define, historic research has to consider the fields amateurs were committed to, what kinds of knowledge they generated, how and with whom they performed their work.
As the call for papers points out, “the vertical model of diffusion [from academic to lay audiences] has been superseded by a horizontal conception of circulation and appropriation of science” in such a way that this conception is “blurring the distinction between the making and the communicating of science.” Amateur science is among the contradictory evidence to the vertical model. We therefore focus on scientific research carried out by amateurs who had not been employed in academia during their lifetime.
This symposium aims to cover not only the questions how amateurs took part in generating new knowledge, but also how they broadened, adapted or transformed scientific concepts. We welcome proposals for abstracts that address one or more of the following aspects:
Can one identify specific traits of amateur research? How does the content of amateur work relate to contemporary research in academia? Did amateurs mostly act in a self-determined manner or were they exploited as “resources” by professional actors? How were their agendas formed? How was amateur research funded? What networks of contacts did amateurs use? Since when have there been specialized journals and organizations for and by amateurs? How well developed was their cooperation on a national, European or international level? Which roles did amateurs have in education and what was their own educational background?
We plan to have one talk each on amateurs in physics (Johannes-Geert Hagmann) and on amateur astronomy (Benjamin Mirwald). We would be very glad to complete the symposium with examples from other areas such as chemistry, biology, geology, meteorology or mathematics. We believe a restriction to the period from around 1850 to 1914 would benefit to a comparative discussion among different disciplines.
Johannes-Geert Hagmann, Benjamin Mirwald
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Benjamin Mirwald
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter / research associate
Forschungsinstitut / research institute
Deutsches Museum
Museumsinsel 1
D-80538 München
T +49 (0)89 2179276