Petr Pavlas, Lenka Řezníková, Lucie Storchová (eds.) Cognitive Metaphors and Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Exploring Semantic Transformations in Early Modernity

Petr Pavlas, Lenka Řezníková, Lucie Storchová (eds.) Cognitive Metaphors and Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Exploring Semantic Transformations in Early Modernity. Praha: Filosofický časopis a Filosofia, 2025 ISBN: 978-80-7007-810-5 

Special Issue of The Philosophical Journal 1/2025. OPEN ACCESS: https://filcasop.flu.cas.cz/images/PDF_NA_WEB/MC_2025_01/FC-2025-1-special-issue.pdf

Metaphors in science, philosophy, and the arts are fundamental to the history of thought, serving not only to simplify complex matters but also to foster invention, speculation, and theory. Among other functions, they played an important role in the emergence of modern ideas of the encyclopaedia and encyclopaedism, thereby contributing to programs of universal knowledge, general education, and, more recently, open science. While conceptual history is widely recognised as crucial and has been thoroughly studied, the history of metaphors has so far remained in the background. This publication aims to bring it to the forefront.

Petr Pavlas, Lenka Řezníková, Lucie Storchová: Editorial

Alessandro Nannini: Georgics of the Mind: Cultivation of the Self as Agriculture in the Early Modern Age

Petr Pavlas: From Circle to Book: The Evolution of Metaphors and the Birth of Early Modern Encyclopaedism

Lenka Řezníková: The Metaphor of Harmony in Early Modern Knowledge Organisation: Comeniusʼ Pansophy Caught between Aesthetics and Mechanics

Lucie Storchová: Metaphors of the Human Heart and Their Epistemological Shifts after 1600: A Case Study in Changes in Wittenberg Natural Philosophy and Discourses of Power

Martin Žemla: See, Hear, Taste: Sensory Metaphors and Their Use before and in Paracelsianism

Márton Szentpéteri: Metaphors of Universal Architecture and the Architecture of Vanities in Miklós Bethlen’s Works

Call for Papers: The Role of Academies in the Co-Evolution of Science and the State

 Call for Papers: The Role of Academies in the Co-Evolution of Science and the State

The European Academies' Research Initiative, EARI, is organising a workshop on "The Role of Academies in the Co-Evolution of Science and the State", to take place at the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in Halle (Saale) on 4-6 November 2026. The EARI Steering Committee is issuing a call for papers for presentation at this event. Details: https://www.leopoldina.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Dokumente/2026_Call_for_papers_EARI_Workshop.pdf

Interested researchers are called to submit an abstract of no more than 500 words and short academic CV by 1 April 2026 to Christiane.Diehl@leopoldina.org.

Applicants will be notified of acceptance by 30 April 2026.

A limited number of travel grants for junior researchers will be available.

Kontakt

Dr. Christiane Diehl

christiane.diehl@leopoldina.org

[Image: Pressebild 61572, Versammlung in der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Berlin, der ehemaligen Hauptstadt der DDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik. https://www.ddrbildarchiv.de/info/ddr-fotos/versammlung-akademie-wissenschaften-berlin-ehemaligen-hauptstadt-ddr-deutsche-demokratische-republik-61572.html)

𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐚 𝐂𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞

 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐡 𝐄𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐚 𝐂𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐞𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, annually organized by Ceraneum, 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞

Uniwersytet Łódzki, 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝, 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐌𝐚𝐲 𝟕 𝐭𝐨 𝟗, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔.

If you have a keen interest in the 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞, of Late Antiquity, Byzantium, and the medieval Slavs, this is an event you won't want to miss!

The conference will take place in a hybrid format, allowing participants to join both in person and online, and it will delve into a diverse range of thematic areas, including the 𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐟𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐞.

𝐃𝐫. 𝐂𝐡𝐫𝐲𝐬𝐬𝐚 𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐛𝐨𝐮 from the Ephorate of Antiquities of Chania, Hellenic Ministry of Culture, and 𝐃𝐫. 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐬-𝐉𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 from the University of Glasgow, will be the plenary speakers.

Please submit your proposals for panels or round tables, including the list of confirmed speakers, as well as individual submissions, 𝐛𝐲 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟐𝟖, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, to colloquia.ceranea@uni.lodz.pl

For more details and application forms, click on the following link: https://www.ceraneum.uni.lodz.pl/colloquia-ceranea

Conference of Junior Scholars in East European Studies

Call for Papers: 33. Tagung Junger Osteuropa-Expert*innen / 33rd Conference of Junior Scholars in the Field of East European Studies (JOE)

The annual Conference of Junior Scholars in East European Studies will take place from 11-13 June 2026 in Hamburg. The conference aims to bring together scholars from various disciplines with a focus on Eastern Europe, namely advanced students, PhD candidates, and young scholars who have already completed their doctoral research. The conference encourages all participants to present and discuss their research projects with other prospective scholars and qualified professionals. The conference provides an overview of current research projects on East Central and Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia in the German-speaking area. It enables interdisciplinary exchange and networking among young scholars.

We look forward to receiving your project outlines from the humanities and the social sciences, from law, economics, and related disciplines.

In addition, proposals for panels consisting of three thematically coherent contributions may be suggested. Contributions can be submitted in German and English. Passive knowledge of the German language is necessary as there will be no simultaneous interpretation.

The conference is organized by the German Association for East European Studies (DGO), dem Institute for Slavic Studies along with the professorship for History of Eastern Europe at the University of Hamburg, the professorship for History of Eastern and Central Eastern Europe at the Helmut Schmidt University / University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg, and the Northeast Institute at the University of Hamburg (IKGN). The costs for accommodation and catering are covered by the organizers. Travel expenses will not be refunded.

Suggestions for individual projects:

An abstract of 400 words max. relating the research question, findings, theoretical ap-proach and method;

Five keywords to summarize the thematic focus along with a designation of the region and period of research;

Information about the status of the research project and its institutional affiliation.

Suggestions for panels:

A summary of 200 words max. including the title, topic, and target of the panel;

Abstracts and information on the individual texts (as above);

Five keywords to summarize the thematic focus along with a designation of the region and period of research;

A panel should consist of three speakers and represent at least two different institutions. A chair will be provided by the organizers.

Please send your applications by 15 February 2026 to joe-tagung@dgo-online.org

Selection decisions will be communicated by early March 2026.

In case of acceptance, participants will have to submit a German or English-language paper (3.000 words max.) by 11 May 2026. It will be made accessible to the other participants prior to the conference.

Unfortunately, projects that have already been presented cannot be considered.

CFP: Democracy on the Edge: Science, Technology and Political Promise in Central and Eastern Europe, Panel at EASST 2026

 We invite submissions to the combined-format open panel:

Democracy on the Edge: Science, Technology and Political Promise in Central and Eastern Europe

EASST 2026 – Combined Format Open Panel (CB212), September 8-11, 2026, Kraków

Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has long lived “on the edge” of empires, political cultures, economic systems, and ways of knowing. Today it again occupies a liminal position within global sociotechnical transformations—from energy transitions to digitalisation. Through a panel discussion and two paper-based workshops, Democracy on the Edge invites researchers from and beyond CEE to examine forms of life, value, and sociotechnical imaginaries at the edge.

Here, the edge functions both as metaphor and method: a site of instability, friction, and creativity with which to interrogate implicit norms of sociotechnical progress. The sessions draw on STS scholarship linking political cultures and institutions with science and technology (Sheila Jasanoff on co-production; Yaron Ezrahi on democracy and imagination; Kaushik Sunder Rajan and Adriana Petryna on citizenship), while engaging concepts deeply rooted in CEE experience—imitation, precarity, performance, and development.

We invite empirical (historical and contemporary) and theoretical contributions that reflect on transitions, the role of computing in CEE pasts and futures, and the (often failed or suspended) promises shaping regional imaginaries. Central themes include, but are not limited to:

1989 ↔ 2025: cyclical transitions, generational imaginaries, constitutional moments

Infrastructure: political, scientific, and technological layering over time

Geography and identity: borders, peripheries, rescaled belongings

Materialities of transition: from energy grids to neural networks

Temporal edges: anticipation, delay, suspension

The panel is open to scholars at all career stages. While grounded in Central and Eastern Europe, we encourage contributions that place CEE in comparative or global perspective, especially with other regions that share elements of the ‘democracy on the edge’ identity in today’s rapidly transforming techno-political realities, from Taiwan to India to the United States. 

Please note that, in order to make the paper-based workshops successful, accepted contributors are expected to share a draft of their paper with panel participants in advance of the conference. 

Abstracts due February 28, 2026. Panel details and submission link:https://nomadit.co.uk/conference/easst2026/p/18260

We look forward to your submissions and to collectively exploring what it means to study democracy, science, and technology from the edge—without assuming the centre knows best.

Best regards,

Panel organizers:

Tadeusz Józef Rudek (Jagiellonian University)

Margarita Boenig-Liptsin (ETH Zürich)

Aleksandra Wagner (Jagiellonian University)

Sebastian Pfotenhauer (Technical University of Munich)

Anna Lytvynova (ETH Zürich)

Oliwia Mandrela (Jagiellonian University)

Alexander Wentland (Technical University of Munich)

Monika Wulz (Leuphana University)

Miroslav Vodrážka: Systémově zneužitá a zneužívající Československá psychiatrie v Soft-sovětském stylu (1948-1989) [Systemically abused and abusive Czechoslovak psychiatry in the Soft-Soviet style (1948-1989)].

 Miroslav Vodrážka: Systémově zneužitá a zneužívající Československá psychiatrie v Soft-sovětském stylu (1948-1989) [Systemically abused and abusive Czechoslovak psychiatry in the Soft-Soviet style (1948-1989)]. Muzeum paměti XX.století , Ústav pro studium totalitních režimů 2025. ISBN: 978-80-53066-04-4

Tato kritická studie dokládá na základě konkrétních dobových příkladů, že pojem „zneužívání psychiatrie“ je třeba definovat a pojímat v širším slova smyslu, a to zejména z hlediska jeho realizace v rámci totalitárního systému. Zároveň je i historickým příspěvkem k problému vyrovnání se s minulostí.

Dosavadní úzké chápání pojmu redukuje problém pouze na zneužívání odborných lékařských znalostí či tzv. „chybných diagnóz“, terapeutických postupů, účelových teorií a využívání lékařů-psychiatrů, kteří se stávali nástroji perzekuce vůči oponentům režimu. To ale nepostihuje a zejména nevysvětluje komplexně historický problém zneužívání československé psychiatrie v soft-sovětském stylu v letech 1948–1989, včetně otázky, proč se i někteří přední psychiatři stávali agenty Státní bezpečnosti a někteří z nich byli přímo řízeni sovětskou tajnou službou KGB.

New publication: Translation Studies before ‘Translation Studies’. Nothing happened?

 Translation Studies before ‘Translation Studies’. Nothing happened?

Edited by Kathryn Batchelor and Iryna Odrekhivska

UCL Press

Free download: https://bit.ly/4nglVku

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Translation Studies before ‘Translation Studies’ challenges the established historical narratives of ‘translation studies’ by showcasing some of the rich traditions of debate, research and theorising that happened around the world in the centuries prior to the supposed beginnings of the discipline. The volume includes selected extracts by scholars and translators from the ‘nothing happened’ period. Beginning in Ancient Rome, the volume moves through Medieval China and India, Early Modern Europe, the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe, Africa, Asia, the Arab World and South America, before concluding with 20-century extracts from countries such as Brazil, Ukraine, Poland, China, Netherlands and Slovakia.

The extracts are accompanied by contextualising essays that explore the ideas presented in the context of their time, as well as providing a link between these writers and the concepts of post-1972 translation studies. All of the extracts were originally written in languages other than English and most make their debut here in English translation, amplifying the accessibility and significance of these previously overlooked contributions.