Thursday 17 October 2019

Bologna ESHS Conference 2020

For more information, submission and registration please use the




The 9th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS), hosted by the Centre for the History of Universities and Science at the University of Bologna (CIS) and by the Italian Society for the History of Science (SISS), will take place in Bologna, from the 31st of August to the 3rd of September 2020.

The theme of the 2020 meeting is “Visual, Material and Sensory Cultures of Science”, a very broad and inclusive topic. Sessions and talks might address the history of the sensory approaches to scientific objects, their material culture, as well as the building of scientific practices based on the use of the senses (vision, hearing, touch and smell), with particular attention to the history of the relationship between the visual arts and the sciences across nations, periods, and historiographies; visual epistemologies and the cultural practice of thinking scientifically with images; and the relationship between different media (print, photography, digital imaging, etc.) and scientific disciplines in various social, political, and economic contexts. Given the developments of the discipline in the past twenty years, we see this theme as particularly topical and capable of generating broad historical questions at the same time. This theme will provide ample opportunity to take stock and reflect on “sensory cultures” and on the “visual turn”, to assess their strengths and weaknesses, but also to explore their relationship with competing or overlapping historiographical trends such as the material and global history of science, medicine and technology.

Bologna is one of the major centers for the study of the history of science in Italy, and this distinguished tradition goes back a long time. Since the later Middle Ages Bologna has been at the core of significant developments in European medicine, natural philosophy, mathematics, astronomy and a wide spectrum of other emerging scientific disciplines. Over the centuries, the city and its university have collected and preserved a vast amount of documentation that traces the practice and evolution of these disciplines within a variety of institutional and civic contexts. As a result, Bologna can praise itself for hosting some of the richest archives for the history of science and medicine in Europe. The anatomical teaching of Mondino de’ Liuzzi in the 14th century, the birth of one of the first proper scientific museums through the legacy of Ulisse Aldrovandi, and the development of mechanical philosophy around Marcello Malpighi are only three of the many scientific achievements associated with the city and its university that have attracted international scholars. By the late 19th century, Bologna hosted the first chairs in the history of medicine and mathematics, and immediately after the process of Italian unification it became one of the leading universities where different traditions in the historiography of science first developed in Italy. These traditions, now open to global influences, have continued to flourish to this day.

Important dates

Submission of symposium proposals opens: 15 October 2019
Submission of symposium proposals closes 23.59GMT: 15 December 2019
Submission of individual paper proposals opens: 16 December 2019
Acceptance/rejection of symposium proposals announced: 31 January 2020
Conference fees published on website: 31 January 2020
Submission of individual paper proposals closes at 23.59GMT: 29 February 2020
Acceptance/rejection of individual paper proposals announced: 27 April 2020
Submission of applications for Early Career Grants opens: 28 April 2020
Opening of registration/draft schedule published: 30 April 2020
Submissions of applications for Early Career Grants closes: 10 May 2020
Awarding of Early Career Grants announced: 1 June 2020
Early bird registration closes/draft programme published: 15 June 2020
Final deadline for registration: 16 July 2020
Publication of final programme: 27 July 2020

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