Call for contributions: History of communication of science in public in a European context (deadline 29.01.2020)

Dear Colleagues,

Historians of science researching the history of the communication of science in public in a European context may be interested in contributing to a collection of essays which will be offered to UCL Press (https://www.uclpress.co.uk/). Specifically, the editors of the collection, Cristiano Turbil (UCL), Ilaria Ampollini (Trento), Kristian H Nielsen (Aarhus) and Jean-Baptiste Gouyon (UCL), are looking for contributions examining practices of science communication in Europe from the 18th to the 20th Century. With this volume, we intend to further contribute to the history of "popular science", by looking specifically at the history of the communication of science in Europe from the eighteenth century onwards. For us, this means looking at the history of a practice, or, better to say, of practices, to try and understand how different actors have historically approached the task of making scientific knowledge public, for what purposes and for whom, but also how they positioned their practice and themselves in relation to science. The aim of this edited collection is rooted in the conviction that scholarship about the communication of science, the field often referred to as "science communication studies" can only benefit from the insights the history of science can provide, especially when it comes to thinking of the role of communication in the economy of science. Final contributions should be around 5000 words long. We would expect to receive final drafts by September 2020, and conclude the review process by January 2021. Revised contributions would be expected by July 2021 for an anticipated publication date in the Autumn 2021. Please send a title and an abstract to historyscicomm@gmail.com by 29 January 2020. Contributions focused on Southern and Eastern Europe are particularly welcomed. Questions and inquiries can be directed to Cristiano Turbil (c.turbil@ucl.ac.uk) or Jean-Baptiste Gouyon (j.gouyon@ucl.ac.uk). All the best Ilaria, Kristian, Cristiano & Jean-Baptiste

[message from Mersenne list, 15.1.2020]

[Image from https://www.americanscientist.org/blog/from-the-staff/8-myths-about-public-understanding-of-science, by Tom Dunne]