Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire. Conference Proceedings 2022

 Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire. Conference Proceedings 2022

open access: https://www.mp.pl/auschwitz/other-publications/show.html?id=308236

We are proud to announce that we have already published the 2022 Medical Review Auschwitz - Medicine behind the Barbed Wire Conference Proceedings book, available as a free of charge, fully open-access ebook. You can read individual chapters on the conference website or access and download the entire book: Medical Review Auschwitz: Medicine Behind the Barbed Wire. Conference Proceedings 2022 (full PDF). The articles in the volume, based on the papers presented at the conference, extend and elaborate upon the content of the lectures, providing additional educational material if you want to learn and teach about the medical aspects of the Holocaust, as well as study resources if you are a professional researcher into Holocaust and medicine.

WORKSHOP ON THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE, Friday, 11th November 2022, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University U Nemocnice 4, Prague 2.

 

“Clubs” and “ghettos” of Soviet healthcare

 С. Н. Затравкин, Е. А. Вишленкова. “Клубы” и “гетто” советского здравоохранения [“Clubs” and “ghettos” of Soviet healthcare]. Москва: ШИКО, 2022. ISBN: 978-5-907348-26-4

Lucija Balikić: Najbolje namjere. Britanski i francuski intelektualci i stvaranje Jugoslavije [Best intentions. British and French intellectuals and the creation of Yugoslavia].

Lucija Balikić: Najbolje namjere. Britanski i francuski intelektualci i stvaranje Jugoslavije [Best intentions. British and French intellectuals and the creation of Yugoslavia]. Zagreb: Srednja Europa, 2022. ISBN 9789538281549

U knjizi je prikazana važnost uloge britanskih i francuskih intelektualaca u procesima stvaranja prve Jugoslavije. Autorica razbija ustaljeni mit da je državna zajednica Južnih Slavena nastala isključivo kao produkt ishoda Prvog svjetskog rata i volje lokalnih političkih elita.

“Naslovna je tema odabrana s ciljem da se široj javnosti predstavi jedan važan, a istovremeno u historiografiji često izostavljan aspekt nastanka prve zajedničke države Južnih Slavena, a to je uloga velikih (konačno i pobjedničkih) sila Velike Britanije i Francuske u tom procesu. Konkretno, glavno pitanje kojim se ova knjiga bavi nije nužno ono koje se odnosi na službene stavove i odluke njihovih vlada, već upravo ono koje u fokus postavlja vladine savjetnike, stručnjake te intelektualce koji su pridonijeli stvaranju određene slike o osobinama, situaciji i potrebama Južnih Slavena u javnosti Velike Britanije i Francuske te njihovim vladajućim krugovima. (…) Cilj ove knjige nije prikazati samo jednu stranu priče, već oslikati što objektivniju narav čitavog dijaloga između svih relevantnih intelektualaca (britanskih, francuskih, njemačkih, mađarskih, hrvatskih, srpskih, liberala, konzervativaca, socijalista, nacionalista, regionalista, kozmopolita itd.) te njihovih vlada, dokazujući pritom da je integralno jugoslavenstvo bilo najšire prihvaćeni program u čitavom razdoblju oko Velikog rata, ali i da su se mišljenja mnogih ozbiljno razilazila u pitanju konkretnog oblikovanja buduće, ponešto neočekivane, države.” (Iz Predgovora)

University of Cambridge - Cambridge East European History Workshop.

 We are happy to announce that the University of Cambridge finally has its Cambridge East European History Workshop. We launch the call for presentations for the 2022-2023 Michaelmas Term!

URL: https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/east-european-history-workshop .

The Cambridge East European History Workshop is fully affiliated with the Faculty Of History, University Of Cambridge postgraduate platform that aims to establish a discussion on broadly defined medieval, early modern, and modern Eastern Europe from a global comparative perspective.

Call for Papers INTERDEPENDENCIES: FROM LOCAL MICROSTORIES TO GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY The ICOHTEC 50th Symposium Tallinn/Tartu, Estonia 14-18 August 2023

 

Call for Papers

INTERDEPENDENCIES: FROM LOCAL MICROSTORIES TO GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY

The ICOHTEC 50th Symposium
Tallinn/Tartu, Estonia
14-18 August 2023

[this call as 3-page-PDF and 2-page-PDF]

 The concept of top-down transfer of technology has been challenged by Arnold Pacey and Francesca Bray (1990). Instead, they proposed the concept of ‘technological dialogue’ to bring attention to the process of modification of technologies in local contexts. We would like to go a step further and suggest the term ‘interdependencies’ to describe the reciprocal character of relations in which technology plays an important role. Despite the neoliberal myth of independence, interdependence is being reclaimed as a desired type of relationship that allows people, communities, and non-human agents to build networks to which they contribute and from which they benefit. Recently, designer, researcher, and disability justice activist Aimi Hamraie described ‘interdependence as a political technology’ and ‘a tool for facilitating connection and building new material arrangements.’ Hamraie additionally stresses the relational and ethical dimension of interdependence, as well as the fact that interdependence replaces the loci of agency and expertise.

As Rajneesh Narula argues, “technology and globalization are interdependent processes” (2003). In management theory, globalization is seen as a factor having a fundamental influence on the creation and diffusion of technology, which, in turn, affects the interdependence of all kinds of entities – individuals, businesses, societies, and states. When we look at technology broadly defined and at its very many intersections with other spheres of life, these interdependencies reveal a plethora of meanings.

Among many contemporary examples of scientific, intellectual and political importance of such analyses one may identify: analysis of various epistemologies and nature, intensity, and stability of different kinds of interdependence, explicit or tacit degrees of mutuality, solidarism, cooperation, and negotiation; international organizations as arenas of novel modes of local-global interdependence; cyber-worlds as novel loci; meanings and types of interdependence as related to the concept of nation and the concept of state; interdependence theory as structure; game theory and decision-making in ‘interdependent’ scenarios. The theme of ‘interdependence’ is important not only for the history of technology but also for the agency of this field of knowledge in discussing and influencing new ecologies of human life and technocratic or technologically-mediated societal relations. Contemporary authors are also disputing the means and kinds of outcomes of new interdependencies, such as French economist Jacques Attali (2006) proposing the concept of hyperdemocracy, Israeli psychologist Daniel Kahneman (2021) claiming that humans should be alert about their own biases in interdependent contexts, and American philosopher Shoshana Zuboff (2018) arguing that a capitalism of surveillance is deepening economic dependence and exploitation via data and computers (2018).

The 2023 ICOHTEC annual conference invites scholars to reflect on the complex, mutual relations between technology and the environment, culture, and politics, as well as the ways in which they are entangled at the local, regional, transnational, and global levels. The crises we face today as a consequence of climate change, wars, or the COVID pandemic expose the reality that no institution, company, country, community, or body is independent. They all depend on diverse others within various networks, e.g. production and distribution systems; supply chains, especially of food, energy, materials, and medical products as well as human workers; support and care systems created at the global, national, and interpersonal levels. Within these networks, the solutions developed by unprivileged groups to manage the shortcomings they cope with daily can also be, and in fact are, applied more broadly in the face of the crisis (such as permaculture inspirations in Indigenous people’s methods of water conservation) and for commercial purposes (as evidenced by the long list of solutions invented by or for people with disabilities and then mainstreamed).

By taking up the concept of interdependence, the conference aims to scrutinize the traditional historiographies of technology and to question the narratives they offer about agency, power, and the concept of usually unidirectional paths and impact. We also seek to consider the broader implications of the interrelations of technology with the environment, along with diverse values and beliefs, knowledge and epistemic practices.

We invite scholars working on different aspects of the history of technology, various historic periods, different geographical areas, and welcome researchers working at the intersection of history of technology or philosophy of technology, and other fields, including anthropology, design studies, film and media studies, social sciences, minority and identity studies, to share their perspectives and analyses. We look forward to opening new avenues for exploring the interdependencies between disciplines, paradigms, research methods and theories that relate to technology.

Submissions may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• the local histories of technology/knowledge/practices exchange
• the local adaptations of technological inventions
• invisible histories of technology
• the minority/disability-driven inventions
• the technologies of the excluded, and the histories of appropriation by the mainstream
• between appropriation and innovation – brands, companies, policies
• the interrelations of politics/environment/culture and technology
• global chains of energy/food/medicine – continuities, disruptions, and temporary/local provisions and hacks
• maintaining technological systems locally and globally
• globalization and changing local labour patterns
• interdependencies and technological entanglements of ecological systems in change
• the changing scales of technological and scientific inventions – from grassroot to corporate
• interdependencies between technologies
• interdependencies between histories and imaginaries
• methodologies for studying local, small, invisible histories of technology, technology appropriation
• decolonizing Western/Northern history of technology

Individual paper proposals must include: (1) the presenter’s name and email address; (2) the title of the paper; (3) an abstract (max. 300 words); (4) the presenter’s bio (max. 250 words).

We strongly support the submission of proposals for pre-constituted panels of 3 or 4 papers. Panel organizers are asked to submit: (1) an abstract of the panel theme (max. 300 words); (2) a list of presenters that includes their names, email address, and paper titles, as well as the name and email address of the session chairperson; (3) abstracts for each paper (max. 300 words); (4) a bio for each contributor and the chairperson (max. 250 words each).

Submit all session and individual paper proposals by 15 January 2023 via the ICOHTEC paper submission system: https://www.icohtec.org/w-annual-meeting/tallinn-tartu-2023/

Please pay close attention to the instructions, particularly to the word limits of the submitted documents.

The programme committee reserves the right to relocate papers to different themes and add papers to panels.

We especially encourage and welcome proposal submissions from graduate students and early career researchers and their participation in the symposium. Limited travel grants will be available.

Programme Committee:

Magdalena Zdrodowska (Poland), chair, magda.zdrodowska@uj.edu.pl
Anna Åberg (Sweden)
Irene Anastasiadou (Netherlands)
Yoel Bergman (Israel)
Yana Boeva (Germany)
Leticia Galluzzi Nunes (Brasil)
Jan Hadlaw (Canada)
Peeter Müürsepp (Estonia)
Marisol Osorio (Colombia)
Maria Rikitianskaia (United Kingdom)

Engliš Karel: Velká logika. Věda o myšlenkovém řádu [Grand Logic. The science of thought order]. Brno: MUNI Press 2022. ISBN: 978-80-210-9871-8

 Engliš Karel: Velká logika. Věda o myšlenkovém řádu [Grand Logic. The science of thought order]. Brno: MUNI Press 2022. ISBN: 978-80-210-9871-8

Faksimile původního rukopisu ve čtyřech svazcích.

Dílo Velká logika. Věda o myšlenkovém řádu napsal Karel Engliš během 2. světové války, kdy se skrýval před nacisty na Vysočině ve Velkém Tresném. Rukopis o rozsahu přes 2500 stran rozdělil do dvou dílů: Části obecné a Části zvláštní s podnázvem Logické rozpravy. Jeho snahou bylo podat ucelený výklad teorie poznání.

Vrcholné životní díla Karla Engliše (1880–1961) vychází poprvé od roku 1947, kdy hotový rukopis tehdejší režim autorovi nedovolil vydat. Připravená sazba byla rozmetána a strojopis ukrývala rodina a přátelé před zabavením. Dílo zaměřené na oblast filozofie a obecnou teorii vědeckého poznání z pera vědce, nejvýznamnějšího meziválečného československého ekonoma, pedagoga, politika, filozofa bylo přes sedmdesát let nedostupné.

Masarykova univerzita vydáním faksimile originálního rukopisu zpřístupňuje dílo badatelské obci a uctívá památku Karla Engliše, který se o založení univerzity zasloužil a stal se jejím prvním rektorem.

Call for participants: international, interdisciplinary virtual reading group on “Informal Cultures of Knowledge in Non-Institutional Spaces in the Long Nineteenth-Century”

 Call for participants: We are seeking collaborators for the establishment of an international, interdisciplinary virtual reading group on “Informal Cultures of Knowledge in Non-Institutional Spaces in the Long Nineteenth-Century”

INFORMAL CULTURES OF KNOWLEDGE IN NON- INSTITUTIONAL SPACES IN THE LONG NINETEENTH-CENTURY

Working from the assumption that spatial environments shape social behaviors and thus enable specific interactions, and conversations, this reading group will explore transient, (semi)private, or disreputable spaces (the private home in general, the boudoir, the salon, the waiting room, the ship, the artist studio, the club, the fair, or circus … ) and their specific ties to knowledge creation and transmission not available elsewhere (insider knowledge, gossip, rumor, embodied knowledge – for instance, how to play an instrument, or how to act or dance –, the pseudoscientific …). What characterizes these in-between spaces? Does knowledge transmission in these non-institutional spaces differ from that in institutional ones, and if so, in what ways? For some of these liminal spaces (for instance, salons), the concept of heterotopia developed by Michel Foucault is suitable as a thought model. It describes places that have only partially implemented the norms given at a given time, or function according to their own rules, thus reflecting social relations by representing or negating them. But what does this in turn say about the character and quality of the knowledge that circulates in these places? And how could we go about determining what knowledge is gained where and how? What are the methods to study informal knowledge? On which sources can we draw? To address these questions (and to develop new ones), we will discuss selected current scholarship as well as primary texts (texts broadly defined) from the long nineteenth century.

The reading group is designed to connect researchers across disciplines, institutions, and career stages with a shared interest in the intersections of spaces and knowledge beyond and outside of established institutions and codified expertise. Our focus will be on the long nineteenth century in a global perspective. We are particularly interested in exploring the role of gender, race, and class on the spatial experience of historical agents and their epistemic agency.

The reading group will meet biannually in May and November via Zoom over the course of three years. Beginning in the second year, the meetings may also include project presentations by interested members of the reading group (public, if preferred). We also envision one in-person workshop in our second year. In between live sessions, we want to keep the conversation alive via chat and the exchange of reading recommendations, CfPs, and updates on interesting events. The number of participants will be limited to 8-10 persons, so that an intensive exchange can take place even in the digital space.

This group is co-organized by Dr. Carola Bebermeier (musicology, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) and Dr. Katrin Horn (American Studies, University of Bayreuth). Dr. Bebermeier works on music-making and salon culture in the US-American parlor (https://www.mdw.ac.at/imi/laufende-projekte/a-world-within-a-room/). Dr. Horn is developing a project on the role of receptions and studio visits in the transatlantic exchange between Italy and the US. For more information on her current work on gossip, please see ArchivalGossip.com.

To join, please send your name and contact information along with a brief (300-500 words) statement explaining your interest in the topic, its connection to your own research (projects or interests), and – optional – a text you would like to see discussed in this group to bebermeier@mdw.ac.at and katrin.horn@uni-bayreuth.de. We will accept statements from interested participants up to 27 November 2022. Participants will be notified by 15 December 2022. For further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Call for papers: University and School Libraries in East Central Europe in the Pre-Modern Period. Forms of Appearance – Development – Usage. Prague 14.11.2023 - 15.11.2023, Deadline 31.12.2022

 Call for papers: University and School Libraries in East Central Europe in the Pre-Modern Period. Forms of Appearance – Development – Usage. Prague 14.11.2023 - 15.11.2023, Deadline 31.12.2022

Over the course of many centuries, the libraries of educational institutions, which we know from as early as the Middle Ages, underwent a dynamic evolution. Their transformations were connected not only with the development of the individual types of educational institutions themselves, namely preuniversity schools and universities, but also with the reflection of pansocietal processes from the fourteenth to the eighteenth centuries. A fundamental influence on the rapid development of education came with the reception of humanism, the confessionalization of society, the spread of printing press, the information and scientific revolution of the early modern era, and society's increasing demands on the education of individuals. Hundreds of new educational institutions were established in Central and East Central Europe, as were many universities, and the majority of them built their own libraries.

Although the beginnings of research devoted to the libraries of educational institutions in East Central Europe (the Germany-speaking areas of the Empire, including the Austrian territories, the Czech state, Poland, Hungary, etc.) can be traced to the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century, to this day, with the notable exception of some universities, there is a lack of systematic research on their history in a broader cultural context and on issues related to their functioning and involvement in the educational process. With the notable exception of a publication resulting from a conference held in 2017 and focusing on Protestant grammar school libraries in what is now Germany, any comparative research is completely lacking.

The international conference organized as part of the activities of the Centre for the History of Education at the Institute of History of the Czech Academy of Sciences in cooperation with the aforesaid institutions will focus on a number of questions relating to university and school libraries in the Middle Ages and early modern period. Of particular value, therefore, will be contributions examining some of the following key areas:

- Methodologies and research potential of the libraries of educational institutions

- Developmental trends in the area of university and school libraries

- Acquisition strategies (building collections, patronage, book donations)

- The content composition of school libraries in a comparative perspective

- Influence of confessional changes on the libraries of educational institutions

- Management and protection of school libraries (including regulations and norms)

- Use of school libraries and circles of their users

- Relationship of school libraries to education throughout historical development

- Using other types of libraries to educate students (ecclesiastical and monastic libraries, private libraries of teachers, city libraries)

Presentation time limit: 25 min.

Conference languages: English and German

Please submit conference papers (with one-page annotation) for consideration to cdv@hiu.cas.cz no later than 31. December 2022.

The organizing committee reserves the right to select the papers to be presented at the conference.

Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, Joachim von Puttkamer, Immo Rebitschek (eds.): Biopolitics in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century. Fearing for the Nation. New York: Routledge 2022. ISBN 9780367751234

Barbara Klich-Kluczewska, Joachim von Puttkamer, Immo Rebitschek (eds.): Biopolitics in Central and Eastern Europe in the 20th Century. Fearing for the Nation.  New York: Routledge 2022. ISBN 9780367751234

Book Description

The field of biopolitics encompasses issues from health and hygiene, birth rates, fertility and sexuality, life expectancy and demography to eugenics and racial regimes. This book is the first to provide a comprehensive view on these issues for Central and Eastern Europe in the twentieth century.

The cataclysms of imperial collapse, World War(s) and the Holocaust but also the rise of state socialism after 1945 provided extraordinary and distinct conditions for the governing of life and death. The volume collects the latest research and empirical studies from the region to showcase the diversity of biopolitical regimes in their regional and global context – from hunger relief for Hungarian children after the First World War to abortion legislation in communist Poland. It underlines the similarities as well, demonstrating how biopolitical strategies in this area often revolved around the notion of an endangered nation; and how ideological schemes and post-imperial experiences in Eastern Europe further complicate a 'western' understanding of democratic participatory and authoritarian repressive biopolitics.

The new geographical focus invites scholars and students of social and human sciences to reconsider established perspectives on the history of population management and the history of Europe.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Joachim von Puttkamer and Immo Rebitschek

1. Is Biopower Something to Be Afraid Of?: Biopolitics as a Research Category in Historiography

Barbara Klich-Kluczewska

Section I: Issues of Reproduction

2. Regenerating the Nation: Eugenics and Racial Hygiene in Early Twentieth-Century Austria

Herwig Czech

3. ‘Each Jewish Child Is Precious’: Survivor Community in Poland and Its Biopolitical Discourses

Natalia Aleksiun

4. ‘Marital Intercourse Means Togetherness and Parenthood’: The Biopolitics of Catholic Marriage Preparation in Poland during the 1970s

Agata Ignaciuk

5. Whose Children?: Pronatalist Incentives and Social Categorization in Socialist Romania

Corina Doboș

6. State and Parenthood: Family Planning Policy in Socialist Yugoslavia (1945–1991)

Ivana Dobrivojević Tomic´

7. Blind Faith or Divine Providence?: Global Catholicism and the Population Bomb

Wannes Dupont

Section II: Beyond Procreation: Health, Nutrition and Hygiene

8. Feeding Hungry Bodies: Children’s Nutrition as Biopolitics after the Great War

Friederike Kind-Kovács

9. Disinfection Trains: Fighting Lice on Polish Railways, 1918–1920

Łukasz Mieszkowski

10. The Intricacies of Communist Biopolitics: Control of Disease and Epidemics in the Polish Countryside after 1945

Ewelina Szpak

11. State Socialist Biopolitics: Four Stages of Human Development in Post-War Czechoslovakia

Jakub Rákosník and Radka Šustrová

12. Imperial Biopolitics: Famine in Russia and the Soviet Union, 1891–1947

Immo Rebitschek

13. Fearing the Nation, Fearing for the Nation and Fearing Other Nations: Compulsory Vaccination in Twentieth-Century Germany

Malte Thießen

Editor(s)

Biography

Barbara Klich-Kluczewska is an Associate Professor at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow and a cultural historian of twentieth-century Poland. Her fields of research include history of family, history of sexuality and gender, biopolitics and history of experts’ knowledge.

Joachim von Puttkamer is Director of the Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. His research focusses on nationalism and statehood in modern Central and Eastern Europe.

Immo Rebitschek is an Assistant Professor at the Department for Eastern European History at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena. He has published widely on the history of the Soviet procuracy in Stalinist Russia and is currently focussing his research on the history of famines in the late Russian empire.

Hande Eslen–Ziya, Alberta Giorgi (eds.) Populism and Science in Europe. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2022. ISBN: 978-3-030-97534-0

Hande Eslen–Ziya, Alberta Giorgi (eds.) Populism and Science in Europe. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2022. ISBN: 978-3-030-97534-0

ABOUT THIS BOOK

This book provides the first systematic and comparative analysis of the intersections of populism and science in Europe, from the perspective of political sociology.

Populism is the object of rich scholarly debate over its definition and the best way to approach its study. But until now, little attention has been paid to the relationships between populism and science. Recently, the Covid-19 crisis has exposed the contradictions in this relationship, and this book combines an analysis of the theoretical aspects of the relationship between populism and science with rigorous empirical research.

The theoretical perspectives show populism as a thin-ideology, as discourse and performance, and as a political logic, consider both right-wing and left-wing populism, and focus on leaders as well as citizens. The book also offers an overview of controversies within different fields of ‘science’, including case studies on food science, climate change, vaccination, gender theory, COVID-19, and environmental issues.

The book will be of interest to scholars and students of a number of social science disciplines, including political sociology, political science and political psychology.

Front Matter

Pages i-xxviPDF 

Populism and Science in Europe

Alberta Giorgi, Hande Eslen-Ziya

Pages 1-24

Knowledge, Counter-Knowledge, Pseudo-Science in Populism

Hande Eslen-Ziya

Pages 25-41

The Role of Experts in Populist Politics: Toward a Post-foundational Approach

Liv Sunnercrantz, Tevfik Murat Yildirim

Pages 43-65

The Populist Challenge to the EU’s Sustainability Policy: Is “More Science” a Legitimate and Viable Response?

Thomas Sattich

Pages 67-89

Populism, Science and Covid-19 as a Political Opportunity: The Case of the European Parliament

Carlo Berti, Carlo Ruzza

Pages 91-115

On the Emergence of Alt-Science Counterhegemony: The Case of the Finns Party

Tuija Saresma, Emilia Palonen

Pages 117-140

The Problematic Relationship Between Science, Politics and Public Opinion in Late Modernity: The Case of the Anti-Vax Movement in Spain and Italy

Luca Raffini, Clemente Penalva-Verdú

Pages 141-162

QAnon and Its Conspiracy Milieu: The Italian Case

Maria Francesca Murru

Pages 163-184

Scientizing Gender? An Examination of Anti-Gender Campaigns on Social Media, Norway

Elisabeth L. Engebretsen

Pages 185-206

Between Populism and Popular Citizenship in Science Conflicts

Mette Marie Roslyng

Pages 207-229

Inconvenient Truths? Populist Epistemology and the Case of Portugal

Alberta Giorgi

Pages 231-254

Right-Wing Populism and the Trade-Off Between Health and the Economy During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comparison Between Western Europe and the United States

Oscar Mazzoleni, Gilles Ivaldi

Pages 255-284

Academic Freedom, Science, and Right-Wing Politics: Interview with Andrea Pető

Alberta Giorgi, Hande Eslen-Ziya, Andrea Pető

Pages 285-293

Back Matter

Pages 295-302

 

13th International Conference History of Chemistry - Vilnius 23-27 May 2023

SECOND CALL FOR PAPERS

Since 1991, when the first meeting was organized in Veszprem (Hungary), the Working Party on History of Chemistry<http://www.euchems.eu/divisions/history-of-chemistry-2/> (WPHC) of the European Chemical Society (EuChemS) organizes an international conference on the history of chemistry in order to bring together historically interested chemists, chemistry educators and historians of chemistry from all over Europe and beyond. Thirty-two years later, the 13rd International Conference on History of Chemistry<https://www.ichc2023vilnius.chgf.vu.lt/> (13ICHC) will be held in Vilnius (Lithuania), from Tuesday 23 May to Friday 26 May 2023. On Saturday 27 May there is a day excursion outside Vilnius.

The conference will be hosted by Vilnius University (established in 1579), both in the premises of the old city and in new buildings. The Department of Chemistry was established in 1797, still holding a position of one of the most popular departments of the University. History of chemistry and the teaching of the history of chemistry both reach to outside the University; also involving initiatives for the community and the younger generation.

The conference will include scientific sessions, four key-note lectures, the WP business meeting, a poster session as well as social events such as excursions, receptions, and a conference dinner banquet. Some useful information on the city and on the excursion organised on Saturday 27 May 2023 can be found on the conference website<https://www.ichc2023vilnius.chgf.vu.lt/>, and the Facebook page<https://www.facebook.com/events/vilnius-university-central-building-universiteto-3-and-centre-of-life-sciences-s/13th-international-conference-on-the-history-of-chemistry/398027107548838/>. The four key-note lectures will be held by:

- Florence Hachez-Leroy (Université d’Artois, GRHEN) on the heritage of industrial chemistry

- Marta Lourenço (Universidade de Lisboa, MUHNAC) on the material culture of chemistry

- Christoph Meinel (University of Regensburg) on the historiography and discipline formation.

- Rimantas Vaitkus (Vilnius University) on the history of chemistry in Lithuania.

Important Dates*:

- Deadline for submitting proposals: 1 December 2022

- Notification of acceptance: January 2023

- Provisional program: Early February 2023

- Final program: April 2023

- Conference dates: 23rd to the 27th of May 2023 (excursion included).

Fees:

Category        Early bird

(before 1 April)        Regular fee

(1 April – 30 April)

Late registration

(1 May –22 May)

        On-site registration

(from 23 May)

Conference fee, regular participants    € 180,- € 210,- € 250,- € 300,-

Conference fee, students and independent scholars       € 90,-  € 105,- € 125,- € 150,-

Day fee, regular participants   € 70,-  € 80,-  € 100,- € 140,-

Day fee, students and independent scholars      € 35,-  € 40,-  € 50,-  € 75,-

Accompanying persons    € 140,- € 150,- € 160,- € 220,-

Conference dinner (Wednesday)   € 70,- and € 35,- for students and independent scholars ​       ​

Day excursion (Saturday)        € 100,- ​       ​

Tour in the city (Thursday)     € 20,-  ​       ​

Proposal guidelines:

The Steering Committee encourages the submission of panel/session proposals, but also accepts the submission of stand-alone papers. The 13ICHC welcomes proposals on any topic on the history of chemistry, broadly understood, including historical works on molecular sciences, life sciences, industry, technology, and education. We will also welcome papers on the teaching of history of chemistry, in order to reach out to the wider community and to students and young colleagues in particular.

All proposals must be in English, the language of the conference. Submitted abstracts and session proposals (max. 200 words) will be subject to review by an international Advisory Committee, that assists the Steering Organising Committee to ensure the quality of the conference program. Sessions should include about 3–5 papers, and no more than one session can be proposed by the same organizer. There is a limit of one paper per presenter (including the papers listed inside a panel or a session). All paper proposals must use the templates<https://www.ichc2021vilnius.chgf.vu.lt/call-for-papers> provided on the conference website.

Local organisers:

Lithuanian Chemical Society; Institute of Chemistry of Vilnius University; Lithuanian Biochemical Society

International organisers:

Working party on History of Chemistry of the European Chemical Society

Steering Organising Committee:

Prof. Annette Lykknes Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway, (chair of the Working Party on History of Chemistry); Prof. Ernst Homburg, Maastricht University, The Netherlands (co-chair of the Steering Organising Committee); Prof. Ignacio Suay-Matallana, University of Valencia, Spain (co-chair of the Steering Organising Committee); Prof. Rimantas Vaitkus (Lithuanian Chemical Society)

Local Organising Committee:

Dr. Birutė Railienė, Wroblewski Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences (chair); Dr. Rimantas Vaitkus, Vilnius University, (co-chair, member of Steering Organising Committee); Prof. Vida Mildažienė, Vytautas Magnus University (co-chair); Prof. Aldona Beganskienė, Vilnius University; Prof. Gervydas Dienys, Vilnius University; Prof. Aivaras Kareiva, Vilnius University; Dr. Lina Mikoliūnaitė, Vilnius University; Dr. Živilė Stankevičiūtė, Vilnius University

Gossip, Rumours and Conspiracy Theories at the Time of Crisis. Thematic issue of Slovenský národopis/Slovak Ethnology Volume 70, 2022, No. 3 (open access)

 Gossip, Rumours and Conspiracy Theories at the Time of Crisis. Thematic issue of Slovenský národopis/Slovak Ethnology Volume 70, 2022, No. 3

URL: https://www.sav.sk/?lang=sk&doc=journal-list&part=list_articles&journal_issue_no=11116703

EDITORIAL

Drążkiewicz, E. - Panczová, Z.: Conspiracy Theories, Rumours and Gossip at The Time of Crisis: COVID-19 Emergency in Eastern Europe and Africa. (s. 320)

ARTICLE

Ilieva, A.: Angels in White Coats or Angels of Death? Rumours and Conspiracy Narratives about Medical Specialists in Bulgaria during the COVID-19 Pandemic. (s. 328)

Heřmanová, M.: “We Are in Control”: Instagram Influencers and the Proliferation of Conspiracy Narratives in Digital Spaces . (s. 349)

Manova, A.: Between the COVID-19 Pandemic and Saving the World: Practices and Narratives by the Falun Dafa Community in Bulgaria . (s. 369)

Rasmussen, S.: The Knowable and the Unknowable in Ethnographic Encounters: A Case of Sorcery, Rumor, and Gossip among Tuareg in Northern Niger. (s. 392)

Desplat, P.: Doubting the Malagasy Remedy. Rumours and Suspicion During COVID-19 in Madagascar . (s. 411)

BOOK REVIEW

Slivková, N.: Andreas Önnerfors, André Krouwel (Eds.): Europe: Continent of Conspiracies. Conspiracy Theories in and about Europe. (s. 430)

Kiliánová, G.: Karl Hepfer: Verschwörungstheorien. Eine philosophische Kritik der Unvernunft [Conspiracy Theories: A Philosophical Criticism of Irrationality]. (s. 434)

Koza Beňová, K.: About the Monkey and Other(ing) Stories. Adam Wiesner: Monkey on My Back. An Autoethnographic Narrative of a Therapeutic Experience. (s. 437)

hybrid event: Aleksandra Derra (Torun): The Role of Feminist Theory in Building Complementary Knowledge. 13 October 2022, MUA CAS (Prague) & Zoom, 18:30 CET

hybrid event: Aleksandra Derra (Torun): The Role of Feminist Theory in Building Complementary Knowledge. 13 October 2022, MUA CAS (Prague) & Zoom, 18:30 CET (see participation options below)

In 1999 Londa Schiebinger published her book entitled Has Feminism Changed Science (Schiebinger 1999) where she showed how the growing number of female scientists gradually transformed certain fields of science. Following her line of reasoning one can ask how feminist theories influence particular fields of knowledge today? Do they have impact on methodologies and formulation of research priorities? Do they cognitively enrich theories and consequently change the social dynamics of scientific institutions? These are important issues which require extended research in order to ask these questions for each particular scientific field. The goal of my talk is more modest. I would like to provide some evidence that feminist theories have played crucial role in creating the missing link between science studies and socio-political research (Keller 1983). Many feminist thinkers being both a scientist and critical scholar has shown that feminist theory is not only about the social and the political, but also and sometimes primarily about the cognitive and about knowing subject. Joining traditions and methodologies from scientific research and cultural and political studies results in a form of complementary knowledge, which could be truly interdisciplinary. In order to illustrate how it can work out I will shorty present selected threads of neurofeminist approach (Fine 2012, Robyn et al. 2012) and new feminist materialism (Barad 2003, Hird 2009).

Part of the conference "Gendering Epistemologies – Gender and Situated Knowledge Perspectives from Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe."

Participation options: Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Gabčíkova 2362/10, 182 00 Prague 8 (limited capacity, to participate please contact Jan Surman surman@mua.cas.cz)

Or via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0ldeqopz4tE9ZZOD25hpuKbOcPhta5Sblc

CFP: Atomic Rivers, Bern (Switzerland) 22.08.2023 - 26.08.2023 Deadline: 20.10.2022

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We invite junior and senior scholars from all disciplines to submit an abstract to our proposed session titled “Atomic Rivers” for the 12th conference of the European Society for Environmental History (ESEH), to be held at the University of Bern, 22-26 August 2023. For further information about the conference, see https://www.eseh2023.unibe.ch/

Atomic Rivers

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Alicia Gutting & Per Högselius, 3012 

Session Conveners: Alicia Gutting and Per Högselius (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm)

Format: Paper Session

Submission Deadline: 20 October 2023

Atomic Rivers

In the summers of 2003, 2018 and 2022, nuclear power plant operators across continental Europe were repeatedly forced to fully or partly shut down many of their reactors. The reason was that the water levels in large rivers such as the Rhine and the Rhône were too low to provide sufficient cooling water or, more commonly, that the temperature of the cooling water that was returned to the rivers exceeded official limits in environmental regulations. These “nuclear heatwaves” of the past two decades coincide with a (metaphorically) heated debate on climate change and the role of nuclear energy in fighting climate change. Nuclear energy advocates query that governments in Europe are not paying enough attention to the contribution of nuclear energy to combating climate change. The opponents, meanwhile, argue that nuclear energy is as risky as it has always been, and that a warming world makes nuclear energy, especially when the plants are located on one or the other river, even more dangerous and more prone to unplanned disruptions in their regular operation. 

The purpose of this proposed conference session is to explore the historical underpinnings of the current crisis – and the debate about it – for riverine nuclear energy in Europe. We are looking for submissions that touch on the following topics:

- Floods, droughts and heatwaves as threats to the safety and operation of nuclear power plants

- Problems and conflicts over the supply of cooling water from rivers

- Radioactive and thermal pollution from riverine nuclear power plants

- Historical and present-day debates about siting of nuclear facilities along rivers

- Negotiations about environmental regulations regarding cooling water discharges

- Technical fixes to cooling water problems, such as cooling towers and cooling ponds

- The emergence and evolution of riverine nuclear landscapes

- The relationship between nuclear energy, hydropower, irrigation and fisheries in European river basins

Please send an abstract (200-300 words) by 20 October 2023 to gutting@kth.se and perho@kth.se 

With best wishes,

Alicia Gutting and Per Högselius

online event: Friday October 7, 16:30 BST / 17:30 CET: A Cultural History of Race - Live Webinar

online event: Friday October 7, 16:30 BST / 17:30 CET: A Cultural History of Race - Live Webinar

URL: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-cultural-history-of-race-live-webinar-tickets-415842956477 .

ABOUT THIS EVENT

Join General Editor Marius Turda (Oxford Brookes University) and Volume Editors Denise McCoskey, Thomas Hahn, Kimberley A. Coles, Dorothy Kim, Nicholas Hudson, Marina Mogilner and Tanya Golash-Boza who will discuss their ground-breaking project, ‘A Cultural History of Race’.

The editors will share their experiences and reflect on the current relevance of the topic as well as new scholarship and a way forward.

By attending you will be entered into a raffle to win a FREE COPY of ‘A Cultural History of Race’ (all 6 volumes) plus you will be offered an exclusive 20% discount on the set.

Call for Papers: Nuclear Research in Medicine after the Second World War. Vienna 20.03.2023 - 21.03.2023, Deadline 15.11.2022

 Call for Papers: Nuclear Research in Medicine after the Second World War. Vienna 20.03.2023 - 21.03.2023, Deadline 15.11.2022

We seek proposals for a conference on the history of nuclear research in medicine. The conference will be held at the Medical University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna from the 20th to 21st of March 2023. Deadline for submissions is the 15th of November 2022.

NUCLEAR RESEARCH IN MEDICINE AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR

Nuclear research in medicine relies on a high degree of interaction. While the production of radioisotopes and the development of medical devices are carried out by physicists and engineers, chemists and pharmacists take over the syntheses of radiopharmaceuticals, while physicians focus on their application. In the absence of handbooks, industrially available devices, and radioisotopes, early specialists were also dependent on multilateral exchanges. These were fostered by post-war agreements for the peaceful use of atomic energy and international organizations such as the IAEA and WHO. Thus, the formation of nuclear medicine as discipline was the result of a global balancing and standardization process during the Cold War era. Its origins are traced in the first broad clinical applications of radioisotopes primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom just before the Second World War and continued with the worldwide dissemination of relevant knowledge and techniques that were mainly triggered by the United Nations international organizations. Nevertheless, in many countries, nuclear medicine did not get recognized as a medical specialty with separate residency training until the 1990s.

This symposium focuses on the emergence of nuclear medicine as an outcome of scientific collaboration and competition, boundary and interdisciplinary work, and encounters between various (inter)national stakeholders, as well as political, diplomatic, and scientific institutions. We welcome contributions that address the scientific, political, diplomatic, and social dimensions of these interactions, the knowledge, resources, and policies involved.

Potential topics include:

- Transnational cooperation and competition among researchers, clinical practitioners, institutions and disciplines

- Sharing of nuclear medicine knowledge, methods, materials, and spaces within Europe and around the globe

- Development of standards, rules, manuals, and measuring/imaging devices

- Political, social, and gendered aspects of scientific interaction, licensing, and regulatory governance of the field

- Safety, security, and disposal of radioactive waste produced by nuclear medical practices

- Hierarchies and networks of exchange

Venue

We are planning this symposium to be an in-person event, consisting of a welcome reception at the Medical University of Vienna on the evening of March 20 and lectures on the premises of the Austrian Academy of Sciences on March 21. The symposium will take place in English and is free of charge.

Abstract submission

To apply, please send an abstract (no longer than 250 words), a brief bio, and contact information (all in one word file) to Johannes Mattes, johannes.mattes@oeaw.ac.at, by 15 November 2022. We will let you know about our decision by mid-December. Part of our plan is to publish a collective peer-reviewed special journal issue based on the final submissions of the participants.

Valentin Behr: Powojenna historiografia polska jako pole walki. Studium z socjologii wiedzy i polityki [Postwar Polish Historiography as a Battle Field. A Study in Sociology of Knowledge and Politics]. Warszawa: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego 2021.

(polski ponizej) (open access: https://www.wuw.pl/product-pol-16931-Powojenna-historiografia-polska-jako-pole-walki-Studium-z-socjologii-wiedzy-i-polityki-EBOOK.html)

Postwar Polish Historiography as a Battle Field. A Study in Sociology of Knowledge and Politics

The book proposes a sociological analysis of Polish historiography of the contemporary period that treats the creation of Polish history as a type of public policy. Based on rich empirical material and using a number of research methods, most notably Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of fields, the author argues that policy of this kind was pursued, albeit using somewhat different methods, both in the People’s Republic of Poland and after the fall of communism. In keeping with this approach, the historians he studies are also seen as co-creators of historical policy, inevitably entangled in processes of instrumentalizing history, which Valentin Behr systematically investigates in terms of interrelations between social fields.

Keywords: contemporary history, historical policy, historiography, historical field, sociology of knowledge, Polish scientific elite, history of science.

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Książka stanowi propozycję socjologicznej analizy polskiej historiografii dziejów najnowszych, traktującą tworzenie historii Polski jako typ polityki publicznej. Na podstawie bogatego materiału empirycznego i korzystając z wielu metod badawczych, przede wszystkim socjologii pól Pierre’a Bourdieu, autor dowodzi, że polityka ta prowadzona była, choć nieco innymi metodami, zarówno w okresie Polski Ludowej, jak i po upadku komunizmu. W tym ujęciu badani przez niego historycy jawią się też jako współtwórcy tak rozumianej polityki historycznej, z konieczności uwikłani w procesy instrumentalizacji historii, które Valentin Behr bada w sposób systematyczny w kategoriach związków pomiędzy polami społecznymi.

Publikacja na licencji Creative Commons Uznanie autorstwa 3.0 PL (CC BY 3.0 PL) (pełna treść wzorca dostępna pod adresem: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/pl/legalcode).

Publikację książki dofinansowano z programu „Doskonała nauka” Ministra Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego.

hybrid event: Jan Surman, ‘Images of science’ in Interwar Czechoslovakia: State, Language, Politics, Monday October 10, 2022, 15:00 CET (Prague&zoom)

 hybrid event: Jan Surman, ‘Images of science’ in Interwar Czechoslovakia: State, Language, Politics, Monday October 10, 2022, 15:00 CET (Prague&zoom)

On 10 October 2022 Jan Surman will hold a talk “‘Images of science’ in Interwar Czechoslovakia: State, Language, Politics” at the MUA colloquium. The event will take place at 15:00 CET in the lecture hall of Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Gabčíkova 2362/10, Praha 8 (tram stop Vychovatelna). The talk will be also available on zoom. To join online please follow https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82250495322?pwd=NGpRWXVnQ1ZUQloyQ0IwaUYvKzR6UT09 (add to google calendar: http://tiny.cc/1fpzuz )

Abstract

A few years after the World War I ended, Prague academic milieu became a highly complex one. As part of post-imperial Central Europe Czechoslovakia was home to Czech, German, Russian and Ukrainian higher schools, which developed active academic communities around them. Using Yehuda Elkana’s “images of knowledge” I will propose an analytical framework to analyse this multilingual intellectual landscape. By looking at the post-WWI conceptual insecurities and glocal renegotiations of science’s conceptual framework, I will show how these “images” oscillated between state prerogatives, cultural allegiances and ideological prescriptions.

Judit Pál, Vlad Popovici, and Oana Sorescu-Iudean (eds.): Elites, Groups, and Networks in East-Central and South-East Europe in the Long 19th Century. Leiden: Brill 2022. ISBN: 978-3-506-79521-2

 

Elites should be regarded and approached as gregarious social entities (groups, networks) rather than as outstanding individuals.

The volume aims to explore the elites in East-Central and South-Eastern Europe during the long nineteenth century from the perspective of their gregarious tendencies (i.e., groupness), to assess the role of the latter in the elite’s decisions and agenda, and to observe the transformations brought in this regard by the changing social and political landscape.

While the gregarious tendencies of the members of the elite were rooted in their shared perspectives, in their mutual interests or in the communion of cultural patterns, it is clear that during the process of group formation, kinship ties played an unassailable part, although they were likely never a causal factor.

The volume covers the research on elites from the early 18th century to the interwar period, focussing on the Banat, Bessarabia, Bohemia, Bulgaria, Dalmatia, Hungary, Rumania, Serbia, Slovenia, as well as looking into Austria and Austria-Hungary in total.

Colloquium series 2022–23: "Science Diplomacy and Science in Times of War.”

 The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) is pleased to announce its Institute’s Colloquium series 2022–23: "Science Diplomacy and Science in Times of War.” 

The series will take place in a hybrid format (on Zoom and at our institute in Berlin-Dahlem).

The colloquium series is dedicated to the rethinking of science and scientific knowledge in times of peace and in times of crises and war. Within this framework, it  will interrogate the history and concepts of "science diplomacy," its applicability across time and space; limits and opportunities of scientific cooperation across borders, cultural and national contexts, fluctuating between peace and war; legitimation of using science and scientists as means of sanctions and geopolitical tools; and if we should differentiate between politically and diplomatically usable science and politically/diplomatically irrelevant science, reminiscent of Dale’s distinction between peaceful "normal science" and "abnormal" war science.

Further details, including how to register, can be found on our website: https://www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/colloquium/science-diplomacy .