workshop for emerging scholars (M.A. students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral researchers) focusing on the study of contemporary East-Central and Southeastern Europe

 The Center for Slavic, Eurasian, and East European Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pleased to invite you to submit paper proposals for a workshop for emerging scholars (M.A. students, Ph.D. students, and postdoctoral researchers) focusing on the study of contemporary East-Central and Southeastern Europe. We are interested in novel sources and approaches that reinterpret traditional historical narratives of these regions.

We welcome submissions related to East-Central and Southeastern Europe from history and other historically-informed disciplines, such as political science, anthropology, sociology, and film and literary studies. Scholars from the regions of inquiry are especially encouraged to apply. We hope to create panels of scholars from diverse national and temporal subfields to discuss shared challenges and insights related to the use of different sources – including, but not limited to, oral histories, literary sources, government documents, photography, video, or material culture. We will accept papers on any topic. In their presentations, panelists will address the source base of their papers and their interpretations thereof.

The workshop is remote and will take place via Zoom on May 16, 2025. Participants will have 15–20 minutes to present their papers in English. Each presentation will be followed by comments from a discussant and questions from the audience.

Please send a short abstract (300 words) and a CV in English via this form. Proposals should briefly explain the paper’s source base and argument, as well as its contribution to the fields of East-Central and Southeastern European history. The deadline for submission is 11:59 pm EST on March 31, 2025.

Applicants will be informed of their status by April 7. Those accepted into the workshop will be asked to submit a complete paper by 11:59 p.m. EST on May 2, 2025. Please direct questions regarding the workshop to myself (ahuselja@email.unc.edu) and Mira Markham (miram@live.unc.edu).

CfP: Mobilizing Nature: The Environmental History of the Ottoman Danubian Frontier, Vienna, 12-13 March 2026

Call for papers: Mobilizing Nature: The Environmental History of the Ottoman Danubian Frontier, Vienna, 12-13 March 2026

The Danube, “le roi des fleuves de l’Europe” (the king of European rivers), as Napoleon Bonaparte called it, is the second longest river in Europe, surpassed by the Volga in Russia only. Originating from the Black Forests in Germany, it flows through or past ten Central and Southeastern European countries before it flows into the Black Sea. The Danube was a vital commercial and military shipping channel for the Ottomans. From the fourteenth century, they increasingly used the Danube as a waterway to move supplies and munition between the Black Sea and the Hungarian plains. Especially in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Danube was an inseparable part of Ottoman campaign logistics. It enabled the Ottomans to apply their military projections to Europe and contributed to their success in their military operations against the Habsburgs. 

Scholars have tracked the political, social, and economic consequences of the Ottoman military presence on the Danube, but less attention has been paid to its environmental repercussions. To fill this gap, the Department of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Vienna will host the “Mobilizing Nature: The Environmental History of the Danubian Frontier” workshop from 12 to 13 March 2026. Focusing on the Middle and Lower Danubian frontiers in the early modern period, it will explore the Danube River’s place and role in Ottoman warfare. The workshop aims to shed light on the relationship between the riverine environment, war and military in the early modern Ottoman Danube. It aims to bring together researchers working on the river’s military and environmental histories and those with a broader focus on river history. In this respect, it seeks to foster a cross-disciplinary conversation to build connections across fields and bring different perspectives to understand the establishment and maintenance of the Ottoman Danubian frontier in connection with the natural environment.

The participants are encouraged to engage in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary topics that deal with questions including, but not limited to, the following:

▪ How did the Ottomans expand their rule and establish and maintain their military frontier on the Danube River? 

▪ How did the Ottoman military engage with the Danubian environment? In what ways did environmental conditions, such as climate, landscape, flora, fauna, soil, and water, shape the character of Ottoman warfare? 

▪ How did military ideas, strategies, bodies, and institutions interact with nature in the Ottoman Danube? 

▪ How did they cope with the challenges posed by the Danube, such as shallows, whirlpools, and shifting islands? 

▪ How did the Ottoman military mobilize natural resources, such as timber, stone, sand, and ores, for their military ends? 

▪ What were the environmental consequences of the Ottoman military presence on the Danube? How did the militarization of Danubian landscapes affect human beings and other species? 

▪ What are the specificities of the militarized environments along the Ottoman Danube? How similar or different are they from other militarized environments in the Ottoman Empire and beyond? 

▪ How are the environmental histories of Ottoman battlefields linked? 

▪ How can methods and tools used in the digital and spatial humanities, such as historical GIS and creative geovisualization, offer alternative ways of telling stories about the Ottoman Danubian Frontier?

For the “Mobilizing Nature” workshop, we invite submissions that align with the workshop aims mentioned above. Please send your proposals of max. 300 words and short bios to Onur İnal (onur.inal@univie.ac.at) and Deniz Armağan Akto (deniz.armagan.akto@univie.ac.at) until 31 May 2025. 

Limited funding will be available to help cover travelling costs for individuals without institutional support. 

The workshop is part of the project “DANFront: An Environmental History of the EarlyModern Ottoman Military Frontier in the Middle and Lower Danube,” funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) (PAT2459324). 

https://danfront.univie.ac.at/

In the spirit of continuing the rich dialogue and scholarly exchange from the Mobilizing Nature workshop, we intend to publish an edited collection on the innovative research presented at the workshop. The edited collection will seek to consolidate and extend the theoretical and conceptual insights generated by the workshop, providing a significant contribution to Ottoman military environmental history.

URL

https://danfront.univie.ac.at/workshop/

CHORUS & hps.cesee global book talk: Economic Knowledge in Crisis: Economists and the State in the Late Soviet Union

CHORUS & hps.cesee global book talk: Economic Knowledge in Crisis: Economists and the State in the Late Soviet Union. Thursday, April 10, 11:00 am ET / 17:00 CET / 18:00 Kyiv, Zoom.

ABOUT THIS EVENT

Virtual platforms CHORUS (Colloquium for the History of Russian and Soviet Science) & HPS.CESEE (History of Science in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe) are inviting you to the forthcoming discussion of a new book on the history of Soviet economics. Ewa Dąbrowska and Ilya Matveev will join Olessia Kirtchik to comment on her recent book: Economic Knowledge in Crisis: Economists and the State in the Late Soviet Union [1], in a discussion moderated by Slava Gerovitch.

Thursday, April 10, 11:00 am ET / 17:00 CET / 18:00 Kyiv, Zoom.

The meeting is free and open to the public. To receive the Zoom link, please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/LInm1rrqSzqQFiI0muwJzw or write to hps.cesee@gmail.com

[1] Economic Knowledge in Crisis: Economists and the State in the Late Soviet Union. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan 2024.

“This book aims to shed new light on the puzzle of the late Soviet conversion to the “market” and capitalism by revisiting the history of Soviet reform economics. Using a variety of sources, including interviews with economists, archival files, and published materials, it examines the social contexts in which economists employed in economic administration and research institutions could have played a crucial public and political role, the forms of their participation, and the social and political logic behind the selection of economic experts and their rise to power during perestroika and the “transition” period. It also compares the professional trajectories of these reformist economists and assesses the scope of this group’s influence in the post-Soviet period in order to conclude on the new state of economic expertise in Russia.”

Participants

Ewa Dąbrowska is a Postdoc in the Cluster “Contestations of the liberal Script” and at the Institute for East European Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin. She obtained her PhD from the University of Amsterdam with the thesis on ideas and policy change in Putin’s Russia. Her current research focuses on alternatives to the liberal norms and institutions in the governance of the Internet, data and the digital economy in Russia and the Global South. More information https://www.scripts-berlin.eu/people/Dabrowska/index.html 

Olessia Kirtchik is a sociologist and CNRS researcher, specializing in the sociology of science and technology. She holds a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and has held academic positions in Russia, France, and Austria. Her research focuses on the history of cybernetics, AI, and the circulation of economic ideas. Notable publications include “The Soviet Scientific Programme on AI” (BJHS Themes, 2023) and “Computers for the Planned Economy” (Europe-Asia Studies, 2022). She is currently working on the IAction project, studying AI’s role in public administration in France. More information: https://cis.cnrs.fr/en/olessia_kirtchik/ 

Ilya Matveev is an independent Marxist researcher in Russian and international political economy. He is currently a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and a member of the research group Public Sociology Laboratory. He is a founding editor of Openleft.ru. His recent publications include “From the Chicago Boys to Hjalmar Schacht: The Trajectory of the (Neo)Liberal Economic Expertise in Russia” (Problems of Post-Communism, 2024) and "When the Whole Is Less Than the Sum of Its Parts: Russian Developmentalism since the Mid-2000s." (Russian Politics 2023 with Oleg Zhuravlev). More information: https://berkeley.academia.edu/IlyaMatveev 

Slava Gerovitch teaches history of mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He holds two PhDs: one in philosophy of science (from the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences and Technology in Moscow) and one in history and social study of science and technology (from MIT's Science, Technology and Society Program). He has written extensively on the history of Soviet mathematics, cybernetics, cosmonautics, and computing. He is the author of From Newspeak to Cyberspeak: A History of Soviet Cybernetics (2002), Voices of the Soviet Space Program (2014), and Soviet Space Mythologies (2015). More information: https://web.mit.edu/slava/homepage 

CALL FOR PAPERS: The Humanities and Natural Sciences in the Late Stalin Era

 CALL FOR PAPERS: The Humanities and Natural Sciences in the Late Stalin Era

The CUPOLA project (Culture’s Politics Under Authoritarian Rule: Soviet Civilizationism and the Case of the Humanities During the Stalin Era, 2024–2028) invites chapter proposals for the book project The Humanities and Natural Sciences in the Late Stalin Era. The deadline for abstracts is May 15, 2025, with notifications of acceptance sent by May 23, 2025. We invite abstracts for book chapters that offer novel perspectives on the humanities and natural sciences during the late Stalin era. To apply, please submit an abstract (maximum 500 words) and a CV (maximum two pages) to elina.viljanen@helsinki.fi.

Research on Stalin-era humanities and natural sciences has primarily focused on the political and ideological control exerted by the state. However, there is a scarcity of studies exploring the degrees of autonomy and submission within these fields. To address this gap, we propose examining the political strategies employed by scholars in Soviet humanities and natural sciences in their efforts to gain relative autonomy from Soviet political control. This approach is grounded in the understanding that, for political instrumentalization to be effective, it cannot entirely eliminate scholarly autonomy, as scholarship must remain useful for political purposes.

Our project seeks to explore the intersections between the political, cultural, and philosophical aspects of Soviet humanities and natural sciences. Our premise is that the political aspects of humanities and sciences are not reducible only to the active role they assume through their actors and ideas in conventional state driven politics. To address and test this premise, we introduce the methodological concept of culture’s politics, which refers to the struggle for power to define and govern one’s own cultural existence. In the context of the humanities and natural sciences, it is essential to ask: To what extent did scholars under Stalinism experience relative autonomy? What did autonomy entail, and why is this phenomenon significant? How should we conceptualize the late Stalin era in scholarship, particularly from the perspectives of the history of ideas and philosophy of science?

A seminar to discuss preliminary book chapters will be held at the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki on October 2–3, 2025. Online participation will be available, and the deadline for submitting draft chapters is September 22nd, 2025.

We kindly ask you to forward this Call for Papers to any individuals or groups who may be interested in contributing to this book project. For more information about the CUPOLA Project, please visit the ARGIH pages: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/russian-east-european-and-eurasian-intellectual-history/news/call-for-papers

 

Call for Articles: "Betrayal Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Treachery in Central Europe" (Střed/Centre 2/2025)

 Call for Articles: "Betrayal Revisited: Historical Perspectives on Treachery in Central Europe" (Střed/Centre 2/2025)

By early 2025, arguments about ‘betrayal’ have made a triumphant return to the domain of global politics, underscoring the emotive underpinnings of a particular US- and NATO-centric global order, particularly from the perspective of the Global North. At the same time, rhetoric from many of the main actors involved has operated with the concept of betrayal since nobody wants to betray the trust of the respective ‘nation’. This situation has evoked memories of historic betrayals, from the Munich Agreement to the Phoney War, from the Yalta Conference to the failure of the Budapest Memorandum, as well as individual betrayals both domestic and foreign. The resurgence of interest in treachery in Central Europe is in line with a number of historiographical trends since the 1990s. On the one hand, it is driven by a new generation of historians seeking to challenge post-socialist narratives with their black-and-white, national typologies. On the other hand, it is a reaction to the resurgence of such dualistic narratives in conservative and right-wing historiography. Concurrently, and not by chance, Julien Benda’s La trahison des clercs (The Treason of the Intellectuals, orig. 1927) experienced a revival in the region, marking the return of yet another discourse on betrayal.

The present issue of the diamond open access journal Střed/Centre will contribute to this growing Central European debate on the histories of treachery and betrayal. Contributions are invited on the period from the onset of the 19th century to the present day, and the space stretching from Bregenz to Luhansk and from Dubrovnik to Tallinn. Comparative and transnational approaches are particularly welcome in this context.

Potential themes or questions to discuss are:

- What terms are used in the languages of Central Europe to discuss concepts of betrayal or treachery in a variety of historic political or personal contexts? Where does this language come from and how has it evolved?

- What criteria are used by governments or in the general public for evaluating treachery or betrayal? Which discourses and which emotional regimes do they relate to (social, cultural, gender, religious, colonial, national etc.)?

- How has the criteria employed in incidents of treachery changed over time? How has this affected the criteria for atonement? How far is atonement for treachery ever possible?

- Where and why have notorious figures of betrayal or treachery appeared or disappeared over the course of the last two centuries? How far have they involved new forms of collective identification in the Central European region (e.g. class, gender, ethnicity) in evolving forms of state or society?

- What happens when discourses about betrayal clash with each other? – e.g. different national perspectives (as in the 1938 ‘Munich betrayal’), or conflicts about betrayal on a more personal level such as adultery or oath-breaking.

- How and why are certain incidents or figures of treachery long-lasting? Who sustains these historic incidents in the public memory, and how are they reconfigured for new purposes in later decades by regimes or society?

- To what extent are there key sites or spaces in Central Europe which evoke memories of betrayal, treachery or treason? 

- How far do incidents or discourses about treachery have regional limits, or are they also transnational with some examples from Central Europe having an international resonance?

Please send a title and an abstract of no more than 250 words to the editors at stred@mua.cas.cz by April 10, 2025. Authors of accepted proposals will be expected to submit their full papers by October 1, 2025.

Information about the journal and the guidelines can be found in the “For Authors” section of the journal’s website: https://asjournals.lib.cas.cz/Stred/home?lang=en 

Languages of publication: English, Czech, Slovak, German

Call for papers: Truth Politics between Science and Society. Political Epistemologies of the 1990s Science Wars. Erfurt

Call for papers: Truth Politics between Science and Society. Political Epistemologies of the 1990s Science Wars. Erfurt, 08.07.2025 - 09.07.2025, Deadline 22.04.2025

In light of a dwindling public trust in science (Oreskes 2019) and ambiguous calls for a ‘return to truth’ (Cain et al. 2019), understanding the relationship between science and a democratic public, the delineation of appropriate scientific practices, and how to reconcile conflicting interpretations of reality seems to be more relevant than ever. In the 1990s, struggles over these issues culminated in the Science Wars that consisted of a series of heated academic-public discussions, among them the infamous ‘Sokal Hoax’. The Science Wars represent a historic peak and intersection of academic, political, and epistemological debates that had been smoldering for decades before, leaving a contested legacy.

A fresh perspective on the Science Wars – one that acknowledges their historical complexity, moves beyond a dualistic framing, and situates them firmly in their historical moment – promises to illuminate the social, political, and cultural ramifications on academia and beyond. The workshop aims to map and historicize the shifting epistemological landscapes of the 1990s from an international perspective informed by methods of Historical and Political Epistemology.

We take the Science Wars and their reception as a vantage point to explore historical debates at the nexus of truth, science, and society. The topics may include, but are not limited to:

- debates about the relationship between religion, especially creationism, and science and education (Perez 2024);

- the “Darwin wars” (Brown 2000) or “Evolution wars” (Aechtner 2020);

- the New Atheist movement and its struggles against religious “irrationalism”;

- sceptics’ networks debunking “pseudo-sciences” since the 1970s;

- more generally, the philosophical efforts to delineate science against “pseudo-science” (Popper, Lakatos, Bunge etc.);

- the “Freud wars” against psychoanalysis;

- the “theory wars” (Bevir et al. 2020) in literary theory;

- debates about science museum exhibitions (e.g. Science in American Life, Enola Gay) etc.

In line with the perspective of Historical and Political Epistemology, the following questions might be worth considering:

- What were the socio-political effects of deploying scientific concepts, rhetorics, and arguments (e.g. truth, objectivity, rationalism, the scientific method, academic freedom) in particular historical contexts?

- What kind of political and social imaginations about the future of science and the (democratic) public informed these different positions?

- What kinds of subjectivities and narratives about science and society were re-/asserted?

In particular, we invite paper proposals with an international and transnational perspective on the reception of the Science Wars and related debates, as well as similar struggles that played out in different academic cultures and national contexts. Moreover, the role of new channels of communication and media, and how they shaped debates in public-academic arenas represent an important topic to explore.

We invite colleagues to send a short CV, and a 300-word abstract of their paper (the presentation should be 25-30 minutes long). The deadline for submission is April 22, 2025. Please send these documents to forschungsstelle.wahrheit@uni-erfurt.de. Applicants will be notified of the acceptance of their proposal by the beginning of May. As a result of the workshop, we are planning a publication. The workshop will take place at the University of Erfurt, Germany. We will cover travel and accommodation costs for the speakers.

Organizing Committee:

Martin Babička, D.Phil., Institute of Contemporary History, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague

Johanna Hügel, History of Science, University of Erfurt

Meike Katzek, M.A., History of Science, University of Erfurt

Prof. Dr. Bernhard Kleeberg, History of Science, University of Erfurt

Dr. Jan Surman, Masaryk Institute and Archives of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague

call for papers: History of Digital History between East and West

 call for papers: History of Digital History between East and West. Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxemburg, 05.02.2026 - 06.02.2026, Deadline 29.05.2025

In histories of digital history, as in digital humanities in general, much emphasis has been placed on the two commonly recognized centers of the development of historical computing since the 1950s: the United States and Western Europe. As a result, crucial developments elsewhere have been overlooked, including in the Nordic countries as well as the Soviet Union and the various states of the Eastern bloc. The consequence of this omission is not merely a lack of knowledge about specific countries and a skewed understanding of digital history’s manifold early trajectories. It also creates epistemological blind spots regarding the political dimensions of the development of early historical computing and, given the latter’s networked nature within a general context of ‘East-West’ scholarly exchange in the Cold War period, obscures the transnational dimensions of the early history of digital history.

This workshop will address these blind spots by focusing attention on the question of how the local and the transnational intersected in the technology-inflected reshaping of historical research practices and how political backgrounds, contexts and constraints fed into this process. We therefore seek papers that focus on local case studies in a transnational ‘East-West’ context, as well as those that consider comparative perspectives. Papers that ask what resources are available to support research in this area are similarly welcome.

Our workshop also continues and expands upon work done at the conference Tracing the History of Digital History (October 2024, German Historical Institute, Paris).

Main themes

- Local case studies: pioneers, projects, groups, schools within a wider transnational and East-West context. How did individual scholars and pioneering research groups contribute to the emergence of digital history and quantitative methods in different national and institutional contexts? What types of projects and methodological innovations emerged from local research centers? To what extent did the adoption of digital and quantitative methods vary between different historiographical traditions, and how did pioneers navigate resistance or skepticism within their own academic communities? How were networks of scholars instrumental in the spread of quantitative and digital methods in history?

- Development of networks: social, material and semantic (events, conferences, workshops). What kind of knowledge, expertise and practical experiences were exchanged and circulated in the networks? Which topics, methods, technical expertise, code, programs? What did people learn from each other? What points of contestation emerged (for instance, different theoretical approaches to quantification)

- Political and ideological dimensions: What role did politics and varied ideological backgrounds play? How did this help or hinder contacts (both practically and in terms of ideologically-infused ideas about doing history, topics to research, justification, valorisation, etc). How can we move beyond simplistic East versus West, communist versus capitalist, binaries and allow for more insight into what happened inside and between countries, and inside ‘blocs’? Similarly, how to consider actors in their own right and not as mere representatives of the latter?

- Methodological debates. What were the key methodological debates in historical research? How were different theoretical perspectives – such as Marxism, social history, and other critical approaches – negotiated within these debates? To what extent did the use of quantitative methods shape and contribute to broader theoretical and methodological reflections in historical scholarship?

- Materialities: How did differences in material infrastructure (hardware and software) shape the development of historical computing in different geopolitical contexts? How did differing access to technology and computing resources affect the methodological and epistemological directions of digital history in various regions?

- Primary and secondary sources: What resources are already available in digital format for investigating the history of historical computing in the 1960s–70s — which types, where, and in what form? What materials remain accessible only in analogue format, and how does this shape research possibilities? How can we map materials in the institutional archives and repositories and those in private archives and personal collections? How can the analysis of historical sources shape current knowledge, reveal biases and gaps, and deepen our understanding of transnational connections in historical computing?

- Links and acceptance with the wider history profession: How was early digital history perceived by mainstream historians? What were the main points of resistance and acceptance? How did the early digital history community navigate disciplinary boundaries within the historical profession? How did the terminology used to describe digital history evolve in its early decades? What were the implications of changes in naming (e.g., “quantitative history”, “cliometrics”, “historiometrics”, etc.)? What were the methodological debates surrounding the use of computers in historical research, and how did they influence the status of digital history? How did political and ideological contexts shape the adoption and institutionalisation of digital history in different regions?

We plan to publish the papers of the workshop in a dedicated Open Access volume in the C²DH book series Studies in Digital History and Hermeneutics. This volume will have sections dedicated to local as well as thematic studies that engage comparative perspectives.

The conference will be held at the Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) at the University of Luxembourg. Accepted participants will be offered hotel accommodation for two nights on campus.

Submissions

Please send your abstract of maximum 400-600 words by 29 May 2025 to Gerben Zaagsma (gerben.zaagsma@uni.lu) or Marek Tamm (marek.tamm@tlu.ee). Please explain in your abstract to which theme(s) your contribution is linked. Notifications of acceptance will be sent in early July.

Timeline

Call for papers: early March 2025

Deadline for abstracts: 29 May 2025

Notification of acceptance: 4 July 2025

Workshop: 5-6 February 2026

Programme Committee

Gerben Zaagsma (University of Luxembourg)

Marek Tamm (Tallinn University)

Julianne Nyhan (Technische Universität Darmstadt)

Petri Paju (University of Turku)

Sune Bechmann Pedersen (Stockholm University)

Nadezhda Povroznik (Technische Universität Darmstadt)

Muriel Blaive: Pandemic Power. The Covid Response and the Erosion of Democracy—A Liberal Critique

 Muriel Blaive: Pandemic Power. The Covid Response and the Erosion of Democracy—A Liberal Critique. Budapest: CEU Press 2025. ISBN: 978-963-386-933-8

Open access: https://ceupress.com/sites/ceupress.ceu.edu/files/pandemicpower.pdf

Pandemic Power offers a bold and thought-provoking exploration of how the global response to the Covid pandemic has reshaped our understanding of science, freedom, and democracy. This meticulously researched book examines the political, social, and intellectual shifts that have accompanied lockdowns, censorship, and the instrumentalization of fear, delivering a searing critique of the policies and narratives that defined the Covid era.

From past public health scandals to the rise of “digital authoritarianism,” Blaive investigates the dangers of unchecked authority, the troubling role of the media, and the ethical failures of policymakers and public health leaders. Through her in-depth analysis, the author explores critical issues such as surveillance and censorship, the disproportionate impact of lockdowns on the poor and disadvantaged, the capture of public health by the pharmaceutical industry, and the erosion of the rule of law under the guise of public safety. Lastly, this book questions the liberal left’s troubling support for authoritarian practices and its apparent indifference to the aggravation of socio-economic inequalities resulting from the pandemic response it championed.

Provocative, insightful, and deeply relevant, Pandemic Power is essential reading for anyone seeking to gain insight into not only how the Covid response has eroded democracy but also how it has contributed to the rise of the extreme right in many countries.

Marie Škarpová et al. (eds.) Příhodnější spojení není možné - Vzájemná korespondence Antonína Škárky a Dmytra Čyževského (1939–1972) [There is no more convenient connection - Mutual correspondence of Antonín Škárka and Dmytro Čyževský (1939-1972)].

 Marie Škarpová et al. (eds.) Příhodnější spojení není možné - Vzájemná korespondence Antonína Škárky a Dmytra Čyževského (1939–1972) [There is no more convenient connection - Mutual correspondence of Antonín Škárka and Dmytro Čyževský (1939-1972)]. Praha: Filosofia 2025. ISBN: 978-80-7007-779-5

Svazek je kritickou edicí veškeré vzájemné odborné korespondence českého filologa a literárního historika Antonína Škarky (1906-1972) a filozofa a komparatisty ukrajinsko-ruského původu Dmytra Čyževského (1894-1977), která se dochovala z let 1939-1972 a čítá přes 80 korespondenčních jednotek.

Vedle standardního edičního aparátu kniha obsahuje úvodní studii, jež poukazuje na jedinečnost editované korespondence, svědčící mj. o tom, že oba bohemisté, žijící po většinu svého života v rozdílných částech politicky rozdělené Evropy, dokázali navzdory nemožnosti osobního setkávání právě v korespondenci navázat a dlouhodobě rozvíjet intenzivní a plodnou spolupráci, která nakonec ve druhé polovině 60. let 20. století vyústila až v konstituování unikátního vědecko-vydavatelského týmu napříč železnou oponou. Korespondence tak podává jedinečné informace o principech fungování odborné komunikace přes železnou oponu i o dobových problémech a limitech provozu humanitních věd na obou jejích stranách.Anotace

EUI Summer School in: Environmental History: European and Global Perspectives

 EUI Summer School in: Environmental History: European and Global Perspectives

Programme Description

The Summer School will take place online from  17th of September  to the 19th of September 2025

For a long time environmental history was a relatively small and specialized field of historical research. Most historians interested in political, social, economic, or cultural issues did not incorporate the natural world into their accounts, nor did they consider environmental histories relevant to their own work. Growing concern about climate change and discussions about the notion of the Anthropocene have changed this situation dramatically. In recent years, environmental history has become a very popular field, with many historians from other backgrounds drawing on its findings and adapting their research agendas to include environmental questions.

In this summer school, we intend to provide participants with ideas on how environmental history can be brought into conversation with research on European and global history in the early modern and modern periods. Given the History Department’s expertise in these fields, we aim to highlight the opportunities to be gained from engaging with environmental history as a transversal approach. For example, we will investigate the ways in which European encounters with the early modern world can benefit from studying how notions of ‘exotic’ nature informed (or misinformed) colonial policies and approaches. We will study the role and perception of natural resources in mid-twentieth century international discussions about global trade and economic policies. Furthermore, we will analyze the history of transregional and transnational environmental protection efforts and their contributions to the emergence of a sense of planetary responsibility and international climate governance efforts.

Contributions by leading environmental historians will be combined with hands-on research opportunities. Participants will have the chance to work with digital visual sources related to environmental themes housed in the Historical Archives of the European Union. They will also be able to present their own research projects and receive feedback from their peers.Programme Description

More: https://www.eui.eu/apply?id=summer-school-in-global-and-transnational-history

Acta Poloniae Historica, Volume 130: Time and the Modern World. Standardisation, Globalisation, Privacy

New issue of Acta Poloniae Historica, devoted to the issue of time standardisation/globalisation/management in the 19th century, is out. All contributions are English, Open acess.

URL: https://www.aph-ihpan.edu.pl/en/volume-130

Contents

Table of contents

Małgorzata Litwinowicz-Droździel, Introduction: Time and the Modern World. Standardisation, Globalisation, Privacy

Błażej Brzostek, Personal Watches in Warsaw, 1890–1914: Social Meanings

Alicja Maślak-Maciejewska, Sabbath and Sunday, Passover and Easter, Judaism in the Afternoon: Jewish Time in the Galician Public School

Augusto Petter, The Imperial Meteor: Time and Velocity in Pedro II’s Journey of 1876–7

Agata Łuksza, Time in Service of Orientalism: The Case of Polish Japanomania at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

Katarzyna Ryszewska, Time in Polish Prehistoric Archaeology in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century

Małgorzata Litwinowicz-Droździel, Colonisation of the Future, the Time of the Émigré, the History of the Earth: Ignacy Domeyko’s Moje Podróże [My Travels]

Reviews

Reviews

Serhiy Bilenky, Laboratory of Modernity: Ukraine between Empire and Nation, 1772–1914 – Fabian Baumann;

Frank Rochow, Architektur und Staatsbildung. Festungsbauten als Instrument habsburgischer Herrschaft in Krakau und Lemberg – Aleksander Łupienko;

Raluca Goleşteanu-Jacobs, Habsburg Galicia and the Romanian Kingdom. Sociocultural Development, 1866–1914 – Konrad Meus;

Natasha Wheatley, The Life & Death of States: Central Europe & the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty – Piotr Kuligowski

Jędrzej Garnek, Adrianna Smolińska (eds.): Matematyka dawnych matur [Mathematics in Historical Final Exams].

Jędrzej Garnek, Adrianna Smolińska (eds.): Matematyka dawnych matur [Mathematics in Historical Final Exams]. Poznań: Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu 2024. ISBN: 978-83-963138-8-1

Open access: https://poznan.ap.gov.pl/matematyka-dawnych-matur-nowa-publikacja/

W 2023 r. dr Marek Szczepaniak, ówczesny kierownik Oddziału w Gnieźnie wyszedł z pomysłem zwrócenia uwagi na wartość dokumentacji archiwalnej dla grupy odbiorców niekoniecznie związanej z archiwami – dla matematyków. Postanowił on zaprezentować znajdujące się w zasobie archiwum materiały dotyczące maturalnych zadań matematycznych, z którymi zmagali się uczniowie liceum w Gnieźnie i Trzemesznie pod zaborami – w XIX i na początku XX wieku.

Początkowo dr Szczepaniak zwrócił się do nauczycieli matematyki z wielkopolskich szkół, którzy zredagowali oryginalne prace uczniów i ich rozwiązania. Następnie studenci zrzeszeni w Kole Naukowym Matematyków UAM, pod kierunkiem merytorycznym pracowników Wydziału Matematyki oraz Uniwersytetu WSB Merito w Poznaniu, opracowali zadania i ich rozwiązania w nowoczesnym języku matematycznym. Redakcją zajęli się Adrianna Smolińska oraz dr Jędrzej Garnek. Efektem ich pracy jest publikacja “Matematyka dawnych matur”, wydana przez Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu.

Oprócz formy książkowej, jest ona dostępna elektronicznie w otwartym dostępie. Książka przeznaczona jest dla nauczycieli matematyki, uczniów zainteresowanych Królową Nauk, a także dla wszystkich osób, które zastanawiają się, czy zdałyby maturę z dawnych czasów. Oprócz zadań znaleźć w niej można również ciekawostki historyczne o abiturientach, którzy później odegrali ważne role w historii regionu, a także omówienie ówczesnego systemu maturalnego.

History of science and technology (Kyiv) Volume 14 No. 2 (2024) is online

 History of science and technology (Kyiv) Volume 14 No. 2 (2024) is online (open access). English with Ukrainian abstracts.

URL: https://www.hst-journal.com/index.php/hst/issue/view/24

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

Oleh Strelko, Oleh Pylypchuk, Yuliia Berdnychenko

PREFACE......................................................................................301

HISTORY OF SCIENCE

Anton Ivashchuk: French  language  instruction  in  Galicia  (1867–1939):  Analysis  of  curricula, programs, and methodologies............................................................305

Olha Kravchenko, Olga Shkurenko, Svitlana Bonіar, Svitlana Shuliarenko: Planning paradigms throughout economic history....................................332

Zhanar Mukhangaliyeva, Akkaiyn Balykova, Zhanna Mazhitova: Ukrainian scientists at the Tselinograd State Medical Institute: Contribution to education and science (1960s)............................................................. 350

Natalya Pasichnyk, Renat Rizhniak, Нanna Deforzh: Natural  and  mathematical  publications  of  the  Dnipro  region  at  the  end  of  the 19th–beginning of the 20th century: Establishment of educational technology as a science.................................................................................374

Marina Petrushko, Volodymyr Piniaiev, Taisiia Yurchuk: The history of cryotechnologies in reproductive medicine: From randomness to stability .......................................................................................401

Oksana Pylypchuk, Oleh Strelko: Karl Popper's "Critical Rationalism": The way to freedom and democracy......419

Vivi Sandra Sari, Mayca Sita Nurdiana: Foundations of ophthalmology  in  Dutch  East  Indies:  A  look  at distribution of early ophthalmology medical facilities (1900‒1942) .................................436

HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY

Ihor Annienkov: Work  at  the  Kharkiv  Electromechanical  and  Turbo-Generator  Plant  on  the project of electromagnetic torpedo tubes (1936–1938) ...............................465

Artemii  Bernatskyi,  Volodymyr  Lukashenko,  Oleksandr  Siora,  Mykola Sokolovskyi: Analysis of the application of lasers for counter-UAV purposes....................487

Liudmyla  Vaniuha,  Mariia  Kyreia,  Natalia  Lemishka, Olena  Spolska, Iryna Patron: History  of  the  evolution of  cinema  in  the  context  of  considering  the  stages  of development of science and technology. The first steps to the birth of cinema.....513

Volodymyr Yanin, Oleksiy Petruchenko: Academician of the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Petro Mykhaylovych Suprunenko: Life and activity............................................................539

CHORUS & hps.cesee global book talk: Pictures from the exhibition. Science and technology in the early USSR

CHORUS & hps.cesee global book talk: Pictures from the exhibition. Science and technology in the early USSR. Thursday, March 13, 12:00 pm ET / 17:00 CET / 18:00 Kyiv, Zoom.

Virtual platforms CHORUS (Colloquium for the History of Russian and Soviet Science) & HPS.CESEE (History of Science in Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe) are proud to present their forthcoming book talk on a new publication on history of science exhibitions. Douglas Weiner and Nikolai Krementsov will join Olga Elina to comment on her recent book: Kartinki s vystavki. Nauka i tekhnologii v rannem SSSR (po materialam Vserossiiskoi vystavki 1923 goda) [Pictures from the exhibition. Science and technology in the early USSR (based on the materials of the All-Russian Exhibition of 1923)] (2024) [1], in a discussion moderated by Eglė Rindzevičiūtė.

Thursday, March 13, 12:00 pm ET / 17:00 CET / 18:00 Kyiv, Zoom.

The meeting is free and open to the public. To receive the Zoom link, please register here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Gi8_j7tsTBaKXOaK024MyQ or write to hps.cesee@gmail.com

[1] Ольга Елина, Картинки с выставки. Наука и технологии в раннем СССР (по материалам Всероссийской выставки 1923 года) (Рутения, 2024)

“The book is devoted to the history of the First All-Russian (All-Union) Agricultural and Craft-Industrial Exhibition with a Foreign Section, which took place in Moscow in 1923 and became the prototype of the All-Russian Exhibition of Economic Achievements (VDNKh).

Elina focuses on the scientific-educational and technical-technological components of the exhibition. Using a wide range of sources, she studies various subjects of the show - the tasks set by its organizers; the role of scientists as experts and exhibitors of the exhibition; the purpose, content and appearance of the expositions themselves; ‘workdays’ and holidays of the exhibition. At the same time, the exhibition is presented as an instrument of ‘scientific diplomacy,’ an as an agitation and propaganda campaign aimed at the peasantry.”

Participants

Olga Elina is doctor of Historical Sciences, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Chief Researcher of the Department of Historiography and Source Study of the History of Science and Technology, IIET RAS. She recently coedited The Art and Science of Making the New Man in Early-Twentieth-Century Russia (with N. Krementsov and Y. Howell, 2021) and The Lysenko Controversy as a Global Phenomenon (with W. DeJong-Lambert and N. Krementsov, 2017)

Nikolai Krementsov is a professor at the University of Toronto's Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, specializing in the history of science, medicine, and technology, with a focus on Russian history. Among his notable works are Stalinist Science (1997), and With and Without Galton: Vasilii Florinskii and the Fate of Eugenics in Russia (2018)

Eglė Rindzevičiūtė is an Associate Professor of Criminology and Sociology, the Department of Criminology, Politics and Sociology, Kingston University London, the UK. She is the author of The Power of Systems: How Policy Sciences Opened Up the Cold War World (Cornell University Press, 2016) and The Will to Predict: Orchestrating the Future through Science (Cornell University Press, 2023).

Douglas R. Weiner is a Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Arizona, specializing in Russian and Soviet environmental history. Among his significant works are Models of Nature: Ecology, Conservation, and Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia (1988), which examines early Soviet conservation efforts, and A Little Corner of Freedom: Russian Nature Protection from Stalin to Gorbachev (1999), exploring environmental activism during the Soviet era.

Marie Bahenská, Lydia Petráňová et. al: Horizonty bádání. Etnografie a folkloristika v českých zemích v letech 1945–1989 [Horizons of research. Ethnography and Folklore Studies in the Czech Lands, 1945-1989].

Marie Bahenská, Lydia Petráňová et. al: Horizonty bádání. Etnografie a folkloristika v českých zemích v letech 1945–1989 [Horizons of research. Ethnography and Folklore Studies in the Czech Lands, 1945-1989]. Praha: Academia 2025. ISBN: 978-80-200-3540-0

Monografie je zaměřena na institucionální, personální, teoreticko-metodologický i obecně epistemologický vývoj etnologie (národopisu, etnografie a folkloristiky, sociokulturní antropologie) v českých zemích ve 2. polovině 20. století s přihlédnutím k evropskému a světovému vývoji těchto oborů. Jedná se o vůbec první moderní popis a analýzu vývoje etnologie jako svébytného vědeckého oboru s vlastní vnitřní dynamikou, který se v Československu vyvíjel po roce 1945 ve zcela specifických kulturních, sociálních i politických podmínkách totalitární společnosti a ideologie. Vývoj oboru je pojednán jako komplexní proces, kde vedle sebe existovaly oficiální proudy vědy a sféra tzv. badatelských nik vyznačujících se značnou mírou kreativity a vědecké svobody. Dynamika jejich vzájemného střetávání a ovlivňování pak definovala vývoj české etnologie ve 2. polovině 20. století na úrovni akademického sboru (vysoké školy, Československá akademie věd) i v podobě aplikované disciplíny (muzea a skanzeny, lidová umělecká výroba, folklorní festivaly).

Pre-prints: Beyond Anthropocentrism in Ukrainian Studies: Proposals from the Environmental Humanities, from East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies

(from Tanya Richardson) Amidst accumulating bad news, a small positive thing: At long last my brilliant co-editor Darya Tsymbalyuk and I are able to make available pre-print versions of articles that make up a two-part special issue of the East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies called “Beyond Anthropocentrism in Ukrainian Studies: Proposals from the Environmental Humanities.” 

The special issue’s main goal is to gather scholars doing ground-breaking work at the interface between Ukrainian studies and environmental humanities and to contribute to challenging multiple colonialities of knowledge in which the study of Ukraine’s environments are embedded. 

We began working on this special issue in 2022 and are tremendously grateful to our amazing authors Anastassiya Andrianova Kateryna Iakovlenko Iryna Skubii Iryna Zamuruieva Julia Malitska Jonathan Turnbull Adrian Ivakhiv who wrote their papers at the beginning of the russian full-scale invasion in incredibly stressful conditions and to Anna Olenenko for allowing us to translate her article about the construction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station. 

When we began, the relatively few artists and researchers doing this kind of work often did not know of each other’s existence. More and more artists, writers, and researchers are making ecology and the natural world the focus of their work following devastating impacts of russia’s full-scale invasion. Our hope is to facilitate greater communication among them and the formation of an intellectual community. The main work on this special issue was completed in fall 2023, and reflects the situation at that time.  

We are grateful to our authors for their inspiring work and patience during the long journey to publication and to East/West for providing a venue in which to publish this work. 

Please read the table of contents to see the whole issue and for how to cite the articles. We include the table of contents in the post; the link to the GoogleDrive containing the articles is listed below. The attached image is the wonderful collage that Darya made for the blog post we wrote for Niche in fall 2023.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1jLnL1VfF15JNZLA1KauP4R4A5qBayEB3

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Table of contents

Volume 11, number 1, spring 2024

Introduction

Richardson, Tanya, and Darya Tsymbalyuk. “Beyond Anthropocentrism in Ukrainian Studies: Proposals from the Environmental Humanities.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 1, 2024, forthcoming. 

Articles

Andrianova, Anastassiya. “Sunflowers in the Ruins: A Multimodal Analysis of the Environmental Aspects of Ukrainian War Songs from March to May 2022.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 1, 2024, forthcoming.

Iakovlenko, Kateryna. “A Systematic Robbery: Transforming the Memory, Culture, and Landscape of the Ukrainian Steppe.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 1, 2024, forthcoming. 

Essays

Zamuruieva, Iryna. “Gathering Ecofeminist Stories with Kateryna Hrushevs'ka.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 1, 2024, forthcoming.

Ivakhiv, Adrian. “Becoming Tuteishyi: Ukraine in the New Global Climatic Regime.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 1, 2024, forthcoming.  

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Volume 11, number 2, fall 2024 

Articles

Richardson, Tanya and Darya Tsymbalyuk. “Constellations of Ukrainian Thought and the Environmental Humanities.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 2, 2024, forthcoming.

Malitska, Julia. “Polycentring Vegetarianism in the Russian Empire: Human-Animal Relationships in the Pages of Vegetarianskoe obozrěnie, 1909–15.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 2, 2024, forthcoming.

Skubii, Iryna. “Toward an Animal-Sensitive History of Famines: Animals, the Environment, and Soviet Famines in Ukraine.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 2, 2024, forthcoming.

Essay

Turnbull, Jonathon. “Chornobyl as Laboratory? The Curious Case of CTVT.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 2, 2024, forthcoming.

Article in Translation

Olenenko, Anna. “‘Our New Sea Is Our New Grief’: The Conflict between the Ukrainian and the Soviet in the Struggle to Construct the Landscape of the Lower Dnipro.” East/West: Journal of Ukrainian Studies [Edmonton and Toronto], vol. 11, no. 2, 2024, forthcoming.

International Summer School DISABILITY HISTORIES 21–27 SEPTEMBER 2025 KRAKÓW, POLAND

Diverse and written from different perspectives, disability histories are a fundamental and integral part of disability studies. To support young scholars - MA and PhD students - we are organising the DISABILITY HISTORIES SUMMER SCHOOL in cooperation with Wydział Historyczny Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego and Wydział Zarządzania i Komunikacji Społecznej UJ. We invite students working on the social and cultural history of disability to join us in Krakow, Poland from 21-27 September 2025, together with an amazing line-up of tutors: Radu Harald Dinu, Katerina Kolarova, Robert Stock and Jaipreet Virdi. 

All the details can be found on our website: https://disability-in-easteurope.project.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/summer-school

Deadline for applications: 31st March 2025

The Summer School is possible thanks to generous support of Inicjatywa Doskonałości - Uczelnia Badawcza, Uniwersytet Jagielloński

Call for papers: An International Conference The Archival Impulse: Knowledge Production, Record Keeping, and Imperial Governance (15th-19th Centuries).

Call for papers: An International Conference The Archival Impulse: Knowledge Production, Record Keeping, and Imperial Governance (15th-19th Centuries). Vienna - March, 19-20 2026

While the examination of European imperial expansion has long been a focal point of historical inquiry, it is only two decades that scholars have begun to systematically question how knowledge production imbricated the vectors of colonialism and to rethink bureaucracy as an instrument of governance. When one looks at archives as subjects, anthropologist Laura Stoler has argued, archives can be more fruitfully conceptualized as a knowledge field where regimes of credibility are constructed. On the one hand, studies that view archives as agents endowed with epistemic force have gained much traction: a consensus among historians of empire and colonialism seems to be emerging around the notion of archives as loci of scribal power. On the other, recent studies have shown that archives are also sites of nescience or unknowing: empires, past and present, were often built on ignorance as much as on knowledge.

This scholarly trend, commonly known as “the archival turn,” thus leaves historians of imperial expansion and colonialism with a conceptual impasse. Once we have established that starting from the sixteenth century state formations made substantial investments in the production of knowledge resulting in new archival regimes, how can we explain that this knowledge was often not put to governmental service, was never exploited, or was simply ignored? In other words, is there a way for historians to explain the accumulation of documents in the archives beyond the “knowledge = power” equation? This conceptual impasse invites us to pursue further our engagement with the archival turn and at the same time encourages us to move beyond conventional approaches to the preservation of records.

This conference aims at examining how archives have grown along with imperial expansion from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century. It invites proposals that engage with the history of empires, knowledge production, record keeping, and governance across different geographies. We especially encourage papers on documentary cultures across Eurasia, including contributions from scholars specializing in the history of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia, East, South, and Southeast Asia. The goal is to historicize archival impulses globally by linking practices of record-keeping with the history of books and readership, scholarship, and education across Eurasian imperial formations. Looking at processes of knowledge production and circulation linked to colonial conquests from the early modern era through the nineteenth century, we aim at dissecting the multifaceted contexts and dynamics that have historically shaped archives. This exploration will consider the evolution of these processes over time and their intricate entanglements with concepts of power, governance, and authority. Furthermore, we will interrogate how archival transformations have mirrored and influenced local and global political realignments.

Within the framework of this conference, we anticipate stimulating papers and academic conversations along the following thematic lines:

The Imperial Machine. Exploring archives at the nexus of power and ambiguity and the role of archives as both facilitator of governance and sites of unexploited knowledge, inefficiencies, and contestation.

Political Curiosity. Investigating the role of intellectual and diplomatic inquiries in shaping imperial policies, and how curiosity-driven knowledge production influenced governance and expansion strategies.

Archival Nescience.Exploring practices of silencing, concealment, and selective memory in imperial archives, and their implications for historical knowledge and erasure.

Forging Historical Insight. Examining the emergence of archives as primary venues for historical and historiographical knowledge production.

Epistemologies of Access. Reflecting on how the (in-)accessibility of archives in today’s changing world impacts the historiography of the archival turn.

Between Imperial Arcana and Publicité. Analyzing the tension between secrecy and public access in archival policies during the eighteenth century and beyond, and its impact on governance and transparency.

Archivist Persona. Delving into the cultural and social history of archival personnel, their roles, identities, and contributions to the shaping of archival knowledge.

We invite colleagues to send a short CV and a 300-word abstract for a thirty-minute paper, addressing the questions above. The deadline for submission is 30 March 2025. Please send these documents to sice(at)oeaw.ac.at. Applicants will be notified of the acceptance of their proposal by April 18, 2025. The conference is jointly organized by the FWF-Project “Central Asia in Russian Diplomatic Archives”, the Committee for the Study of Islam in Central Eurasia (SICE) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Austrian Cluster of Excellence “EurAsian Transformations”. The conference will take place at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna. Some support for travel costs will be available. Accommodation in Vienna will be provided for the duration of the conference.

Ulfat Abdurasulov (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Jan Hennings (Central European University)

Paolo Sartori (Austrian Academy of Sciences)

Mirosław Ossowski: Max Toeppen (1822–1893). Historyk, filolog, dyrektor gimnazjalny [Max Toeppen (1822–1893). Historian, Philologist, a Gymnasium Director].

 Mirosław Ossowski: Max Toeppen (1822–1893). Historyk, filolog, dyrektor gimnazjalny [Max Toeppen (1822–1893). Historian, Philologist, a Gymnasium Director]. Gdańsk: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego 2025. ISBN: 978-83-8206-697-5

Wybór postaci Maxa Toeppena i jego dokonań naukowych jako przedmiotu badań wydaje się jak najbardziej celowy. Napisałem „postaci”, gdyż praca profesora Mirosława Ossowskiego nie przynosi jedynie analizy twórczości pruskiego historyka. Dorobek naukowy został bowiem przedstawiony w szerokim kontekście całego życia Toeppena. Można stwierdzić, że jest to analityczne studium działalności przedstawiciela pruskiej klasy średniej w ówczesnym systemie naukowym i oświatowym. Do tej pory zajmowano się Toeppenem głównie jako naukowcem, nie omawiano bardziej szczegółowo jego pracy pedagogicznej. W książce zaprezentowano biografię autora Historii Mazur, od rozpoczęcia nauki w szkole średniej po kolejne etapy życia zawodowego, aż do emerytury. Na tym tle został ukazany jego dorobek naukowy. Takie ujęcie tematyki uważam za istotny walor recenzowanej monografii, ponieważ jej autor nie ograniczył się do analizy dzieł twórcy, a przedstawił go jako człowieka. Z tekstu wyłania się dość szczegółowy obraz pewnego fragmentu epoki, gdyż profesor Ossowski przybliża nam działanie ówczesnego systemu oświaty na szczeblu wyższym, funkcjonowanie gimnazjów, stosowane wówczas metody dydaktyczne, a także nastroje i stosunki panujące w gronie pedagogicznym, jego reakcje (w tym oczywiście i naszego bohatera) na rozgrywające się wtedy wydarzenia.

Z recenzji wydawniczej prof. dr. hab. Grzegorza Jasińskiego

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HSS 2025 Annual Meeting: Call for Proposals

 2025 Annual Meeting: Call for Proposals

New Orleans, LA, USA

13-16 November 2025

New Orleans Sheraton Hotel

 

Deadline for Proposals: Friday 11 April 2025 11:59 pm PDT

Submission site: https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/hss/hss25/

 The History of Science Society (HSS) will hold its 2025 annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. The meeting will be in-person. We invite submissions on any topic in the history of science. 

We look forward to your submissions! The following guidelines explain the available options for proposals in more detail.

Guidelines

You may appear only once on the program as a presenter in a regular session or roundtable—i.e., as a speaker or commentator. However, you may appear as a presenter and organizer or chair (or both organizer and chair).

Anyone who appears on the program must register. Failure to pay the registration fee by 1 October will result in removal from the program.

All abstracts must be 2,000 characters or fewer (about 250 words).

We encourage submission of proposals for sessions, roundtables, and individual papers.

Proposals for individual 20-minute papers, alone or as part of an organized session, should be focused on original, unpublished work. If you wish to present on a published book, please submit a proposal to join an “Author Roundtable” (see below). 

To facilitate an inclusive environment and promote international participation, we encourage submissions in languages other than English, accompanied by a translated English version. 

The Program Chairs will make decisions on proposals accepted for the program using the following criteria: intellectual merit and quality, distinctiveness (to ensure balance in the program), sponsorship by Forums or Caucuses (sponsorship requests should be noted in the “Special Request” field when submitting), non-duplication of speaking roles, frequency of speakers’ past acceptances in recent programs (2023 and 2024), and inclusion of diversity of participants in terms of demographics that include, career stage/track, geographical location, and institutional affiliation. The Program Chairs strive to accept as many proposals that meet the review criteria as can be accommodated given space and scheduling constraints.

 

Demographic Data

Driven by our mission “to foster interest in the history of science,” the HSS collects demographic information to understand the composition of its submitting proposers, members, and meeting attendees; anonymized demographic data to its members and the public. We are cautious of the exploitation made possible by demographic data collection. Therefore, we are committed to collecting information in a manner that is voluntary, allows for self-description, and is purposeful. The information will be kept confidential, and any reporting of it will be in the aggregate and anonymized. The Program Chairs will take into consideration certain demographics in making decisions about the program, in an effort to achieve balance in the program.  

Respectful Behavior Policy

All participants and attendees of the HSS Annual Meeting, whether participating in-person or virtually, are expected to act in accordance with the Respectful Behavior Policy, which can be read here.

Accessibility and Inclusivity 

The History of Science Society is committed to making our meeting accessible. Presenters should be aware of the guidelines for accessible presentations, which includes verbal description of all images presented on the slides, as they develop their presentations. Please make sure to review the guidelines for best practices for accessibility and inclusion available here. Additional guidelines will be available to accepted presenters. 

Strategies for Organizing Sessions and Roundtables

To encourage and aid the creation of sessions and roundtables with strong thematic coherence that draw upon historians of science across institutions and ranks, the HSS has created a collaboration form to submit proposals in need of panelists and a spreadsheet to review submitted proposals. Anyone with a session, presentation, or roundtable idea seeking collaborators should post and consult the postings on the spreadsheet to round out a prospective session. Submitting your presentation as part of a session increases the chances for it to be accepted.

 Grants Opportunities 

Travel Grants 

To defray travel costs, the HSS will make available several grant opportunities.

We offer National Science Foundation travel grants to graduate students, independent scholars, and recent PhDs (degree in the past 5 years) who are participating in the meeting. Only US citizens or those studying at US institutions are eligible for NSF grants. More information will be available closer to the conference date. In accordance with NSF's aims, we encourage applications from individuals in groups underrepresented in our community, and from those without access to additional funds for whom conference attendance would be financially difficult without the NSF travel grant.

HSS will offer a limited number of travel grants for students, independent scholars, and recent PhDs who are participating in the meeting, but who are ineligible for NSF grants

Dependent care grants (up to US$250) will be offered for those who need such assistance. These grants are available to defray the costs of care either at home or at the meeting site

For information on these grants, please contact us via email.

HSS Gerjuoy/Michel Award

Thanks to a generous gift by an anonymous member, the Society will offer an award of US$500 for the best abstract submitted by an independent scholar. Those scholars who are part of an organized session or who submit a contributed paper, and whose institutions do not consider these scholars to be working historians are eligible. If you meet this criteria and would like to be considered, please inform your organizer or select this option in All Academic.

Submission Types      

Contributed Paper

A standalone presentation no longer than 20 minutes. Accepted contributed papers will be assigned to a session with other contributed papers with similar themes. 

 

Organized Session

A panel about a common theme, consisting of an organizer, chair, and presenters: presenters may include three or four speakers, who will present in a ninety-minute session, ensuring that at least ten of those minutes are given over to audience questions. The session organizer submits all abstracts, and each presenter must provide their personal profile information individually. As a session organizer, please make sure that all of your presenters submit the required information accordingly, as the organized session submission will only be accepted by the system once all this information is complete.

Roundtables

Roundtables are panels that facilitate dialogue on topical issues related to professional practice, historiographical themes, or broader social/political/cultural impacts of science and/or historical practice. Roundtables may include up to six speakers who speak for short periods (typically five minutes), leaving ample time for exchanges with the audience. Roundtable participants may not present in another session or roundtable. Roundtables organized around themes of teaching, futures, or authors should be submitted separately for consideration by the Organizing Committee (see below).

Teaching Roundtables

Roundtable proposals that intend to engage participants and attendees in conversations on pedagogy, syllabi, key works, archives, and mentorship can be submitted as a “Teaching” proposal, for consideration in the program. Only a limited number of such roundtables will be designated as “Teaching” events. 

“Futures” Roundtables

Roundtable proposals that intend to engage participants and attendees in conversations concerning the “future of the field,” “future of the profession,” “future of the Society,” “future of ... ” (etc.), of broad interest to our community can be identified as “Futures” proposals, for consideration of designation as such in the program. Only a limited number of such roundtables will be designated as “Futures” events. Any submissions that are not accepted as “Futures” roundtables will still be considered for inclusion in the program as regular roundtables. 

Authors Roundtables 

We invite authors of monographs and editors of collective volumes published in the history of science, technology, and medicine in 2024 and 2025 to promote their work in the community. These roundtables will be opportunities for authors of new books to chat about their process and challenges in researching, writing, and publishing their books and discuss the future directions of their research and the field. Authors submit individually; the program chairs will organize the roundtables. Preference will be given to first book authors, junior scholars, and independent scholars. 

HoST – Journal of History of Science and Technology - Call for a thematic dossier to be published in 2026

HoST – Journal of History of Science and Technology  - Call for a thematic dossier to be published in 2026

HoST – Journal of History of Science and Technology

Call for a thematic dossier to be published in 2026

Deadline: 31 March 2025

HoST - Journal of History of Science and Technology, recently indexed by Scopus, is an open access, on-line peer-reviewed international journal devoted to the History of Science and Technology, published in English by a group of Portuguese research institutions and De Gruyter Brill/Sciendo. HoST encourages submissions of original historical research exploring the cultural, social and political dimensions of science, technology, and medicine (STM), both from a local and a global perspective.

Past thematic issues have dealt with topics as diverse as circulation, science communication, natural history, or the relation between science, technology and politics. Future issues might deal with both established and emerging areas of scholarship. The editors of HoST are looking for proposals for a thematic dossier to be published in 2026 (HoST volume 20, issue 2-December).

Each thematic dossier should be prepared by the guest editor(s) and include four research papers along with an introduction.

Submission guidelines

Proposals should include the following items:

  1.  An abstract describing the topic for the thematic dossier and its significance (500

words);

  2.  A list of the contributors along with the titles and abstracts (300 words) of the four

research papers;

  3.  Brief CVs (300 words) of the guest editor(s) and authors;

The guest editor(s) and the contributors must be prepared to meet HoST's publication schedule:

  *   Abstract and titles submission: 31 March 2025

  *   Submission of complete research papers: 30 February 2026

  *   Publication: December 2026 (Issue 20.2)

Proposals will be subject to approval by the Editorial Board and authors will be informed of the outcome by the end of April 2025. Submissions should be sent as an e-mail attachment (preferably in one single .doc, .docx, .rtf or .odt file), to the chief-editor: chiefeditor@johost.eu

call for papers: Between Hope and Reality. Modernization and Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe

 call for papers: Between Hope and Reality. Modernization and Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. Europa-Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt an der Oder, 22.05.2025 - 23.05.2025, deadline 23.02.2025

Full cfp: https://www.vcpu.europa-uni.de/en/research/conferences/index.html#00-conference0-153577005

The VCPU Annual Conference 2025 addresses current challenges in Polish and Ukrainian studies and is dedicated to the research project “Mod-Block-DDR.” Both areas are framed by the concepts of “modernization” and “transformation.” The presentation of research findings on socialist modernization in the German Democratic Republic and the People's Republic of Poland, including their achievements and obstacles, will serve as a stimulus for discussing the political, economic, social, and cultural transformations in Central and Eastern Europe. All researchers from disciplines such as (but not limited to) economic history, the history of science, or sociology are invited to participate. At the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies, we aim to place special focus on Ukraine as a new sphere of modernization processes (e.g. migration, the opening to western Europe, and integration with the European Union) and socio-economic transformations initiated by the outbreak of Russia‘s War of Aggression. These focal points highlight the diverse theoretical and methodological potential of the Viadrina Center of Polish and Ukrainian Studies: interdisciplinarity that integrates historical, political, economic, and cultural studies and fosters transnational cooperation between scholars.

Topics of Interest We invite original and unpublished contributions on topics including, but not limited to: 

 Socialist modernization 

 Political, economic, and cultural transformations in Central and Eastern Europe (broadly defined) 

 Migration and integration with the EU 

 Theoretical and methodological approaches to Central and East European studies 

 Cross-border interdisciplinary collaborations 

We welcome contributions on topics related to these themes as well as on general themes in the history of Central and East European and neighboring fields. 

The format of proposals should be as follows: 

• Proposals for individual papers (title, abstract, affiliation, short biography of applicant) 

• Proposals for whole panels in traditional or alternative formats (panel title, theme description with max. 300 words, abstracts of papers with max. 150 words each, name, affiliation, short biography of participants. Please send a single document in pdf-format)

Submission Guidelines 1. Please name your file with your surname. 2. Authors are requested to submit the proposals by February 23, 2025. 3. Interested participants need to register by February 23, 2025. 4. The official language of the conference, including all presentations and discussions, will be English. 5. Please submit your abstracts and papers to Mr. Konrad Walerski: walerski@europa-uni.de.

Kontakt

Konrad Walerski, M.A.

walerski@europa-uni.de

Tel.: +49 335 5534 2645

 

Call for panelists, HSS 2025: From Trust to Crisis: Scientific Credibility and Institutional Legitimacy in the 20th Century

 From Trust to Crisis: Scientific Credibility and Institutional Legitimacy in the 20th Century 

Call for panelists for a section at HSS 2025 in New Orleans, November 13-16, 2025. 

Throughout the 20th century, science emerged as one of the most trusted social institutions, often supplanting religion as the primary source of epistemic authority. This trust, however, was neither static nor unchallenged. Institutions frequently appropriated the credibility of science to legitimize their policies, reinforce ideological agendas, or justify governance strategies. This strategic deployment of scientific authority took various forms, from the use of experts in decision-making processes to rhetorical claims of "scientific planning," "science-based modernization," and "scientific management.

The intersection of science and institutional trust raises important historical questions. What mechanisms did institutions use to cultivate and maintain their association with scientific authority? To what extent did scientists themselves shape or contest these appropriations? How did moments of institutional crisis - whether political, environmental, or economic - affect public trust in science? Conversely, how did scientific controversies or failures, such as the Chernobyl disaster, affect the institutions that relied on science for legitimacy?

This panel seeks contributions that explore the evolving relationship between science and institutional trust in different historical contexts in the twentieth century. We invite papers that address, but are not limited to, the following topics

• The role of trust in scientific expertise in state governance and policy-making
• The use of science as a legitimizing tool by international organizations
• The impact of ideological and political changes on the credibility of science
• Scientific crises and their impact on institutional trust
• The agency of scientists in shaping, resisting, or reinforcing institutional trust narratives

Case studies examining the appropriation of science and scientific credibility in industry, public health, or environmental policy.

By examining these dynamics, this panel aims to historicize the fluctuating nature of trust in science and interrogate its role in shaping modern institutions. We welcome contributions from scholars across disciplines, including history of science, political history, and intellectual history.

Please send abstracts of 2,000 characters or less, to surman@mua.cas.cz and doubravka.olsakova@fsv.cuni.cz by February 28, 2025. Please feel free to contact us with informal inquiries beforehand. 

CHORUS colloquium, dedicated to the legacy of the “dean of the history of Russian science” Loren R. Graham (1933-2024)

 Dear colleagues,

 

On Thursday, February 20, you are cordially invited to our next CHORUS online colloquium, dedicated to the legacy of the “dean of the history of Russian science” Loren R. Graham (1933-2024). The session will feature four of Loren’s major books, presented by his students and collaborators:

 

• Michael Gordin (Princeton University), on What Have We Learned about Science and Technology from the Russian Experience? (Stanford, 1998)
• Paul Josephson (Colby College), on The Ghost of the Executed Engineer (Harvard, 1993)
• Irina Dezhina (Gaidar Institute), on Science in the New Russia: Crisis, Aid, Reform (co-authored with Irina Dezhina, Johns Hopkins, 2008)
• Douglas Weiner (University of Arizona), on Lonely Ideas: Can Russia Compete? (MIT, 2013)

 

Each 15-min talk will be followed by a 15-min. discussion.

The meeting will be held on Thursday, February 20, at 8 am (Los Angeles) / 11 аm (New York) / 17:00 (CET) / 18:00 (Kyiv). For access please email Slava Gerovitch (https://math.mit.edu/directory/profile.html?pid=1160) 

About the speakers:

 

Michael D. Gordin is Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and Dean of the College at Princeton University. As a graduate student at Harvard, he studied under Loren Graham. Dr. Gordin specializes in the history of the modern physical sciences and Russian, European, and American history. He is the author of A Well-Ordered Thing: Dmitrii Mendeleev and the Shadow of the Periodic Table (2004), Five Days in August: How World War II Became a Nuclear War (2007), Red Cloud at Dawn: Truman, Stalin, and the End of the Atomic Monopoly (2009), The Pseudoscience Wars: Immanuel Velikovsky and the Birth of the Modern Fringe (2012), Scientific Babel: How Science Was Done Before and After Global English (2015), Einstein in Bohemia (2020), On the Fringe: Where Science Meets Pseudoscience (2021), a co-author of How Reason Almost Lost Its Mind: The Strange Career of Cold War Rationality (2013), and a co-editor of the four-volume Routledge History of the Modern Physical Sciences (2001), Intelligentsia Science: The Russian Century, 1860-1960 (2008), Utopia/Dystopia: Conditions of Historical Possibility (2010), and The Age of Hiroshima (2020). He is currently working on a history of the impact of the collapse of the Soviet Union on science inside and outside of Russia.

https://history.princeton.edu/people/michael-d-gordin

 

Paul Josephson is Professor Emeritus of History at Colby College. As a graduate student at MIT, he studied under Loren Graham. Dr. Josephson is a specialist in the history of twentieth century science and technology.  He became interested in this subject through study of the Soviet philosophy of science, dialectical materialism, and its impact on the development of relativity theory and quantum mechanics within Soviet borders. He is the author of Physics and Politics in Revolutionary Russia (1991), New Atlantis Revisited: The Siberian City of Science (1997), Industrialized Nature (2002), Red Atom (2005), Resources Under Regimes (2005), Totalitarian Science and Technology (2005), Motorized Obsessions: Life, Liberty and the Small Bore Engine (2007); Would Trotsky Wear a Bluetooth? Technological Utopianism Under Socialism (2009), Lenin’s Laureate: A Life in Communist Science (2010), An Environmental History of Russia (2013), Fish Sticks, Sports Bras, and Aluminum Cans: The Politics of Everyday Technologies  (2015); Traffic (2017); Chicken (2020); Nuclear Russia: The Atom in Russian Politics and Culture (2022), and Hero Projects: The Russian Empire and Big Technology from Lenin to Putin (2024). He is currently working on two books, one on race, gender and technology in the internet age, the other a global environmental history of the nuclear age. He lives in Barcelona, Spain.

 

Irina Dezhina is a leading researcher at the Gaidar Institute of Economic Policy. She was a Fulbright Scholar at MIT (1997), a Fellow at the Kennan Institute (1994 and 2013), and a visiting scholar at Stanford (2024). She has published several books and more than 350 articles on the development of science and technology in Russia and the world. Her major monographs include Government Regulation of Science in Russia (2008), Science in the New Russia: Crisis, Aid, Reform (co-authored with Loren Graham, 2008), and Transformational Research: New Priority of the State After the Pandemic (2020). Since 1995 she has been the author of the chapter “State of Science and Innovation” in the annual edition “Russian Economy: Trends and Prospects” by the Gaidar Institute. In 2016, she was awarded a title Chevalier, The Ordre des Palmes académiques (Order of Academic Palms, France) for works on Russian science and technology policy.

https://www.iep.ru/en/person/dezhina-irina-g.html

 

Douglas Weiner is Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona in Tuscon. He earned his PhD at Columbia University under Loren Graham. According to the Russian newspaper ZAVTRA, Dr. Weiner was one of the people chiefly responsible for the downfall of the Soviet Union. His research has focused on examining and explaining environmental policies and the nature of environmental activism in the Soviet Union; see Models of Nature: Ecology, Conservation, and Cultural Revolution in Soviet Russia (1988) and A Little Corner of Freedom: Russian Nature Protection from Stalin to Gorbachev (1999). Paradoxically, in light of the above, he has also written critiques of "environment" and "environmental history" as fuzzy concepts.  See esp. "A Death-defying Attempt to Articulate a Coherent Definition of Environmental History," Environmental History 10:3 (July 2005). He is currently working on a book, "Curiosity for its Own Sake," about the conflict between progressive education and its tsarist and Stalinist opponents, both of whom sought to "teach to the test." He loves bowling, cats, and high culture.

https://history.arizona.edu/person/douglas-weiner

 

 

CfP: Culture and Psychiatric Paradigms During the Cold War

 Dear all.

Call for papers for the workshop “Culture and Psychiatric Paradigms During the Cold War,” which will take place on June 18-19, 2025, at Charité University, Berlin.

The workshop will be organized in cooperation with the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore Studies with Ethnographic Museum (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences-BAS) and the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine, Charité Berlin, as part of the ERC Synergy Project “Leviathan.” In-person attendance is mandatory. Further information about the project can be found here: https://leviathan-europe.eu/.

You can check all the necessary information in the CfP here: https://historypsychiatry.com/2025/01/30/call-for-papers-culture-and-psychiatric-paradigms-during-the-cold-war/ . If you have any questions, please contact me via social media or via e-mail: tiago.pires@iefem.bas.bg

(from Tiago Pires)

Marc Landry: Mountain Battery. The Alps, Water, and Power in the Fossil Fuel Age

Marc Landry: Mountain Battery. The Alps, Water, and Power in the Fossil Fuel Age.  Redwood City: Stanford University Press 2024. ISBN: 9781503639775

Excerpts: https://www.sup.org/books/history/mountain-battery/excerpts

By the end of the nineteenth century, Europeans had come to see the Alps as the ideal place to fashion an alternative to the era's dominant energy source: coal. After 1850, Alpine water increasingly became "white coal": a power source with the revolutionary economic potential of fossil fuel. In this book, Marc Landry shows how dam-building in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries transformed the Alps into Europe's "battery"—an energy landscape designed to store and produce electricity for use throughout the Continent. These stores of energy played an important role in supplying the war economies of west-central Europe in both world wars as demand for munitions and other factory production necessitated access to electrical energy and the conservation of coal.

Through historical research conducted in archives across Europe—especially in Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, and Italy—Landry shows how and why Europeans thoroughly transformed the Alps in order to generate hydroelectricity, and explores the effects of its attendant economic and military advantages across the turbulent twentieth century. Landry surveys the environmental and energy changes wrought by dam-building, demonstrating that with global warming, melting glaciers, and calls for a green energy transition, the future of white coal is once again in question in twenty-first-century Europe.

Marc Landry is Assistant Professor of History and Director of the Austrian Marshall Plan Center for European Studies at the University of New Orleans.

Christine Karner: "Dies mein zweites Leben soll nicht gemordet werden". Elise Richter und ihre Tagebücher. Eine Biografie

Christine Karner: "Dies mein zweites Leben soll nicht gemordet werden". Elise Richter und ihre Tagebücher. Eine Biografie. Wien: Löcker Verlag 2025. ISBN: 978-3-99098-205-1

Beschreibung

Elise Richter (1865–1943) war gemessen an den gesellschaftlichen Standards und der Geschlechterordnung ihrer Zeit eine außergewöhnliche Frau. Sie wurde nicht nur zu einer Pionierin des ab 1897 schrittweise zugelassenen Frauenstudiums an der Universität Wien, sondern auch die erste habilitierte Wissenschaftlerin im deutschsprachigen Raum (1905/07) und eine weit über die Grenzen Österreichs hinaus anerkannte Romanistin. Im „Dritten Reich“ galt sie als „Rassejüdin“; sie wurde entrechtet und schließlich mit ihrer Schwester Helene Richter im Oktober 1942 nach Theresienstadt deportiert, wo sie elendiglich umkam.

In all diesen Jahren hat Elise Richter Tagebuch geführt und da­­­mit ein besonders reichhaltiges Quellenkorpus hinterlassen, das nun erstmals umfassend ausgewertet wurde: Welche Ereignisse, Sichtweisen und Deutungen werden in diesen Aufzeichnungen erwähnt und reflektiert? Was schrieb Elise Richter darin über Freund*innen, Wegstreiter*innen, Kolleg*innen …, was über ihren mit vielen Hindernissen belegten Werdegang als Wissenschaftlerin? Und welche widersprüchlichen oder ambivalenten Positionierungen fallen dabei besonders auf, welche (inneren) Kämpfe und Konflikte werden manifest?

Das sind einige der Fragen, die in Christine Karners Biografie von Elise Richter behandelt werden. Sie führt von der Herkunft der jüdischen Familien Richter und Lackenbacher über die Kindheit von Helene und Elise bis zu deren Tod im Konzentrationslager Theresienstadt – wobei stets die Tagebücher im Zentrum stehen, aus denen durchgehend und dicht zitiert wird. So werden bisherige Forschungen oder Lesarten zu Elise Richters Biografie erweitert und neue Blickweisen auf die so wichtige Pionierin an der Universität Wien zur Diskussion gestellt.

CFP: Women’s Scientific Literatures: The Poetry and Poetics of Early Modern Natural Philosophy

 CFP: Women’s Scientific Literatures: The Poetry and Poetics of Early Modern Natural Philosophy, 26–27th June 2025, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge Deadline for submissions: Monday 3rd March 2025. Deadline: 03.03.2025

Plenary speakers

- Danielle Clarke (University College Dublin)

- Helena Taylor (University of Exeter)

Confirmed speakers

- Liza Blake (University of Toronto)

- Sajed Chowdhury (Utrecht University)

- Johanna Luggin (Innsbruck University)

- Whitney Sperrazza (Texas A&M University)

- Elizabeth Swann (Durham University)

How did early modern women poets engage with and contribute to natural philosophical thought? ‘Women’s Scientific Literatures: The Poetry and Poetics of Early Modern Natural Philosophy’ will explore a substantial body of poetic work by early modern women that engages knowingly and creatively with natural philosophical ideas. While recent scholarship has drawn attention to the scientific knowledge embedded in women’s recipe books and natural philosophic prose, we have yet to fully uncover the specific and sustained engagement with the natural sciences in female- authored verse and poetics, particularly in manuscript or in under-explored printed texts. This is the case especially in poetic texts that have not been read through a scientific lens but nevertheless demonstrate sophisticated scientific knowledge. Taking up forms from the epigram to the lyric, papers will show how early modern women used literary and material poetic forms as productive, experimental spaces to explore scientific ways of thinking.

One of the major ‘discoveries’ in early modern scholarship over the past few decades is the extent to which women writers, including Margaret Cavendish, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, and Émilie du Châtelet produced incisive scientific writing and engaged with contemporary natural philosophy. There remains, however, an extensive body of lesser-known manuscript literature by women on scientific subjects, and, of equal importance, a pressing need for a methodological realignment in how we understand this material. Jaime Goodrich and Paula McQuade recently argued for “a feminist philosophical approach to early modern women’s writing, in which scholars do not write about female authors but rather think with them about the great existential questions that have vexed generations of human beings” (2021). This is a timely and urgent call to action, which demands a rediscovery of the philosophical themes and vocabularies that pervade texts written by women.

With particular attention to lesser-known, marginal or unpublished work, this conference will examine how early modern women were exploring natural philosophical topics in depth across a range of literary forms and in devotional, fantastical, political, autobiographical and elegiac writings as well as in predominantly natural philosophical texts. Examples might include the presence of atomic physics in devotional lyric; explorations of botany and astronomy in country house poems and hexameral narratives; reflections on anatomy in political verse. By drawing attention to overlooked, surprising, or unconventional occurrences of scientific thought, we seek to rethink the contexts and philosophical knowledge base of early modern women’s writing, as well as the history of the relations between natural philosophy and poetics more broadly.

Topics of interest might include:

- Women’s use of poetic genres and forms as vehicles for scientific knowledge (devotional, occasional, dedicatory; the elegy, the ode, the epigram etc.).

- Natural philosophical vocabularies including, but not limited to, cosmology and astronomy; the body, soul and medicine; botany and alchemy in women’s poetic texts.

- Women’s participation in (and exclusion from) spaces and communities of learning, including scientific and philosophical circles and academies, salons, literary coteries, correspondence networks, and patronage networks.

- How scientific ideas filter into other frameworks of women’s poetic writing, such as the theological, political and domestic.

- Relations in women’s scientific-poetic writing between early modern vernaculars and neo-Latin.

- Instances of transcultural and transnational encounter and exchange in women’s natural philosophic writing.

- The role of manuscript and printed texts in preserving women’s natural philosophical works.

- Comparative studies of male and female literary engagement with natural philosophy.

- Recovery of lesser-known, marginal, or unpublished work by women writers.

- The historiographical exclusion of women’s poetry from histories of science and philosophy.

- New methodologies for reading women’s poetic writing.

Please send proposals of up to 300 words for 20-minute papers or contributions for roundtables (in English), along with a short biographical note (c. 50 words), to WomensScientificLiteratures@gmail.com by Monday 3rd March 2025. We welcome submissions from graduate students and ECRs. Please get in touch with any questions.

Martin Franc, Věra Dvořáčková (eds.), Dějiny Československé akademie věd II. (1963–1970) [History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences II (1963–1970)].

Martin Franc, Věra Dvořáčková (eds.), Dějiny Československé akademie věd II. (1963–1970) [History of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences II (1963–1970)]. Praha: Masarykův ústav a Archiv AV ČR; Academia 2024. ISBN: 978-80-200-3569-1

Druhý díl dějin Československé akademie věd se zabývá obdobím, kdy v jejím čele stál chemik František Šorm. Šedesátá léta jsou spojována s uvolňováním politických poměrů, rozvojem občanské společnosti i se stále větší otevřeností vůči impulzům ze západní společnosti. Změny naplno využívala i ČSAV a pro mnoho oborů byla šedesátá léta zlatou érou rozvoje. Zároveň šlo o období výrazných reforem uvnitř Akademie věd i o dobu hledání nové pozice této nejvýznamnější československé mimouniverzitní vědecké instituce ve společnosti v podmínkách hospodářské krize i zásadních ekonomických reforem. V nelehkém bouřlivém období sklonku šedesátých let ČSAV, její zaměstnanci i vedení celkově obstáli se ctí, i když to znamenalo, že instituce upadla u mocných v nemilost jako jedno z „center kontrarevoluce“.

Klio, Vol. 71 (2024): Tom specjalny kopernikański // Special issue on Copernicus

Klio, Vol. 71 (2024): Tom specjalny kopernikański // Special issue on Copernicus is published. Polish with English abstracts

OA URL: https://apcz.umk.pl/KLIO/issue/view/2905

This issue table of contents

Artykuły

Punctator at the University of Bologna in the era of Copernican studies

Stanisław Sroka

7-17

 pdf (Język Polski)

Corpus Mysticum versus Corpora Terrestria. Kościół rzymskokatolicki wobec Mikołaja Kopernika XV-XXI wiek.

Hubert Łaszkiewicz

19-36

 pdf (Język Polski)

Popularisation of Nicolaus Copernicus and His Achievements in the Polish People's Republic

Mateusz Hübner

37-61

 pdf (Język Polski)

Mikołaj Kopernik in recent history textbooks. A Polish-German comparison

Izabela Lewandowska, Stephanie Zloch

63-92

 pdf (Język Polski)

Patron 2023 roku i Dnia Nauki Polskiej. Parlamentarne upamiętnienie Mikołaja Kopernika

Marek Białokur, Teresa Maresz

93-136

 pdf (Język Polski)

Perspektywy badań kopernikańskich a odmienne tradycje metodologiczne w 550. rocznicę urodzin Mikołaja Kopernika.

Michał Kokowski

137-177

 pdf (Język Polski)

Artykuły recenzyjne i polemiki

On the life and work of Nicolaus Copernicus – New scientific literature published in the anniversary year

Barbara Bienias

179-196

 pdf (Język Polski)

Do We Already Know Everything About Nicolaus Copernicus's Studies?Some Reflections on Marian Chachaj's Monograph

Andrzej Korytko

197-210

 pdf (Język Polski)

Recenzje

Mirosław Bochenek, Mikołaj Kopernik czy Thomas Gresham? O historii i dyspucie wokół prawa gorszego pieniądza, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK, Toruń 2023, ss. 670

Mirosław Kłusek

213-217

 pdf (Język Polski)

Stanisław Roszak, Agnieszka Wieczorek, Mikołaj Kopernik. Życie po życiu. Osiemnastowieczne kręgi pamięci, Wydawnictwo Naukowe UMK, Toruń 2023

Kazimierz Stanisław Puchowski

219-224

 pdf (Język Polski)

Kronika naukowa

Sprawozdanie z krakowskiej części Światowego Kongresu Kopernikańskiego 24–26 maja 2023 r.

Łukasz Kwiatek

225-232

 pdf (Język Polski)

Sprawozdanie z olsztyńskiej części Światowego Kongresu Kopernikańskiego 21–24 czerwca 2023 r.

Elżbieta Klimus

233-240

 pdf (Język Polski)

Sprawozdanie z toruńskiej części Światowego Kongresu Kopernikańskiego 11–16 września 2023 r.

Rafał Openkowski

241-252

 pdf (Język Polski)

Suplement

Bibliografia Kopernikowska 2023 wraz z uzupełnieniami

Jolanta Milz-Kłaczkow, Adam Biedrzycki

253-310

 pdf (Język Polski)

Call for Collaboration: Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities

 Call for Collaboration: Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunities

The project “Unlocking Maths: Teaching and Learning Practices in the Habsburg Lands: 1750s–early 1800s” (https://unlockmaths.wordpress.com/) as part of the Centre for Science, Technology and Society Studies (Institute of Philosophy, Czech Academy of Sciences) is prepared to assist candidates in preparing an application for the following postdoctoral opportunities:

A postdoc from the Czech Academy of Sciences (https://www.flu.cas.cz/images/dokumenty/verejne/jine/2025/PPPLZ_2025_text-web-newsletter.pdf)

Postdoctoral Fellowships Incoming, from the Czech Science Agency (GAČR) (https://gacr.cz/en/types-of-grant-projects/)

Knowledge of the Czech language is not required.

In particular, we are especially interested in in supporting research proposals that focus on:

The cultural history of mathematics and sociology of mathematics, with a focus on the development of practical and military mathematics during the long eighteenth century

The history of education, including institutional histories, with a non-exclusive emphasis on the Habsburg lands or Central and Eastern Europe during the long 18th century

The application of digital humanities methodologies to the history of science and mathematics, especially with a focus on the 18th century

Interested candidates in either call are invited to send their application to Davide Crippa (crippa@flu.cas.cz) by March 01, 2025. The application must include:

* a preliminary version of the research project (max 2 pages)

* a short curriculum vitae (with a clear presentation of publications and the date of the Ph.D. defense or its equivalent. For candidates who have not yet defended, the expected date of the defense must be provided, which must occur before the fellowship commences.)

Selected applicants will receive guidance on their project and support in preparing the final submission.

Questions can be directed to: crippa@flu.cas.cz

Davide Crippa (https://stss.flu.cas.cz/all/people/davide-crippa)

Image: Lehrbuch der Arithmetik und der praktischen Geometrie, Cod. Sal. VII,96; Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg; Heidelberg; Bundesrepublik Deutschland.