Events and News
9th February 2022 - Sexuality & STEM in the past and present: An LGBT History Month Event - Birmingham, UK
This event takes place during LGBT History Month 2022. It is an opportunity to think about and discuss relations between queerness and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), both past and present. Three expert panellists will speak to the topic from their own perspective, followed by an audience question and discussion period.
For full details about this event, and to register, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sexuality-stem-in-the-past-and-present-an-lgbt-history-month-event-registration-240841402117
For full details about this event, and to register, please visit: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sexuality-stem-in-the-past-and-present-an-lgbt-history-month-event-registration-240841402117
Call for Papers "Invisible and Underrepresented?": Disability history in objects and heritage - Deadline 11:59pm (GMT) 21/1/2022
Call for Papers "Invisible and Underrepresented?": Disability history in objects and heritage
22nd and 23rd March 2022
Online via Zoom
This conference seeks to highlight the work of researchers who are investigating object-based histories of disability and/or the place of disability and disabled people in museums, archives and heritage institutions. The experiences and histories of disabled people, like other marginalised groups, are often absent from the museum or archive. However, due to disabled people’s unique relation to the material world (Ott, 2018), objects can be drawn upon by the heritage industry to bring disabled people and their narratives into the public consciousness.
We hope to create spaces to foster further discussion around these topics, alongside presenting these ideas and methodologies to those not within the study of disability or disability history. Ideally, talks will be orientated both towards those within the academic and heritage sectors, promoting further work between the two. We are particularly keen to highlight work being undertaken by PhD students.
Topics may include (but are not limited to):
● Absence/invisibility of disability in museums and archives
● Objects and material culture of disability
● Highlighting disability in existing archives and collections
● Methodologies in the study of disability history
● How we interpret disability historically / the ethics of display
● Democratising disability heritage / barriers to access in academia and heritage
● Activism and museums / Heritage as a site of activism
● Disability in art and heritage
● Changing language and terminology of disability / tackling offensive language in the archive
● Disability and other intersectional identities and histories
● Problematic commemoration of disabled people / historical supercrips
Papers will be 20 minutes long.
Please send a 200 word (max.) abstract to underrephistory22@gmail.com<mailto:underrephistory22@gmail.com>, along with a brief bio and the best email address to contact you on.
The deadline for these will be 11:59pm (GMT) on Friday 21st January 2022.
Please note that to ensure accessibility, successful speakers will be contacted to detail any terminology that may need to be explained for BSL translators. For any further accessibility details for speakers, please contact underrephistory22@gmail.com<mailto:underrephistory22@gmail.com>.
Funding for this event is provided by the AHRC and the British Museum, as part of the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) programme.
This conference is organised by three UK-based PhD students whose research projects are being funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) programme.
* Louise Bell is a second year PhD student at the University of Leeds, undertaking a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with The National Archives. Her research explores British state provision of prosthetic limbs in the two world wars, with a particular focus on the prostheses themselves and the lives of the men who used them.
* Sam Brady is a third year PhD student with the University of Glasgow, undertaking a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with the National Paralympic Heritage Trust. His research explores the political, social and technological history of sporting wheelchairs, and he has conducted a number of oral history interviews to build up an archive of information about this subject. Sam also has other research interests regarding the intersectionality of disability with other marginalised groups, such as racial and ethnic minorities.
* Isabelle Lawrence is a third year PhD student with the University of Leicester School of Museum Studies, undertaking a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with the British Museum. Her research is concerned with the way collaborative methodologies can be utilised to improve disability representation in museums. In particular, she is interested in how involving people with lived experience of disability in decision making
Conference website: https://underrephistory22.mystrikingly.com/
Twitter account: https://twitter.com/UnderrepHist22
22nd and 23rd March 2022
Online via Zoom
This conference seeks to highlight the work of researchers who are investigating object-based histories of disability and/or the place of disability and disabled people in museums, archives and heritage institutions. The experiences and histories of disabled people, like other marginalised groups, are often absent from the museum or archive. However, due to disabled people’s unique relation to the material world (Ott, 2018), objects can be drawn upon by the heritage industry to bring disabled people and their narratives into the public consciousness.
We hope to create spaces to foster further discussion around these topics, alongside presenting these ideas and methodologies to those not within the study of disability or disability history. Ideally, talks will be orientated both towards those within the academic and heritage sectors, promoting further work between the two. We are particularly keen to highlight work being undertaken by PhD students.
Topics may include (but are not limited to):
● Absence/invisibility of disability in museums and archives
● Objects and material culture of disability
● Highlighting disability in existing archives and collections
● Methodologies in the study of disability history
● How we interpret disability historically / the ethics of display
● Democratising disability heritage / barriers to access in academia and heritage
● Activism and museums / Heritage as a site of activism
● Disability in art and heritage
● Changing language and terminology of disability / tackling offensive language in the archive
● Disability and other intersectional identities and histories
● Problematic commemoration of disabled people / historical supercrips
Papers will be 20 minutes long.
Please send a 200 word (max.) abstract to underrephistory22@gmail.com<mailto:underrephistory22@gmail.com>, along with a brief bio and the best email address to contact you on.
The deadline for these will be 11:59pm (GMT) on Friday 21st January 2022.
Please note that to ensure accessibility, successful speakers will be contacted to detail any terminology that may need to be explained for BSL translators. For any further accessibility details for speakers, please contact underrephistory22@gmail.com<mailto:underrephistory22@gmail.com>.
Funding for this event is provided by the AHRC and the British Museum, as part of the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) programme.
This conference is organised by three UK-based PhD students whose research projects are being funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council's (AHRC) Collaborative Doctoral Partnership (CDP) programme.
* Louise Bell is a second year PhD student at the University of Leeds, undertaking a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with The National Archives. Her research explores British state provision of prosthetic limbs in the two world wars, with a particular focus on the prostheses themselves and the lives of the men who used them.
* Sam Brady is a third year PhD student with the University of Glasgow, undertaking a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with the National Paralympic Heritage Trust. His research explores the political, social and technological history of sporting wheelchairs, and he has conducted a number of oral history interviews to build up an archive of information about this subject. Sam also has other research interests regarding the intersectionality of disability with other marginalised groups, such as racial and ethnic minorities.
* Isabelle Lawrence is a third year PhD student with the University of Leicester School of Museum Studies, undertaking a Collaborative Doctoral Partnership with the British Museum. Her research is concerned with the way collaborative methodologies can be utilised to improve disability representation in museums. In particular, she is interested in how involving people with lived experience of disability in decision making
Conference website: https://underrephistory22.mystrikingly.com/
Twitter account: https://twitter.com/UnderrepHist22
Deadline March 31st 2022 - Seeking funding for a plan to translate new work from the Global South
Posted 15/11/2021
The Transformational HPS network is committed to organising the translation of original work in HPS from scholars in the global south who do not normally or regularly publish in English. These translated works will also form the basis of a seminar series.
We have written a letter that can be copied and sent to any department or organisation who might be in a position to contribute towards funding this initiative. The letter, and further details, can be found here: https://www.transformationalhps.org/translations---seeking-hps-scholars-with-language-skills.html
The Transformational HPS network is committed to organising the translation of original work in HPS from scholars in the global south who do not normally or regularly publish in English. These translated works will also form the basis of a seminar series.
We have written a letter that can be copied and sent to any department or organisation who might be in a position to contribute towards funding this initiative. The letter, and further details, can be found here: https://www.transformationalhps.org/translations---seeking-hps-scholars-with-language-skills.html
18-19 November 2021 - Stenton Lecture by Sadiah Qureshi - 'Vanished: Hope and Histories of Extinction' - alongside the Stenton Workshop 2021 - 'Collecting and nineteenth-century Empires’
Posted 9/11/2021
For full details please see: https://www.reading.ac.uk/history/Upcoming-Stenton-Lectures.aspx
For full details please see: https://www.reading.ac.uk/history/Upcoming-Stenton-Lectures.aspx
11 November 2021 (16:00 GMT) - Network Meeting of the HPS and STS Network for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour
Posted 5/11/2021
For full details please visit: https://www.bshs.org.uk/hstm-network-for-black-indigenous-and-people-of-colour
For full details please visit: https://www.bshs.org.uk/hstm-network-for-black-indigenous-and-people-of-colour
2-3 December 2021 - Symposium - The Meaning of Eugenics: Historical and Present-Day Discussions of Eugenics and Scientific Racism
Posted 21/10/2021
TO REGISTER: https://www.genome.gov/event-calendar/the-meaning-of-eugenics-historical-and-present-day-discussions-of-eugenics-and-scientific-racism
Eugenics and scientific racism are widely misunderstood despite their long histories. Studying and sequencing the human genome were supposed to help eliminate common misconceptions about the biological differences between humans. After all, we are 99.9% the same according to our DNA.
And yet, why do these misconceptions continue to persist, resulting in modern day discrimination and bias. We look to the history of science and medicine to help explain.
Since its inception, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has funded forward-thinking research on the historical study of eugenics and other misuses of genetics and genetic information. This includes the broader social, ethical and legal implications (ELSI) of genomics through NHGRI’s ELSI Research Program.
NHGRI has invited distinguished historians of science and medicine to speak at a two-day symposium that examines the history of eugenics and scientific racism and their complex legacies in the modern health sciences. In addition, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Museum of Natural History will present their own efforts on these topics and offer free educational and scholarly materials.
NHGRI Historian Christopher Donohue, Ph.D., and Oxford Brookes University Professor Marius Turda, Ph.D., will lead the symposium.
TO REGISTER: https://www.genome.gov/event-calendar/the-meaning-of-eugenics-historical-and-present-day-discussions-of-eugenics-and-scientific-racism
Eugenics and scientific racism are widely misunderstood despite their long histories. Studying and sequencing the human genome were supposed to help eliminate common misconceptions about the biological differences between humans. After all, we are 99.9% the same according to our DNA.
And yet, why do these misconceptions continue to persist, resulting in modern day discrimination and bias. We look to the history of science and medicine to help explain.
Since its inception, the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has funded forward-thinking research on the historical study of eugenics and other misuses of genetics and genetic information. This includes the broader social, ethical and legal implications (ELSI) of genomics through NHGRI’s ELSI Research Program.
NHGRI has invited distinguished historians of science and medicine to speak at a two-day symposium that examines the history of eugenics and scientific racism and their complex legacies in the modern health sciences. In addition, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and the American Museum of Natural History will present their own efforts on these topics and offer free educational and scholarly materials.
NHGRI Historian Christopher Donohue, Ph.D., and Oxford Brookes University Professor Marius Turda, Ph.D., will lead the symposium.
- Day one will provide historical overviews on the general history of eugenics and scientific racism, with relevance for public health, the history of human genetics, medical ethics and persons with disabilities.
- Day two will focus on discussions of more recent manifestations of eugenics and scientific racism while underscoring the persistence of scientific and structural racism today in the United States.
Posted 5/10/2021
Racialization, colonialism, and epistemic injustice have deep effects in past and present scientific knowledge production practices as well as in the societies these practices emerge from. This lecture series aims to offer new perspectives on these historical processes and the different ways in which they connect to current science and society. The series consists of monthly lectures in which experts in their fields present their work and reflect on the entanglements between their research topics and current societal inequalities. Thus, the objective is twofold: First, attendees to these talks can get in contact with cutting edge research on the effects of racialization, colonialism, and epistemic injustice in scientific knowledge production, especially in the life sciences. Second, it invites speakers and attendees to reflect on how this knowledge can contribute to resolve discrimination, racism, and social inequalities in science and society today. For more information, please contact Abigail Nieves Delgado a.nievesdelgado@uu.nl
LINK TO LIST OF SPEAKERS AND REGISTRATION
Racialization, colonialism, and epistemic injustice have deep effects in past and present scientific knowledge production practices as well as in the societies these practices emerge from. This lecture series aims to offer new perspectives on these historical processes and the different ways in which they connect to current science and society. The series consists of monthly lectures in which experts in their fields present their work and reflect on the entanglements between their research topics and current societal inequalities. Thus, the objective is twofold: First, attendees to these talks can get in contact with cutting edge research on the effects of racialization, colonialism, and epistemic injustice in scientific knowledge production, especially in the life sciences. Second, it invites speakers and attendees to reflect on how this knowledge can contribute to resolve discrimination, racism, and social inequalities in science and society today. For more information, please contact Abigail Nieves Delgado a.nievesdelgado@uu.nl
LINK TO LIST OF SPEAKERS AND REGISTRATION
Posted 1/10/2021
Every year, the British Society for Literature and Science organises a winter symposium around a particular theme. This year's has been organised by the BSLS executive committee and will be hosted online rather than at a particular institution. The event, which takes place on the 20th of November this year, is free to attend, and you can sign up here.
Here is the full programme (times are GMT):
10.00-10.15am Welcome and Opening Remarks by Jenni Halpin, BSLS Chair
10.15-11.15am Keynote Lecture: Josie Gill
11.15-11.30am Break
11.30-12.00pm Publishing Talk with Ben Doyle, Bloomsbury Academic
12.00-12.15pm Break
12.15-1.00pm Grants Talk with Tom Bray, Wellcome Trust
1.00-1.30pm Lunch
1.30-2.45pm Roundtable with Chisomo Kalinga, Manali Karmakar, Sandeep Bakshi
2.45-3.00pm Coffee Break
3.00-3.45pm Group Discussion: ‘What Kinds of Examples of Decolonial Practice Have You Seen in the Academy, or Want to See?’
3.45-4.00pm Break
4.00-5.00pm Reading Group: Priyamvada Gopal, ‘On Decolonisation and the University’; Michell Chresfield and Josie Gill, ‘Race and Antiracism in Science and the Humanities' (readings will be pre-circulated to attendees)
5.00-5.30pm BSLS Social
Every year, the British Society for Literature and Science organises a winter symposium around a particular theme. This year's has been organised by the BSLS executive committee and will be hosted online rather than at a particular institution. The event, which takes place on the 20th of November this year, is free to attend, and you can sign up here.
Here is the full programme (times are GMT):
10.00-10.15am Welcome and Opening Remarks by Jenni Halpin, BSLS Chair
10.15-11.15am Keynote Lecture: Josie Gill
11.15-11.30am Break
11.30-12.00pm Publishing Talk with Ben Doyle, Bloomsbury Academic
12.00-12.15pm Break
12.15-1.00pm Grants Talk with Tom Bray, Wellcome Trust
1.00-1.30pm Lunch
1.30-2.45pm Roundtable with Chisomo Kalinga, Manali Karmakar, Sandeep Bakshi
2.45-3.00pm Coffee Break
3.00-3.45pm Group Discussion: ‘What Kinds of Examples of Decolonial Practice Have You Seen in the Academy, or Want to See?’
3.45-4.00pm Break
4.00-5.00pm Reading Group: Priyamvada Gopal, ‘On Decolonisation and the University’; Michell Chresfield and Josie Gill, ‘Race and Antiracism in Science and the Humanities' (readings will be pre-circulated to attendees)
5.00-5.30pm BSLS Social
Posted 28/9/2021
Please see this page for full details: https://www.transformationalhps.org/translations---seeking-hps-scholars-with-language-skills.html
Please see this page for full details: https://www.transformationalhps.org/translations---seeking-hps-scholars-with-language-skills.html
6th October (14:00-15:30 BST) Psychological 'treatments' for homosexuality and gender non-conformity: a roundtable discussion on histories and legacies
Posted 20/8/2021
Kate Davison (History, Goldsmiths), Tommy Dickinson (Mental Health Nursing, King’s College London), Katherine Hubbard (Sociology, Surrey), and Helen Spandler (Social Work, Care and Community, University of Central Lancashire) will be leading an interdisciplinary discussion on the histories of psychological ‘treatments’ for homosexuality and gender non-conformity. This event is organised by the Birmingham Research Institute for History and Cultures (BRIHC), in collaboration with the Centre for Modern British Studies (MBS), and is in conversation with the on-going work of Historical Research on Sexuality Project in the School of Psychology.
Registration: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/historycultures/events/2021/psychological-treatments-for-homosexuality-and-gender-non-conformity.aspx
Kate Davison (History, Goldsmiths), Tommy Dickinson (Mental Health Nursing, King’s College London), Katherine Hubbard (Sociology, Surrey), and Helen Spandler (Social Work, Care and Community, University of Central Lancashire) will be leading an interdisciplinary discussion on the histories of psychological ‘treatments’ for homosexuality and gender non-conformity. This event is organised by the Birmingham Research Institute for History and Cultures (BRIHC), in collaboration with the Centre for Modern British Studies (MBS), and is in conversation with the on-going work of Historical Research on Sexuality Project in the School of Psychology.
Registration: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/historycultures/events/2021/psychological-treatments-for-homosexuality-and-gender-non-conformity.aspx
The Environment and Empire workshop - registration now open, deadline 31 Aug
Posted 12/8/2021
The “Environment and Empire… in the museum” project would like to invite you to an afternoon workshop on 1 September to explore the legacies of empire and enslavement in natural history museums, and the ways those legacies are still influencing environmental science today.
Register for the workshop by 31 August at this link: https://forms.gle/YfVDvkbwvvJxxC5E8.
As part of the workshop, we’d love to hear from you! We have a small number of spaces remaining for attendees to present their work as part of the workshop, if you would like to propose either a 5 minute lightning talk or a 15 minute presentation please submit the form before Monday 23 August so that we can include as many presenters as possible in our final programme. Works in progress are very welcome.
To be sure you don’t miss out on project updates you can sign up to the project email list for notifications about new videos and information about the workshop, or take a look at our website for more background and information about our project partners. You can also follow us on Twitter at @envandempire.
The “Environment and Empire… in the museum” project would like to invite you to an afternoon workshop on 1 September to explore the legacies of empire and enslavement in natural history museums, and the ways those legacies are still influencing environmental science today.
Register for the workshop by 31 August at this link: https://forms.gle/YfVDvkbwvvJxxC5E8.
As part of the workshop, we’d love to hear from you! We have a small number of spaces remaining for attendees to present their work as part of the workshop, if you would like to propose either a 5 minute lightning talk or a 15 minute presentation please submit the form before Monday 23 August so that we can include as many presenters as possible in our final programme. Works in progress are very welcome.
To be sure you don’t miss out on project updates you can sign up to the project email list for notifications about new videos and information about the workshop, or take a look at our website for more background and information about our project partners. You can also follow us on Twitter at @envandempire.
Virtual exhibition on eugenics/scientific racism - Making and Mobilising Difference
Posted 21/7/2021
The exhibition, Making and Mobilising Difference: Histories of eugenics and scientific racism at UCL and beyond, told through objects in its collections, is curated by Subhadra Das (former Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation in the Institute of Advanced Studies and a former Curator of UCL Science Collections) and Rodney Harrison (Professor of Heritage Studies, UCL Institute of Archaeology) and draws on work by MA Museum Studies students undertaken between 2012 and 2021 as part of the module ARCL0132 Collections Curatorship.
For more details: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/news/2021/jul/making-and-mobilising-difference-virtual-exhibition-history-eugenics
For the exhibit: http://www.makingdifference.org/
The exhibition, Making and Mobilising Difference: Histories of eugenics and scientific racism at UCL and beyond, told through objects in its collections, is curated by Subhadra Das (former Researcher in Critical Eugenics at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation in the Institute of Advanced Studies and a former Curator of UCL Science Collections) and Rodney Harrison (Professor of Heritage Studies, UCL Institute of Archaeology) and draws on work by MA Museum Studies students undertaken between 2012 and 2021 as part of the module ARCL0132 Collections Curatorship.
For more details: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/news/2021/jul/making-and-mobilising-difference-virtual-exhibition-history-eugenics
For the exhibit: http://www.makingdifference.org/
15/7/2021 - Network Meeting for HPS and STS Network for Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BSHS conference meeting)
Thursday July 15th 4-5.30 (6pm max) pm BST: HistSMT BiPoC Network meeting
This networking event is aimed at BIPoC/BAME colleagues in HPS, Science Studies, and related disciplines and will provide a safe space to debate current directions, obstacles and opportunities in the field. Our group meets three to four times a year either online and/or as part of related events such as the BSHS annual meeting. This spring’s meeting runs on Zoom. To sign up, please write to Dr Mirjam Brusius (mbrusius@cantab.net), with a brief message explaining who you are and your interest in the group.
DETAILS - https://www.bshs.org.uk/hstm-network-for-black-indigenous-and-people-of-colour
This networking event is aimed at BIPoC/BAME colleagues in HPS, Science Studies, and related disciplines and will provide a safe space to debate current directions, obstacles and opportunities in the field. Our group meets three to four times a year either online and/or as part of related events such as the BSHS annual meeting. This spring’s meeting runs on Zoom. To sign up, please write to Dr Mirjam Brusius (mbrusius@cantab.net), with a brief message explaining who you are and your interest in the group.
DETAILS - https://www.bshs.org.uk/hstm-network-for-black-indigenous-and-people-of-colour
13/7/2021 - Science, Racism, and Colourism in the Modern World (BSHS conference Panel)
This online panel seeks to highlight the work of early career scholars/PhD students actively engaged in research surrounding the history of science, race, and colourism from the late fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries. With globalisation as a strong focus in the history of science currently, this panel will centre the discourse within a transnational and intersectional context, bringing to the fore traditionally marginalised narratives of race, gender, and class; particularly those concerning populations outside Europe and North America.
DETAILS - https://bshs-conference2021.org.uk/programme/
DETAILS - https://bshs-conference2021.org.uk/programme/
