Call for papers: Writing the Heavens. Celestial Observation in Literature, 800–1800

Call for papers, extended deadline: 30 September, 2020
Conference: "Writing the Heavens. Celestial Observation in Literature, 800–1800"
May 20-22, 2021 – Dr Karl Remeis Observatory, Bamberg (Germany)

Organizers: Aura Heydenreich, Florian Klaeger, Klaus Mecke, Dirk Vanderbeke, Jörn Wilms - ELINAS (Center for Literature and Natural Science)

Confirmed speakers: 
Raz Chen-Morris (Hebrew University, Jerusalem)
Alexander Honold (University of Basel)
Hania Siebenpfeiffer (University of Marburg)

In the Middle Ages and early modernity, celestial observation was frequently a subject for verbal rather than numerical and geometrical recording. Astronomical genres, in the hands of natural philosophers, poets, chroniclers, travellers, geographers, educators and others mediated knowledge of the heavens in textual form. Before the modern academic institutionalization of astronomy, such celestial knowledge extended from the cosmological to the meteorological, with applications and implications that touched upon a wide range of discourses, be they theological, legal, political, medical or agricultural. From Carolingian scholarly commentaries to the lyrical description of the 'cosmic garden' in Erasmus Darwin, the formal shape of these representations is intimately connected with the questions raised by astronomy, and the possible answers they might elicit. Such texts could variously function as (mimetic) models of the universe, and simultaneously offer (pragmatic) models for specific types of behaviour. In this, they were deeply enmeshed in their historical, geographical, scholarly, popular, religious, philosophical, and generic environments. For the modern scholar, these records can be difficult to decode, and the question of what they address or seek to explore is obscured by the respective generic traditions, tropics and imagery, and other discursive contexts. However, as tokens of pre- and early modern 'astroculture', they allow insight into the changing epistemic place of astronomy throughout the millennium in question. By most accounts, this millennium includes a number of distinct historical periods, and studying the transformation of astronomical knowledge and its representations over the longe durée can shed light on the integrity and utility of such chronological constructs as well as on the transformative processes, the linguistic changes, and the conceptual revaluations that inform them.

This interdisciplinary conference seeks to establish and facilitate a dialogue between literary studies, astronomy (and physics more generally), and the history of science. The convenors invite papers on medieval and early modern 'literature' of celestial observation in a broad sense, ranging from what would today be deemed 'fictional' to 'non-fictional' writings, from scholarly works to popular genres. How, we ask, are textual forms bound up with pre-modern astronomy and its institutions? What kinds of data are represented in these texts and what are the modes in which they are communicated? What interpretational problems arise when present-day disciplines like climatology, meteorology, geophysics, and astronomy, but also literary studies, try to access them, and what solutions might be offered? Which technological and interpretive tools are at our disposal to recover and make sense of astronomical data and references in pre- and early modern texts, and what insights could be gained from an interdisciplinary approach? How were verbal representations of celestial phenomena encoded and self-consciously placed vis-à-vis other systems of representation and knowledge? How were discourses on law, anthropology, aesthetics etc. entangled with astronomical observation and knowledge? How did they realize their own medial, didactic, informational, aesthetic potential? How did they reflect on the forms of knowledge they engaged (especially in terms of the epistemological purchase of 'observation' and 'imagination')? How was astronomical knowledge used to construct continuities with, or differences from, antiquity and the Judaeo-Christian or Hellenic traditions?  Which spatialized conceptions of human nature were recognizable before and immediately after the (alleged) 'Copernican disillusionment'? How did individual scholars, texts, and concepts travel between European and non-European cultures, both in space and in time, and which constructions of self and other arise in the process?

Papers of twenty minutes each are invited on topics including but not limited to:

• the historiography of medieval and early modern astronomical writing 
• the recovery of celestial 'data' in medieval and early modern texts for productive use in modern science (including climatology, meteorology, geophysics, and astronomy)
• methodological approaches to, and desiderata for, interdisciplinary work in the field
• the institutionalization of genres as 'forms of knowledge' (including textual genres such as histories, almanacs, chronicles, or broadsheets and their representational strategies)
• rhetorical strategies (including metaphors and other tropes) and their legitimizing function in the production of authoritative knowledge in poetic and other discursive contexts, such as law, anthropology, aesthetics
• the ideological functionalization of ideas of cosmic order and semanticizations of mankind's cosmic place
• links between textual and material astroculture in the period 
• transfers of knowledge and networks of knowledge, including the dissemination, reception and transformation of classical texts.

While we will be seeking external funding, we cannot commit to covering the speakers' expenses.

Please submit 200-300 word abstracts until 30 September, 2020 to klaeger@uni-bayreuth.de, vanderbeke@t-online.de, joern.wilms@sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de, aura.heydenreich@fau.de or klaus.mecke@physik.uni-erlangen.de.

"A History of the Small" One-Day Conference

Saturday 23 February 2019

10.30 am - 5.00 pm

St Cross College, University of Oxford - Martin Wood Lecture Theatre, Department of Physics 

Throughout the ages physics has sought to explain the nature of matter both on Earth and in the heavens. Millennia ago, the Greek philosophers posited the existence of atoms, thereby launching a journey through the centuries, which in due course confirmed their existence and have made them tools of our everyday life. More recently, modern thought combined the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics leading to an understanding of matter now encoded in the Standard Model. This progress has led to startling new applications in fields such as nanotechnology and genomics. This conference will trace the progress of thought from the speculations of the ancients to the reality of the modern day. Registration to attend this conference is free, but must be confirmed using the Conference booking form by midday on Friday 15 February 2019.

The programme for the day is below:

MORNING CHAIR: Dr Nicoleta Gaciu (Oxford Brookes University) 

10.30 am WELCOME 

10.40 am Professor Peter Atkins (University of Oxford) - The Evolution of the Atom 

11.30 am Professor Michelle Peckham (University of Leeds) - What is a Microscope? How the Microscope has Evolved over 350 Years 

12.20 pm Professor Sean Freeman (University of Manchester)- Searching for Atomic Constituents: Splitting the Atom? 

1.15 pm LUNCH BREAK AFTERNOON CHAIR: Dr Shirley Northover (The Open University) 2.15 pm Dr Rolf Landua (CERN, Geneva) - A Short History of the Smallest 

3.05 pm Professor Jeremy Baumberg FRS (University of Cambridge) - The Emergence of Nanoscience 

4 pm TEA/COFFEE BREAK 

4.30 pm SUMMARY OF THE DAY'S PROCEEDINGS - Professor Alfons Weber (University of Oxford/Rutherford Appleton Laboratory)

There will be a conference dinner at St Cross in the evening following the end of the conference with an after-dinner talk by Jonty Hurwitz (nano sculptor and engineer) on his construction of the smallest human form ever created using nanotechnology. Although the conference itself is free of charge, the dinner carries a cost of £35 to attend - a place for dinner (only for confirmed conference attendees and their guests) can be booked until the deadline of midday on Friday 15 February 2019. This event is sponsored by the Faculty of History, University of Oxford and by a grant-in-aid from the Center for History of Physics, American Institute of Physics.

Further information here.

Talk - 'Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's Physics: Time, Space and Void'

Peter Adamson (Professor für spätantike und arabische Philosophie, LMU München)

Monday 13th March, 4pm, Lightfoot Room, Faculty of Divinity.

All are welcome.

Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1210) was a great Persian philosopher and theologian, famous for his lengthy, rich commentary on the Koran, for his theological works, and for his critical reception the philosophy of Avicenna (d. 1037).

Peter Adamson is a leading scholar of Arabic philosophy:

Cam magazine - science and literature

An interesting selection of works on Dr Suchitra Sebastian's 'Shelfie' for edition 79 of the Cambridge alumni magazine (pp. 44-45).

Article - The Rhetoric of Quantum Mechanics

Fascinating article by Kanta Dihal on her PhD research online here: lots of references to Science and Literature Reading Group favourites!

Workshop - Ether and Modernity

THE RECALCITRANCE OF AN AGONISING OBJECT IN PHYSICS AND IN CULTURE.

San Sebastian/Donostia (Spain)

30 – 31st March, 2017

CFP: Physicists, Historians of Science and Philosophers are invited to attend and submit short presentations to the workshop "Ether and Modernity", on the presence of the ether in twentieth-century science and culture.

This is the third of a series of meetings (Oxford 2014, San Francisco 2015, San Sebastian 2017) to discuss the way an epistemic object like the ether was rejected, modified or maintained in the firs half of the twentieth century, and the later attempts to resuscitate it in contemporary physics.

The workshop has a twofold practical purpose: the finalisation of a joint publication with the contributions of the invited speakers; and the dissemination of the results and the incorporation of new ideas into the project by other historians of science, physicists and philosophers.

Please send expressions of interest to jaume.navarro@ehu.es by November 15th 2016.

Invited Speakers:

Imogen Clarke (Independent Scholar)

Connemara Doran (Harvard University)

Linda D. Henderson (University of Texas)

Roberto Lalli (Max Planck Institute for the History of Physics)

Jaume Navarro (Ikerbasque and University of the Basque Country)

Richard Noakes (University of Exeter)

Arne Schirrmacher (Humboldt University)

Richard Staley (University of Cambridge)

Scott A. Walter (University of Nantes)

Michael Whitworth (University of Oxford)

Aaron Wright (Stanford University)

See: http://www.ehu.eus/en/web/etherandmodernity/home

Radio - Self Orbits CERN

Will Self goes on a 50-kilometre walking tour of the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, just outside Geneva. Listen here.