Workshop - Temporalities in Scientific Narratives

Does Time Always Pass? Temporalities in Scientific Narratives
May 30-31 2019 LSE/Royal Institution, London

Workshop organised as a collaboration between the Narrative Science Project and The Royal Institution.

Venue: The Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, London W1S 4BS. We anticipate starting at 10:00 (with coffee available from 09.30) on the 30th and ending by 17.30 on the 31st. Organised by Prof. Mary S. Morgan and Dr. Andrew Hopkins

The standard view of narrative is inextricably bound up with the passage of time. Narrative scholars are convinced that time is an essential element in any narrative, and it has been thought equally essential, though treated in different ways, by philosophers of history. But exactly how to think about time in the narratives of science is not self-evident. And if we look at how scientists use time in narratives, we see a number of different ways in which it is taken into account and is deployed. In this workshop, the focus will be on the different temporalities in narratives as they occur in scientific discourses. The obvious loci for such explorations are what are generally referred to as the historical sciences, that is, those that seek to reconstruct the past on the basis of what can be observed in the present. However, time and its narrative expression are to be found in a wide variety of places, some of which will be explored by the speakers at the workshop. Throughout the workshop, the question of how essential time is to narrative will remain open for argument.

We are grateful to the financial contributions and contributions in kind from the European Research Council and the Royal Institution. If you would like to express interest in attending please contact Dr Dominic Berry. The number of places is unfortunately limited, so please make sure to write to us sooner rather than later. The deadline for expression of interest is Friday May 17. We will notify those we are able to accommodate shortly thereafter.

Speakers and titles:

• Norton Wise (UCLA) - Faraday's lines of force and the temporality of serial narration 
• John Beatty (UBC, Vancouver) - When you can't get there from here: The importance of temporal order in evolutionary biology and ecology 
• Dorothea Debus (Universität Konstanz) - Memory, imagination and narrative 
• Paula Olmos (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) - Narratives in scientific argument and explanation 
• Rosa Hardt (OPEN Scotland) - Narrative Understanding: Parts, Wholes, and Recombinable Systems 
• William Matthews (LSE, London) - Time and ethnographic generalisation in anthropology: an example from Chinese divination 
•  John Huss (University of Akron, Ohio) - Mass extinction, narrative closure, and evidence 
• Teru Miyake (NTU, Singapore) - Temporal detail and evidence in seismic source reconstruction 
• Anne Teather (University of Manchester) - Stored and storied time in the Neolithic 
• Elspeth Jajdelska (University of Strathclyde) - Do we always need a timeline? The roles of temporal sequence in art narratives and science narratives 
• Thomas Bonnin (University of Exeter) - Explaining the origin of eukaryotic cells between narratives and mechanisms 
• Tirthankar Roy (LSE, London) - Technological change in the Indian textile industry (title TBC) 
• Daniel Pargman (KTH, Stockholm) - Using allohistorical narratives to envision alternative energy futures 
• Andrew Hopkins (LSE, London) - Alfred Wegener's arguments for continental drift: A consillience of narrative explanations

PhD travel bursaries

To increase participation from the postgraduate community, we are making available 4 travel bursaries, each of a maximum of £250. These can be used to recover the cost of train or airfare for those who wish to attend, and who are currently enrolled on a PhD programme, preferably with research interests directly related to the workshop agenda. To apply for a PhD travel bursary please write to Dr Dominic Berry. Please include: * Your name * University Affiliation * PhD Programme and thesis title * And no more than 100 words on how this workshop relates to your research. The deadline for applications to the travel bursary is Monday May 13. You will be notified as to the outcome of your application shortly thereafter. Applicants will be selected to ensure a diverse range of research interests and institutions are represented.

4th June - Elementary Poetry Workshop...and end of year party!

All are welcome to join us to celebrate the end of our elements series with a found poetry workshop using all of the texts we have read and discussed over the previous two academic years. See here for an online introduction to found poetry, and examples.

We meet on Monday 4th June in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Darwin College, from 7.30–9pm.

See you then!

Workshop: Artisans of the Surface in Early Modern Europe, 1450-1750

King's College London, 20-21 September 2018
Deadline: 8 Jun 2018

This workshop focuses on the practices of a range of artisans (tailors, barbers, cooks, cheesemakers, gardeners, and agronomists) and their relationships with the fields of meteorology, botany, natural history, medicine, earth sciences, and veterinary medicine. These artisans andtheir practices shared a set of skills related to the observation and manipulation of human and non-human surfaces. We will explore how, and if, practical knowledge about the surface of things and bodies (and their storage and preservation in relation to specific environmental conditions) led to the concept of nature and matter as composed of layers, and how such a framework contributed to the demise of traditional Galenic and Aristotelian views on nature.

This workshop also aims at getting past the dichotomies between quantitative and qualitative knowledge and between natural philosophy and the arts, and so we intend to broaden the focus to include a set of artisans who have traditionally remained invisible from accounts of this 'age of the new'. We will explore the many different ways in which 'modern science' emerged, the relationships between social and cognitive practices, and the contribution that non-mathematical sciences gave to the mental habits of observing, collecting, experimenting with, and manipulating natural matter.

We welcome proposals, in particular, that address the relationships between gardening, natural history, and medicine; cooking and knowledge; work on animal skin; leatherwork; or veterinary medicine. Proposals (up to 250 words) for 20-minute papers should be sent to PaoloSavoia by 8 June 2018.

For further details, visit our website.

Easter Term 2018 - Aether (take 2)

The Science and Literature Reading Group will hold two sessions which were postponed from last term due to industrial action. We first complete our explorations of the aether by looking at the theme of communication, across and beyond the globe. We will then celebrate the end of our elements series with a found poetry workshop using all of the texts we have read and discussed over the previous two academic years.

All are welcome to join in our wide-ranging and friendly conversations, which take place in the Newnham Grange Seminar Room at Darwin College on selected Monday evenings from 7.30–9pm. The group is organised by Melanie Keene and Charissa Varma.

For recaps, further readings, news, and other updates, please follow us on Twitter @scilitreadgrp or check this blog.

14th May – Communication

• Rudyard Kipling, ‘Wireless’ (1902)
• Philip R. Coursey, ‘Interplanetary Wireless?’, Wireless World (1920) 
• Eric Roach, ‘Beyond’ (1950)

 

4th June – End of year party and Elementary Poetry workshop

• Online introduction to found poetry, and examples

Event - Subjective Sciences

A Workshop on Practices of Taste & Connoisseurship in Early Modern Europe: UCL, 4th May 2018

This one-day workshop explores the role of ‘subjective’ practices in the early modern sciences. We are interested in the epistemic dimension of judgments that we now think of as subjective, either because of the senses they deploy (such as taste and smell) or because of the ends they serve (such as determining the quality and originality of a work of art). What were the technical procedures that early moderns used to make these judgments? What sort of knowledge was involved in them? And how did that knowledge stand in relation to early scientific disciplines, such as medicine, natural history, chemistry and natural philosophy? We draw on literary history, art history, and the history of science, and we cover a wide range of things that early moderns made judgements about, from scientific instruments to the pleasures arising from sensory experience.

This event is free, but registration is required. To register, please click here to access the Eventbrite page.

For further information see the workshop website.

Workshop announcement - Narrative science and its visual practices

9th April 2018

4 travel bursaries for PhD students

As part of the ERC funded Narrative Science project we are hosting a 1 day workshop focussed on the intersection of visual practice and narrative in science. The workshop will take place at the London School of Economics and Political Science, on the 19th of April.

Science abounds with visual materials: exemplary objects, 3D models, photos, diagrams, maps, graphs. Scholars in the history, philosophy and social studies of science have highlighted various features and roles of these objects and the practices in which they are embedded, including reasoning, speculation, demonstration, illustration, communication and others. This workshop focusses on the association of visual practices with narratives in knowledge making. In some cases, visual objects embed narrative qualities in themselves; in other cases, narratives are needed to make sense of the visual materials.

To learn more about the Narrative Science project as a whole, please see the special issue we recently published in Vol. 62 of Studies in History and Philosophy of Science.

Workshop spaces are very limited. If you are interested in attending, please write to Dr Robert Meunier as soon as possible.

PhD travel bursaries

To increase participation from the postgraduate community, we are making available 4 travel bursaries, each of a maximum of £250. These can be used to recover the cost of train or airfare for those who wish to attend, and who are currently enrolled on a PhD programme, preferably with research interests directly related to the workshop agenda. To apply for a PhD travel bursary please write to Dr Dominic Berry. Please include: Your name University Affiliation PhD Programme and thesis title And no more than 100 words on how this workshop relates to your research. The deadline for applications to the travel bursary is Friday 6th of April. You will be notified as to the outcome of your application shortly thereafter. Applicants will be selected to ensure a diverse range of research interests and institutions are represented. 

Sound Talking: an interdisciplinary workshop on 'language describing sound / sound emulating language'

Friday 3 November 2017, London Science Museum

Info and registration here

Sound Talking is a one-day event at the London Science Museum that seeks to explore the complex relationships between language and sound, both historically and in the present day. It aims to identify the perspectives and methodologies of current research in the ever-widening field of sound studies, and to locate productive interactions between disciplines. Bringing together audio engineers, psychiatrists, linguists, musicologists, and historians of literature and medicine, we will be asking questions about sound as a point of linguistic engagement. We will consider the terminology used to discuss sound, the invention of words that capture sonic experience, and the use and manipulation of sound to emulate linguistic descriptions. Talks will address singing voice research, the history of onomatopoeias, new music production tools, auditory neuroscience, sounds in literature, and the sounds of the insane asylum.

Speakers: - Ian Rawes (London Sound Survey) - Melissa Dickson (University of Oxford) - Jonathan Andrews (Newcastle University) - Maria Chait (UCL Ear Institute) - David Howard (Royal Holloway University of London) - Brecht De Man (Queen Mary University of London) - Mandy Parnell (Black Saloon Studios) - Trevor Cox (Salford University)

For more information, see here, or contact the workshop chairs: Melissa Dickson and Brecht De Man

Workshop - AI and Values in Medicine and Healthcare

Centre for the Future of Intelligence
16 Mill Lane, Monday 11 September.

The purpose of the workshop is to explore potential ethical and epistemic issues related to the use of artificial intelligence and other algorithmic methods in medical contexts. The speakers are Phyllis Illari, Brent Mittelstadt, Wolfgang Pietsch and Barbare Prainsack.

Additional information and programme can be found here.

Workshop - Beyond Nature in Science and Literature

2nd International Workshop under the 'Hermoupolis Seminars' framework, Syros, Greece, 5-8th July 2017

The International Commission on Science and Literature DHST/IUHPST, the Hellenic Open University and the Institute of Historical Research/ National Hellenic Research Foundation organize a two-days' workshop to study "Beyond Nature in Science and Literature". The CoSciLit workshop is a new addition to the very prestigious "Hermoupolis Seminars" which have been organized for more than 30 years every July on Syros Island.

This workshop follows the successfull 1st workshop organized in 2016 on the theme of "Nature(s), Humans and God(s) in Literature. Representations" and it will be part of series of workshops which will be organized with a specific theme every July.

The venue of the workshop will be the "Historical Archives of the State" in the Town Hall of Hermoulis. Hermoupolis was once the capital of Greece and a city of great cultural, scientific and industrial heritage. Syros Island is very close to Piraeus by boat and an ideal place for a high quality, inexpensive summer visit.

Those who are willing to participate in the workshop with a presentation may ask further information and/or submit an abstract of max. 200 words sending an email to gvlahakis@yahoo.com until 15 May 2017.

Languages: English, Greek, French, German

For participants giving a paper there will be a modest fee of 50 Euros and for those who will attend without a paper a fee of 40 Euros to cover administrative expenses. There will be some hotels with reduced prices on offer for the participants but there are plenty of places, in Hermoupolis or close by, at very convenient prices.

Coffee and refreshments will be offered.

Workshop - Artificial Intelligence, Decision Theory and Severe Uncertainty

Old Combination Room, Trinity College, 9-5, followed by drinks and then dinner.

The following talks are planned for the workshop:

1. Richard Bradley (LSE) - Deciding with Confidence
2. Huw Price and Yang Liu - Heart of DARCness
3. Arif Ahmed (Cambridge) - Rationality and Future Discounting
4. Catrin Campbell-Moore (Bristol) - Risk Avoidance Can't be Accurate
5. Bernhard Salow (Cambridge) - TBC

Morning coffee, lunch and afternoon snacks will be provided for those who RSVP by the end of February (to atb39@cam.ac.uk) but people are welcome to attend even if they don't RSVP by that date. However, if you wish to attend the workshop dinner (which will be at the attendees own cost), please do let me know so that I can make the appropriate reservations. This workshop is funded by the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (http://cser.org/) and the School of Arts and Humanities at the University of Cambridge.

Scientists and their diaries - workshop at the Royal Society

Friday 27 January, 12:00-17:30

The Royal Society, in association with the Constructing Scientific Communities project, is hosting a one-day workshop on the topic of 'scientists and their diaries'. The full programme for the day is here. Attendance (including sandwich lunch and afternoon tea) is free, but booking is essential - please email library@royalsociety.org to reserve a place.

The workshop will be followed by a public evening event, 'Why we write', with Professor Sunetra Gupta - workshop attendees are very welcome to stay on for this.

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