29th April - Gardens

The Science and Literature Reading Group returns in our usual time and place for Easter Term, reading texts written a century ago in 1919.

Our first meeting will take place in the Newnham Terrace Seminar Room at Darwin College, from 7.30-9pm on Monday 29th April.

We will be reading several works which explore the cultivation, meanings, and magic of actual, artistic, and fantastical gardens:

• Amy Lowell, ‘Impressionist Picture of a Garden’, and ‘The Garden by Moonlight’ 
• Saki, ‘The Occasional Garden’ 
• Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens

All welcome! 

Celebrating the Periodic Table - exhibition at Catz

The United Nations have proclaimed 2019 to be the International Year of the Periodic Table of Chemical Elements since it is the 150th anniversary of the publication of Dmitri Mendeleev's first Periodic Table. But was it really the first? St Catharine's College is proud to exhibit its fine collection of material relating to the early development of the Periodic Table. Starting from the first list of elements which emerged around the time of the French Revolution in the late 1780s, and the first list of atomic masses drawn up by Manchester chemist John Dalton, we explore why six different chemists from around the world each came up with their own versions of the iconic table in the 1860s.

The very first person to arrange all the then-known elements by mass and then look for the repeating properties of related elements was the French mineralogist Alexandre-Émile Béguyer de Chancourtois in 1862. Béguyer plotted his elements around a cylinder or helix with a circumference of sixteen atomic mass units and found elements with similar properties aligned in vertical groups down the cylinder. This coloured chart, over 1.5 metres in length, was published in very limited numbers and is now incredibly rare.
In addition to Mendeleev's first published versions of his table, including one signed by the great chemist himself, earlier forms created by two British chemists are also featured. Samples of many of the elements are also exhibited in the window bays, together with some of their applications from our everyday lives.

Two new works of art specially created to mark this important anniversary will also be on display. One is the St Catharine's Periodic Spiral, based on a design from 1920 and crafted in silver. This was completed on March 11, when Professor Yuri Oganessian, the only living person with an element named after him, added his element tile at a ceremony in the McGrath centre. The other remarkable piece is a Periodic Table of Orbitals made out of laser-etched crystal glass showing how electrons are arranged in atoms and which underpins the structure of the Periodic Table.

More information here.

Easter Term 2019: 1919

http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O213712/wallpaper-butler-henry-rba/

The Science and Literature Reading Group returns in Easter Term, taking as its focus texts first published a century ago in 1919. We will meet at our usual venue, Darwin College, on Monday evenings from 7.30-9pm. All are welcome to join in our friendly and wide-ranging discussions!

29th April: Gardens

• Amy Lowell, ‘Impressionist Picture of a Garden’, and ‘The Garden by Moonlight’ 
• Saki, ‘The Occasional Garden’ 
• Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens

 

13th May: Cities

• Murray Leinster, ‘The Runaway Skyscraper’ 
• Hope Mirrlees, Paris: A Poem

 

20th May: Health

• W.N.P. Barbellion, The Journal of a Disappointed Man 
• Edith Wharton, ‘Writing a War Story’

 

3rd June: Heaven and earth

• Sri Ananda Acharya, selections from Snow-Birds
• May Wedderburn Cannan, ‘Stars’
• Wallace Stevens, ‘The Curtains in the House of the Metaphysician’
• W.B. Yeats, ‘The Phases of the Moon’

In recognition of the International Year of the Periodic Table, we will also be teaming up with AD HOC (Association for the Discussion of the History of Chemistry) for a special seminar on Primo Levi's classic piece of science-writing, The Periodic Table (please note earlier start time and different location).

10th June (5pm, HPS): The Periodic Table

• Primo Levi (1919-87), The Periodic Table (1975): ‘Potassium’, ‘Nitrogen’, ‘Carbon’.

We hope our planned term on AI Narratives will go ahead later in the year.

Cambridge Science Festival 2019

Lots of interesting events around science, art, and literature at this year's Festival: take a look! Booking now open.

HPS workshop - Poetry as an Epistemic Resource

Wednesday 13 February, 5pm, seminar room 1, HPS
"Poetry is not a luxury": Poetry as an Epistemic Resource

Azita Chellappoo

There exists a long-acknowledged connection between poetry and lived experience: one important feature of poetry is its capacity to provide a channel for self-expression. Here, I wish to emphasise the way in which poetry as self-expression not only holds value for those that use poetry as an outlet for their experience, but also for those seeking to gain understanding of that experience. In particular, poetry can provide a window into viewpoints and experiences that are otherwise difficult to access.

I begin by sketching out an argument for the importance of directly engaging with lived experience in various philosophical domains. Given that aspects of lived experience can be difficult to communicate to those that do not share this experience, attention should be given to ways of communicating this experience that would be otherwise difficult or impossible to communicate through analytic description. Poetry is one such means: due to the unique way in which poetry employs language, which can aim at and allow for the distillation of experience, poems can provide a resource for understanding. Where philosophical work necessitates engaging with lived experience, poetry has the potential to play a valuable role. I then sketch out how poetry could function as a useful epistemic resource in the case of philosophical work on thef emale orgasm, and in understanding the construction of ethnic or national identity.

CFP: International Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society, Annual Conference

Thursday 4^th July – Saturday 6^th July 2019

Edgbaston Park Hotel, Birmingham, UK.

Please note: support for attendance is available.

Organised by the Science and Belief in Society Research Group at the University of Birmingham, UK this is the first conference launching the new, International Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society.

In the last decade there has been significant growth in social scientific scholarship on science and religion, complementing the more established historical research into the subject. Greater attention is being paid to the varied ways in which perceptions of science are influenced by religious and non-religious belief, identity, community and conflict in different geographical, cultural and historical contexts. The purpose of this international conference is to bring together researchers with backgrounds in sociology, science and technology studies, psychology, political science, history, social anthropology, and related humanities or social science disciplines to discuss perspectives on the overarching topic of science and belief in society.

Abstracts are invited for the conference relating to the following themes:

·       The social scientific and historical study of the relationship between science and religious and/or non-religious belief and identity;

·       Public perceptions of the relationship between science, religion and non-religion and their respective roles in society;

·       National and international comparative perspectives on the study of science, religion and belief in society;

·       Past and present media or popular representations of science, religion and belief in society;

·       The past or present roles of science, rationalism, religion and belief in national, social or cultural identity and related geopolitical narratives;

·       Multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of science, religion and non-religion in society;

·       Methodological approaches to, and issues in, the study of science, religion and belief in society;

·       Avenues for future research and developments within the social scientific and historical study of science, religion and belief in society;

·       Public policy research relating to any aspect of public policy that intersects with issues connected to science, religion and belief in society. Including studies on the impact of publics’ views on science and religion on policy making, and provision for religious, spiritual or non-religious communities across a range of geographies and issues (e.g. healthcare provision, educational policy, science policy, environmental policy or development);

·       International studies of religious or spiritual communities’ perspectives on the intersection, and possible relationships, between science and religion over time.

We are interested in papers that relate to any aspect of STEMM in society (science, technology, engineering, medicine, and mathematics) and that discuss any religious, spiritual or non-religious tradition, position or worldview, including unbelief.

Keynote papers will be given by historian Professor Peter Harrison, Australian Laureate Fellow and Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland (Australia), and psychologist Professor Cristine Legare, associate professor of psychology and the director of the Evolution, Variation, and Ontogeny of Learning Laboratory at The University of Texas at Austin (USA).

Individual paper submissions:

To submit a paper proposal, please send an abstract of no more than 300 words, alongside a biographical note of no more than 200 words including name, institutional affiliation, email address and if possible a web-link to your institutional bio page.

Biographies of successful applicants will be added to the International Network’s Research Directory when our new website launches in the spring. Please indicate on your application if you would like to opt out of being added to the Research Directory.

Panel session proposals:

We will also be accepting a limited number of panel proposals with a maximum of four speakers. To submit a panel proposal, please send a session summary of no more than 250 words alongside abstracts of no more than 300 words for each paper and biographical notes of no more than 200 words for each contributor (please include institutional affiliation(s), e-mail contact details, and other info as above).

Individual or panel session submissions may cross over several of the themes listed above, and those intending to submit papers are encouraged to consider the relevance of their work to other academic disciplines.

Please send all individual paper and session proposals to Dr Harris Wiseman (h.wiseman@bham.ac.uk) for the attention of the conference organisers, Professor Fern Elsdon-Baker (University of Birmingham), and Dr Alexander Hall (University of Birmingham).

All abstracts must be submitted by 1^st March 2019.

Conference Costs and Bursaries:

Please note that for all successful applicants, accommodation and registration costs will be covered by the International Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society as part of a 1 year grant from the Templeton Religion Trust.

In addition to this, a limited number of bursaries are available to support those who may not have institutional support to attend international conferences, including but not limited to: postgraduate, early career, retired, or low income or unwaged.  To request this additional support please e-mail Dr Harris Wiseman at h.wiseman@bham.ac.uk, including your contact details, a short biography (including a clear statement regarding your career stage), your abstract and a statement of interest to be considered for one of the bursaries. We also have a range of other bursaries for covering other needs (e.g. support with day care costs). The deadline for submission of bursary applications is 1^st March 2019.

Please note that we will be running a fully funded early career workshop in the days prior to this conference, but this will be announced and advertised via a separate call.

Key Dates:

Abstract submission: Open now

Deadline for abstracts and conference bursary applications: 1^st March 2019

Decision notification: 15^th March 2019

Registration opens: 15^th March 2019

Registration deadline for presenters: 29^th March 2019

Should you have other questions about the conference please contact the conference co-ordinator Dr Harris Wiseman at h.wiseman@bham.ac.uk

A digital version of this Call of Papers can be found online at:

https://sciencereligionspectrum.org/engage/events/call-for-papers-international-network-for-the-study-of-science-and-belief-in-society-annual-conference/

The conference is supported by the Templeton Religion Trust and is being held as part of the activities of the newly established International Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society, based at the University of Birmingham. For more information about the network please contact Dr Alexander Hall (A.F.Hall@bham.ac.uk).

"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.

ADC - End of the Line

London, 1969. A conscientious but mischievous phone-operator uses her specialist skills to avert the end of the network.

The last days of the manual telephone exchange. While the new automated switchboards are being installed across the nation, an operator resents connecting phone calls that are ending the careers of her colleagues. Never shy to a prank, Susan commits herself to take it further, using her skills of eavesdropping, rumour-spreading, and call-misdirection to save the present from the future. When the upgrades were only scheduled in Birmingham alone she was able divert and disrupt them; yet within days the threat starts to close in on London itself.

Unable to match the efficiency of the system, Susan must contend for the human side of the technological sector. Though she is up against an industry that prefers the superfast dreams of the visionaries, who promise instant connectivity and the removal of human error. Susan refuses to leave, in part to complete her employment, and in part to wait for the impossible return of a precious fellow operator.

Further details and ticket booking here.

CFP - Interdisciplinarity: The New Discipline?

School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Crichton Campus, Dumfries, DG1 4ZL

Tuesday 3rd September - Thursday 5th September 2019

Conference Description

The School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, will mark 20 years of the University of Glasgow's presence at its Dumfries campus with a conference examining interdisciplinarity, its evolving interpretations, histories and uses. Amongst the key themes the conference will consider is the normalisation of interdisciplinarity methods, perspectives and discourses within research and educational contexts. Participants will address the drivers, challenges and opportunities of integrating approaches from different disciplines offered by funding bodies, academic journals and REF panels. Practitioners from teaching and learning are invited to address the processes by which the difficulties and benefits of teaching mixed disciplinary groups, with their own distinctive discourses and regimes of truth, have been negotiated, embraced and/or abandoned.

As well as keynote and plenary sessions, the conference will also have break-out sessions based on examining interdisciplinarity within discipline-specific, specialist and/or niche research and teaching groups. Each of these will feed back via a convenor at a roundtable event during the conference to explore questions to explore what changes have occurred and to what extent has the discourse of interdisciplinarity provided not new approaches to intellectual discovery but a cover for the continuation of existing disciplinary methods.

The types of key points we hope the participants on the specialist sessions will address and the co-ordinator will feedback on are:

• What do you mean by 'interdisciplinarity', how far does it differ or concur with interpretations within your discipline/subject area and how is it manifested? 
• What do different parties view as the strengths and weaknesses of interdisciplinarity as it is practised in your research or in relation to pedagogical approaches and teaching methods? 
• To what extent is interdisciplinarity occurring and how do the demands of attracting funding, achieving publication, meeting REF, managerial and institutional demands shape the forms of interdisciplinarity? 
• How are external pressures shaping interdisciplinarity resisted or transcended? 
• What other factors shape the promotion, marginalisation, configuring and normalisation of interdisciplinarity? 
• How, if at all, has 'interdisciplinarity' changed your discipline/subject area in general and your practice in particular? 
• What might others from outside your discipline/subject area learn from your experience of interdisciplinarity?

Please submit abstracts of 200 words (maximum) proposing paper, presentation or poster by Thursday 4th April 2019 to either: Dr Sandy Whitelaw or Dr Benjamin Franks.

Talk - Fantasy and the Anthropocene

Prof Brian Attebery, University of Glasgow

Thursday 24 January 2019, 16:00-18:00

Mary Allan Building room 104, Homerton College, Hills Road, Cambridge CB2 8PQ


The concept of the Anthropocene says that humans are primarily responsible for the current state of the world, and only we (if anyone) can fix it. In this talk, Brian Attebery will explore traditional narrative patterns and their repurposing by fantasy writers from J. R. R. Tolkien to N. K. Jemisin. Such patterns take on new purpose and significance in the context of species die-offs, climate change, and other human-caused alterations of the environment. Examples range from the killing of the forest guardian in the epic of Gilgamesh to John Crowley’s recent novel Ka.

Brian Attebery is the author of Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth and Decoding Gender in Science Fiction, among other genre studies. His work has been honored with a Pilgrim Award, two Mythopoeic Awards, and the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts. He is a Professor of English at Idaho State University and editor of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. He is currently working on a new edition of Ursula K. Le Guin’s Always Coming Home for the Library of America and as of January, 2019, is Leverhulme Visiting Professor at the University of Glasgow.