In the last two decades, the history of science has been transformed by a quest to go global. This process can be understood as a search for “more” awareness; i.e., more awareness about diverse historical cultures of sciences, science’s social histories, material constituencies (i.e. agency and material pasts). The lecture series “Manners of Reckoning” explores the methodological diversity resulting from an expansion of awareness and uses it to reassess the realms of epistemology, ontology, cosmology, and worlding. Our department, “Artifacts, Action, Knowledge,” is interested in how historians and sociologists engage with these approaches and how they are made complementary or competitive to each other. We wish to explore these questions with a view to understanding how such approaches come to bear upon our research agenda and projects and how we can expand on them to study past sciences and the worlds we live in responsibly.
In Spring 2024 we began departmental reading group meetings dedicated to the discussion of cosmology, worlding, ontology, and epistemology. These sessions are conducted in preparation for a lecture series in 2025 (TBC). To view some of the literature we have discussed in our meetings so far, please click on the link below. This is a dynamic list and will be periodically updated.
The Flower Garden Display'd 2014, exhibition by Rebecca Louise Law. Photograph by Nicola Tree.