Rethinking the History of Science and Technology in a Global Context Workshop

 

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On Thursday, May 5th, 2011Tara Abraham and Sofie Lachapelle hosted a one-day workshop, "Rethinking the History of Science and Technology in a Global Context," at the University of Guelph. The workshop aimed to generate dialogue and discussion on ways to foster global awareness in teaching history of science and technology.   

This main workshop coincides with the 4th Annual GTA Symposium on History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Science, Technology, and Medicine, an effort on the part of scholars in the GTA to foster opportunities for communication and to provide a forum for scholarly exchange, bringing together faculty and graduate students interested in a range of topics and approaches constitutive of HPS/STS. Click the menu item on the right for more on the 4th Annual GTA Symposium.

 

 

 About the workshop:

The workshop is part of a project funded by the Learning Enhancement Fund to re-envision the first-year undergraduate course, HIST*1250 “Science and Society Since 1500”. Presently the course is an introduction to the historical development of science in Western society from the middle ages to the mid-twentieth century. The newly envisioned course, “Science and Technology in a Global Context”, will emphasize global awareness as a learning objective, and will focus on the patterns in which scientific knowledge and practices have traveled across cultures, the interconnected but distinct histories of science and technology, and the complex and contested reasons that science has flourished in the West.

The event brings together faculty with expertise in both history and history of science and technology in a global perspective to share their experiences, methods, and perspectives in an informal atmosphere. A small and informal day-long workshop, it centers on the following questions:

  • What different ways might we understand the idea of "a global history of science and  technology"?
  • In what different ways can our histories be "global"?
  • What challenges do we face in teaching history of science and technology in a global context?
  • What tools and methods are available to meet such challenges?
  • How do we balance the need for local histories with the need for a coherent narrative structure?

 

The workshop program:

The full program will follow, but speakers include: Dr. Suzanne Zeller, Wilfred Laurier University (Department of History); Dr. Nikolai Krementsov, University of Toronto (Institute for the Historyand Philosophy of Science and Technology); Dr. Michelle Murphy, University of Toronto (Department of History); Dr. Ingrid Hehmeyer, Ryerson University (Department of History);  Dr. Michael Egan, McMaster University (Department of History); and Dr. Nicholas Dew, McGill University (Department of History and Classical Studies).