Experimental Histories of Science

History of science works within well-worn (and of course often successful) genres of writing and presentation. But do these structural constraints encourage some insights, arguments and ideas and not others? If we experimented in form, would new insights, arguments and ideas come to the surface?

In recent years STS scholars have challenged ideas that “science” should equate to an exclusively European, capital-intensive form of natural inquiry, opening up history to diverse and often marginalized forms of natural knowledge from across the globe. Surprisingly, however, the formats and media through which history of science is written, presented, and published have barely changed in this time, despite many of them having roots in precisely the contexts under critique.

This one-day workshop explores new ways of articulating and exploring the history of science that go beyond traditional formats. We ask what role is there for gossip, ritual, storytelling, game-playing, silence, music, action, poetry and proverb, quilting, walking, performance, place-naming, or other forms of expression in the practice our discipline? The workshop consists of ten presentations by seventeen international scholars and practitioners and will include theatre, music, poetry, cookery and textile-making. We intend to shake things up.