Celebrating a year of history of science conversations

Finding our research communities and research networks is an essential part of doing a PhD, which can feel like a solitary experience sometimes – even in a department as collegiate as STS. In Summer 2023, Professor Simon Werrett and Dr Jenny Bulstrode brought together a group of PhD students to discuss an issue they’d identified: that we, as postgraduate researchers in the history of science, had lost opportunities to network outside of the department, in part due to the restrictions brought about by the ongoing Covid pandemic and the general shortage of funds. We had noticed it too but needed that catalyst to try something new to address this issue.

The result was HoSCos: History of Science Conversations, a regular series of lunchtime conversations that built connections between the PhD and staff community in our department and the wider history, history of science, and history of medicine community, both academic and non-academic.

Launched at the start of the 2023-24 academic year, HoSCos was devised to expand the networks of PhD students, particularly after Covid where in-person interaction was limited; to support us as PhD students to learn about the different career pathways available to us; and to build community amongst the history of science PhDs and the wider STS department. It has succeeded in all three aims.

The format is simple, and easily reproducible, with only a few key principles: it’s a conversation, not a seminar, so there’s no PowerPoint or other presentation tools, no prepared statements or speeches. Instead, the conversation is led by a PhD student with a guest, focused on their academic research and career history. This then broadens out into a discussion with everyone present. This is a relaxed form of formal networking collaboration, that perhaps bears similarity in tone to the café scientifique model, an informal science communication event format where audience members and a speaker discuss a topic in the round, typically in a cafe or bar.

Over two terms, we held six events with guests and topics chosen to represent our collective interests and career trajectories: Chris Manias (Kings College London), Tim Boon (Science Museum), Subhadra Das (independent author and researcher), Katy Barrett (Houses of Parliament), amongst others. Conversations spanned topics as diverse as the inexhaustible popularity of palaeontology, the lasting legacy of UCL’s role in the history of eugenics, and how one researcher sailed around the world with his undergraduate tutor and a 180-year-old magnetic dipping needle.

The series received positive feedback from both staff and students and drew in more PhD students than we expected – it was not just for the historians. We were delighted that PhD students focusing on policy, sociology, and philosophy aspects of STS attended and found value in thinking historically and connecting with peers. Several of us have found it has helped our own professional networks.

The success of the programme led to us receiving the UCL MAPS Faculty Early Career Researcher Forum Awards 2024 Community Work Award celebrated at an award event on 9 December 2024. The next HoSCos event will be in January 2025. As we move further into our PhD journey, we have “handed over” HoSCos to our fellow postgraduate research students at STS in the earlier stages of their studies, and hope that HosCos will be a model for other academic departments to create engagement, community and establish networks of collaboration amongst young academics.
 
Authors: Antonia Belli, Cathy Lucas, Scott Keir