CALL FOR PAPERS

Sites of Chemistry in the 19th Century

Institute for the History of Medicine and Science "López Piñero", 
Valencia (Spain)

6-7 July 2012

This is the second conference of the project 'Sites of Chemistry, 
1600-2000' which deals with the multitude of sites, spaces and places where 
chemistry has been practiced since the beginning of the 17th century. It is 
part of a series of four annual conferences each devoted to a particular 
century. A final conference will be held in early 2015 to explore themes 
and developments over the whole period and on a broader comparative scale. 
Selected papers from each conference will be published in special issues of 
Ambix, and two volumes of essays will be published at the end of the 
project. The project is supported financially by the Wellcome Trust for the 
History of Medicine and is sponsored by the Society for the History of 
Alchemy and Chemistry. Full details on the general project as well as on 
the past first conference on Sites of chemistry in the 18th century 
(Oxford, 2011) are available at www.sitesofchemistry.org.

The focus of this second conference is on the variety of physical sites 
where chemistry was practiced in the 19th century. Further details about 
the range of 'Topics and Themes' under study can be found at 
www.sitesofchemistry.org. The main purpose is to analyze, first, who was 
practising chemistry in a particular site, where, how, to what ends, and 
the physical, social, cultural and economic organization of these sites; 
and second the wider social, economic, political and cultural contexts for 
the practice of chemistry through detailed examination of chemists' 
interactions, in and around these sites, with other actors.

Since the late 1980s, when Owen Hannaway published his "Laboratory Design 
and the Aims of Science" and Steven Shapin wrote his "House of Experiment", 
the historiography of science has produced a large variety of studies 
offering analytical categories and methodological strategies to integrate 
the physical, cultural and symbolic features of spatial settings in the 
analysis of the cognitive, social or practical activities taking place 
inside them. The Sites of Chemistry project aims to encourage the study of 
spatial settings as an active ingredient of chemical activities, which 
reflects and moulds what their users thought, said and did. At the same 
time we aim to explore the social processes and networks that linked 
particular chemical spaces and the actors within them to other sites and to 
their wider context.

Call for Papers and Sessions

Proposals for individual papers as well as for complete sessions on a 
particular theme are very welcome. They should be sent to the organisers: 
Antonio Garcia Belmar, [log in to unmask], and John Perkins, 
[log in to unmask]

Deadline for proposals: 30 November 2011.

« Proposals for individual papers should include a 300 words summary. « 
Proposals for sessions should include a 300 words description of the main 
topic and information about the authors, titles and summaries of the 
contributions.

Decisions will be announced by 15 December 2011.

There will be five (non parallel) sessions over the two days of the 
conference, each including 3 or 4 papers. Each session will consist of a 10 
minute presentation of each paper, followed by a 20-30 minute report on all 
the papers by a commentator, and a general discussion. Commentators will be 
asked to summarize key points of the papers and offer a few 
critical/constructive thoughts on them, as the focus for discussion.

Full versions of papers are due to be submitted for pre-circulation by 30 
May 2012. Papers should be no more than 6,000 words. They will be available 
to registered participants in the conference via a restricted section of 
the project's website one month before the conference.

There will be no registration fee for the conference and the travel and 
accommodation costs of those giving papers will be paid by the project. 
Special priority will be given to doctoral students.

Scientific committee:

Marco Beretta (Florence),
José Ramón Bertomeu-Sánchez (Valencia),
Ana Carneiro (Portugal)
Antonio García-Belmar (Alicante),
Ernst Homburg (Maastricht),
Muriel Le Roux (Paris)
John Perkins (Oxford)
Geert Vanpaemel (Belgium)

Local organising committee:

José Ramón Bertomeu-Sánchez, Mar Cuenca, Antonio García-Belmar, Ximo 
Guillem, Ignacio Suay-Matallana.


-- 
Jennifer Rampling
Wellcome Trust Research Fellow
Department of History and 
Philosophy of Science
University of Cambridge
Free School Lane
Cambridge CB2 3RH