DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF EXETER CORNWALL CAMPUS
TREMOUGH HISTORY SEMINAR
4pm, Seminar E, Daphne Du Maurier Building, University of Exeter Cornwall
Campus, Treliever Road, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ
Professor Simon Schaffer (University of Cambridge): 'Hill Stations and
Imperial Sciences: On the Projects of Colonial Knowledge'.
Abstract:
There is a very close connexion between the patterns of scientific inquiry
and the places where that inquiry is conducted: this is what motivates an
historical geography of the sciences. Such an inquiry is peculiarly
relevant to the understanding of the roots of scientific ecology and its
politics. As an example of this approach, this paper examines the relations
between the spaces of colonial administration in late nineteenth century
India and the kinds of knowledge developed there. Two sciences were
particularly important in this case: anthropology, which seemed to offer
scientific understanding of caste and of race, and astronomy, which seemed
to offer such understanding of climate and famine. The juxtaposition of the
work of colonial astronomers and anthropologists reveals important aspects
of the ways ecology, empire and the sciences were linked a century ago.
For further information please contact Dr. Tim Cooper,
[log in to unmask], tel: +44 (0) 1326 253760
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