The Science of Information, 1870-1945: The Universalization of Knowledge in a Utopian Age
Philadelphia, 23-25 February 2017
In partnership with the Beckman Center for the History of Chemistry at the Chemical Heritage Foundation, the University of Pennsylvania Libraries is pleased to announce an international symposium on “The Science of Information, 1870-1945: The Universalization of Knowledge in a Utopian Age”
The symposium will investigate the development of intertwining utopianisms in internationalist politics and in the science of information in a period stretching from the onset of modern war, in America and Western Europe, to its horrific climax in World War II. During this period, global transportation and communications systems were constructed, the modern global economy was knit together, and both scientific and humanistic scholarship became a professional and global enterprise. Such developments lent a new urgency to the collection and sharing of information and the establishment of accord among nation-states and communities in the world of learning. They also provoked a tide of utopian speculation, pacifist dreams, and, sometimes, pragmatic nightmares.
The symposium will begin on Thursday 23 February at the Beckman Center with a public keynote address by Michael Gordin, Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at Princeton University. It will continue on Friday and Saturday, 24-25 February, at the University of Pennsylvania.
The outline programme and summaries of papers are available on the symposium website: http://www.library.upenn.edu/exhibits/lectures/science_of_information.html
For further information, contact Lynn Ransom at [log in to unmask] or +1 (215) 898-7851.
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