STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

Abstracts are invited for papers towards linked panel sessions at the
American Historical Association Annual Meeting (Chicago, January 5-8,
2012). The panels will explore the overarching theme of 'Ethnography,
Ethnology and Science, 1400-1800.'

The historiography of science leaves ethnography and ethnology before the nineteenth century largely unexploited. This distorts earlier knowledge- making practices, particularly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. European observers in distant regions often integrated discussions of human societies, flora, fauna, climate and natural resources within an all- encompassing natural history rooted in the traditions of classical antiquity.

These panels will seek to contextualize European attempts to understand distant peoples within broader investigations of natural history and cosmography. They might investigate the interconnections between, for example, the following:

* ethnological ideas and theories of climate;
* animals and humans by way of monstrous peoples;
* practices of empirical ethnographic observation
and methods for collecting, describing, organizing and analysing new plants and animals;
* communities and networks of practitioners working on ethnology, natural history, cosmography and other branches of knowledge.

Also of interest are such issues as the authority of eyewitness testimony, the changing status of different practitioners, and the part played by scientific knowledge in shaping ethnology. The overall aim of these panels will be to re-think the relation between the histories of ethnography and ethnology, and the history of science, in order to better explain European attempts to understand the wider world c. 1400-1800.

Scholars who would like to submit an abstract to these sessions should get in touch with the organizer (Dr Surekha Davies, Birkbeck, University of London, at s.davies@bbk.ac.uk), to express their interest and to discuss possible submissions, by 1 December 2010. Abstracts and short biographies in line with the AHA submission requirements would be needed by around 10 January 2011. The deadline for submitting the panels to the AHA is 15 February 2011.

Dr Surekha Davies
Birkbeck, University of London