History of Knowledge and Transnational History: theoretical approaches and empirical perspectives

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History of Knowledge and Transnational History: theoretical approaches and empirical perspectives

Organizer
Prof. Patrick Harries und Prof. Martin Lengwiler, Historisches Seminar der Universität Basel, in Verbindung mit der Swiss Association for the Studies of Science, Technology and Society (STS-CH)
Venue
Wildt'sches Haus, Petersplatz 13, Basel
Location
Basel
Country
Switzerland
From - Until
10.09.2009 - 11.09.2009
Deadline
31.08.2009
Website
http://www.histsem.unibas.ch/
By
Martin Lengwiler

(English version below)

Die internationale Tagung diskutiert den Schnittbereich zwischen Wissensgeschichte und transnationaler Geschichte aus theoretischer und empirischer Perspektive. Das Anliegen ist, diese beiden innovativen geschichtswissenschaftlichen Forschungsansätze zu kombinieren und deren empirisches Potenzial auszuloten. Die Wissensgeschichte versteht sich als eine sozial- und kulturhistorische Erweiterung der Wissenschaftsgeschichte, während die transnationale Geschichte sich zur Sammlungsbewegung für verschiedene Forschungstraditionen (von der Vergleichsgeschichte, über die postkoloniale Geschichte bis zur internationalen, bzw. der Globalgeschichte) entwickelt hat. Moderne Wissenspraktiken sind historisch konstitutiv von transnationalen Lernprozessen geprägt gewesen und haben ihrerseits das Gefüge der internationalen Staatenordnung – von den kolonialen Herrschaftsverhältnissen bis zum modernen Globalisierungsprozess – epistemisch präformiert und normativ legitimiert. Dieses Wechselspiel zwischen Wissenstechniken und Transnationalisierungsprozessen lässt sich beispielhaft an wissenschaftlichen Klassifizierungs- und Ordnungstechniken (z.B. in der Anthropologie, der Medizin oder der Biologie) und deren gesellschaftlichen Anwendungsfeldern untersuchen. Die Tagung bringt international führende Vertreter des Fachs zusammen mit Nachwuchsleuten aus der Schweiz.

Anmeldung: Die Tagungsteilnahme ist kostenlos. Da die Räumlichkeiten der Universität Basel nur Platz für eine beschränkte Anzahl Teilnehmer/innen bieten, sind Interessierte gebeten, sich bis zum 31. August bei Felix Held (felix.held@stud.unibas.ch) anzumelden.

English version:

This international conference discusses the intersection between the history of knowledge and transnational history, focusing on the theoretical and empirical potential of such a venture. Both approaches have turned out to be highly innovative over the past years. The history of knowledge is seen as an extention of the history of science in the direction of social and cultural history, whereas transnational history represents a melting pot for a variety of research perspectives, from comparative and postcolonial history to international or global history.
The combination of the history of knowledge with transnational history also makes sense for historical reasons. Modern knowledge practices are deeply marked by transnational learning processes. At the same time, international power relations – from the colonial era to the current period of globalisation – were themselves represented and legitimated by epistemic practices. This interplay between knowledge practices and processes of transnationalisation is the central theme of the conference. It will be illustrated by specific case studies on scientific technologies of order and classification or on their social and cultural contexts of application.
The conference brings together some of the leading scholars in the field and a group of junior researchers. As an audience, the venue addresses students in history, social anthropology, science and technology studies, and African studies from the university of Basel and other academic institutions. It is open to a wider public interested in the field.

Registration: Attending the conference is free of charge. The facilities at the University of Basel only offer room for a limited number of participants. Those interested in participating at the conference should therefore register with Felix Held (felix.held@stud.unibas.ch) by the end of August.

Programm

Thursday, 10th of September 2009

11.00 hrs: Registration, Coffee & Sandwiches

12.00 hrs: Martin Lengwiler, University of Basel, Switzerland: Intersections between the history of knowledge and transnational history (introduction)

12.30 hrs: Saul Dubow, University of Sussex, UK: 250 years of colonial science in South Africa: An overview and a periodisation (introductory paper; chair and comment: Patrick Harries, University of Basel)

13.45 hrs: Session I: Mapping and exploring (part 1)

Bruno Schelhaas, Leibniz Institute for Regional Geography, Leipzig, Germany: Africa made in Gotha: Cartography and Knowledge Transfer in the 19th Century

Guy Thomas, University of Basel / Mission 21: Faith in Maps: Exploring Horizons of Missionary Cartography in West Africa

Comment: Lorena Rizzo, University of Zurich, Switzerland

15.00 hrs: Coffee break

15.30 hrs: Jakob Vogel, University of Cologne, Germany: Localizing and delocalizing European colonial knowledge (introductory paper; chair and comment: Harald Fischer-Tiné, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology/ETH Zurich, Switzerland)

16.45 hrs: Session II: Mapping and exploring (part 2)

Franziska Suter, University of Basel: John Forbes, a Naturalist in the Service of the Royal Navy

Sandra Näf-Gloor, University of Basel: Hinrich Lichtenstein (1780-1857): a naturalist’s career

Sonia Abun Nsar, University of Basel: Bowditch and Barrow: debates around travel and science in early nineteenth century Africa

Comment: Patrick Harries, University of Basel

18.30 hrs: Reception and dinner (offered by the Swiss Association for the Studies of Science, Technology and Society (STS-CH)

Friday, 11th of September 2009

9.00 hrs: David N. Livingstone, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK : Mapping Darwinism: Towards a Geography of Darwinian Encounters (introductory paper, chair and comment: Martin Lengwiler)

10.15 hrs: Coffee break

10.45 hrs: Session III: Knowledge practices between colonial and local actors (part 1)

Felicity Jensz, University of Munster, Germany: Turning missionaries into scientists: Moravian missionaries’ collecting practices and identity construction in the nineteenth century

Giorgio Miescher, Basler Afrika Bibliographien, University of Basel, Anna Vögeli, University of Basel: Rehabilitating the ‚Ovambo cattle’: Veterinary science and cattle breeding in early colonial Namibia

Comment: Heinrich Hartmann, Free University Berlin, Germany

12.30 hrs: Lunch break

14.00 hrs : Nancy Jacobs, Brown University, USA: Cosmopolitan Science, Respectability, and Defiance In a Segregated Life: Saul Sithole of the Transvaal Museum (introductory paper; chair and comment: Ulrike Lindner, Universität der Bundeswehr, Munich)

15.15 hrs: Session IV: Knowledge practices between colonial and local actors (part 2)

Christiane Sibille, University of Heidelberg, Germany/University of Basel: Folkmusic research in a transnational perspective. Music as part of the League of Nations’ International Intellectual Co-operation

Lukas Meier, University of Basel, Switzerland: Between the study of nature and high modernism: Switzerland in Côte d’Ivoire 1920-1955

Daniel Speich, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Switzerland: Colonial Social Accounting and the possibility of economic comparison between the North and the South

Comments: Barbara Lüthi, University of Basel

17.00 hrs: Coffee break

17.00 hrs: Session V: Effect of decolonisation on knowledge institutions

Marcel Dreier, University of Basel, Switzerland: The scientification of rural public health interventions in eastern Africa: local practice and global debates 1920-1990

Hines Mabika, University of Basel, Switzerland: At the Heart of Transnational History and Medical Knowledge: Elim Hospital in South Africa

Pascal Schmid, University of Basel, Switzerland: A rural Hospital as a transnational hub for medical knowledge: The Agogo Hospital in Ghana

Comment: Franziska Rüedi, University of Oxford, UK

18.45 hrs: Concluding remarks (Patrick Harries, Martin Lengwiler)

19.00 Reception

Contact (announcement)

Martin Lengwiler (martin.lengwiler@unibas.ch)

http://www.histsem.unibas.ch/
Editors Information
Published on
07.08.2009
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