This series of teaching seminars is designed to get students from across our MPhil, Part III and PhD cohort to engage with sources as material objects. It is also designed to introduce them to the extraordinary wealth of such sources that are held around Cambridge.
Researching in museums
Friday 11 October 2019, 1–2pm, Seminar Room 1
Joshua Nall
Why is there a museum inside the HPS Department? Get the answer to this question, and many more, in this hands-on seminar, led by the Museum's Curator of Modern Sciences, Josh Nall.
The main goal of this session is to show off the diverse array of instruments, models, and ephemera in the Whipple Museum's collection, and to encourage graduate students to consider using material culture in their research. Many former students have produced outstanding essays and dissertations based on the investigation of Museum object/s, and this session will present researchers' own experiences and discuss how to work successfully with museum collections.
Mystery object
Monday 21 October 2019, 2.30pm–4pm, Whipple Museum
Joshua Nall
(from 9 October)
Darwin correspondence
Monday 4 November 2019, 2.30pm–4pm, Darwin Correspondence Project, University Library
Jim Secord
(from 9 October)
Heritage of ethnographic museums and contemporary Inuit populations
Monday 18 November 2019, 2.30pm–4pm, Polar Museum
Alex Partridge
(from 9 October)
The Needham Collection
Monday 2 December 2019, 2.30pm–4pm, Needham Research Institute
Mary Brazelton
(from 9 October)
Early-modern scientific instruments and their manuals
Monday 3 February 2020, 2.30pm–4pm, Whipple Museum
Boris Jardine
Vigani's cabinet
Monday 17 February 2020, 2.30pm–4pm, Queens' College
Simon Schaffer
Sherburne's Sphere of Marcus Manilius
Monday 2 March 2020, 2.30pm–4pm, Whipple Museum
Emma Perkins