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Department of History and Philosophy of Science

 

Seminars and reading groups in Easter Term 2025

 

Departmental Seminars

Seminars take place on Thursdays from 3.30pm to 5pm in the Hopkinson Lecture Theatre, unless otherwise stated.

Organised by Rosanna Dent.

1 May

Lee McIntyre (Boston University)
Disinformation, denial, and the assault on truth

Disinformation is the scourge of the information age, causing both science denial (climate denial, anti-vaxx, etc.) as well as the more recent 'reality' denial (Trump's claim that the 2020 election was stolen, Q-Anon conspiracies, etc.). People do not wake up one day wondering whether there are tracking microchips in the Covid vaccines or a Jewish space laser causing the California wildfires. They are led to those ridiculous, false beliefs through strategic lies, told by those who created them, in service of their own economic, ideological, or political interests. The problem, however, is that once disinformation is in the information stream, it does not just tempt someone to believe a falsehood, but also polarizes them around a factual issue, which undermines trust and poisons the path by which they might revise past beliefs and embrace future true ones.

How to address this? Engaging with deniers is one path. In a recent study in Nature Human Behavior Cornelia Betsch and Phillip Schmid provide the first empirical evidence that science deniers can sometimes be led to give up their false beliefs. Most intriguing, one of the methods for doing this has nothing to do with the content of the belief itself, but focuses instead on the path of reasoning that led them to it. 'Technique rebuttal' thus provides a ray of hope for philosophers and other non-scientists to address science (and reality) denial, even if they are not content experts on the topic of denial. But there is a hitch. This method doesn't always work... and it is slow.

What might work better? In my talk I will explore a few ideas from my most recent book On Disinformation (MIT Press, 2023), in which I claim that the pinch point on the disinformation highway from creation to amplification to belief is to clamp down on the spread of disinformation.

8 May

Robin McKenna (University of Liverpool)
Doing your own patient activist research

The slogan 'Do Your Own Research' (DYOR) is often invoked by people who are distrustful, even downright sceptical, of recognized expert authorities. While this slogan may serve various rhetorical purposes, it also expresses an ethic of inquiry that valorises independent thinking and rejects uncritical deference to recognized experts. This paper is a qualified defence of this ethic of inquiry in one of the central contexts in which it might seem attractive. I use several case studies of patient activist groups to argue that these groups often engage in valuable independent research that advances biomedical knowledge. In doing so they demonstrate the value of 'lay expertise' and the epistemic as well as political necessity of not simply deferring to recognized experts. I also give some reasons why patient activist groups often produce valuable biomedical knowledge: they are examples of what I call 'research collectives'. Research collectives are research communities that differ from the traditional research communities we find in universities and research institutes in that their members typically lack formal relevant scientific credentials and training. But they are similar in that they have internal structures – training procedures, norms of discussion, venues for holding discussions – that facilitate the production of knowledge. I finish by suggesting that future research into the differences and similarities between research collectives and traditional research communities is required.

15 May

Felipe Romero (University of Groningen)
The emergence of metascience: risks and opportunities

The replication crisis in the 2010s shook the scientific community, causing widespread concern and scepticism. In response, a new wave of optimistic researchers has turned the scientific lens inward, aiming to improve science itself. These metascientists have made progress in diagnosing the crisis, pinpointing questionable research practices and bad statistics as key culprits, and proposing reforms to statistical methods and publication practices. While the term 'metascience' is not new, its institutionalization as a discipline is a recent development. A growing community of practitioners, societies, conferences, and research centres now shape this expanding field. This growth raises compelling philosophical questions: Where did metascience come from? How does metascience relate to established fields like philosophy of science and science studies? Is metascience merely about data collection, or does it offer deeper epistemic insights? This talk explores these questions by proposing a taxonomy of metascientific projects, examining models of how scientific disciplines form, and evaluating whether metascience holds a unique epistemic status.

22 May

Joint seminar with the World History Seminar; start time 4pm

Sadiah Qureshi (University of Manchester)
Pinosaur redux: whose lives count in histories of extinction?

In 1994, David Noble, a Field Officer for the Wollemi National Park, in New South Wales, came across a tree he did not recognize in a narrow canyon. Quickly dubbed the Wollemi pine, the tree proved to be an unknown species whose evolution stretched back to the lost worlds of the dinosaurs, before the formation of modern continents, and even flowering plants. Promoted as the Pinosaur and the botanical find of the century, the tree's ensuing journey from wild endangerment to domesticated treasure is a rare tale of an endangered plant celebrity attracting global conservation efforts. This talk traces the story of the Wollemi pine from its origins and chance find, to the present day, to consider why it is so important for us to include plants within histories of extinction, especially when they are routinely neglected as species needing conservation or subjects worthy of historical narratives. In particular, the talk will explore how paying attention to plants challenges historians to radically rethink common divisions of time, place, and whose lives are historically interesting or significant, and helps us move beyond both anthropocentric and animal-centric policy-making and history writing.

29 May

Eram Alam (Harvard University)
Mobilizing medicine

For more than 60 years, the United States has trained fewer physicians than it needs, relying instead on the economically expedient option of soliciting immigrant physicians trained at the expense of other countries. In this talk, I will examine the first large scale migration initiated during the Cold War with the passage of the Hart-Celler Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. This bill expedited the entry of Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) from postcolonial Asian nations and directed them to provide care in shortage areas throughout the country in exchange for legal status. Although this arrangement was conceived as a temporary measure, it has become a permanent feature of the US medical system with foreign physicians comprising a quarter of the total physician labor force. This neocolonial dynamic has entrenched a stratified healthcare system; foreign physicians are directed to America's marginalized communities, thereby disincentivizing organized medicine from addressing the structural conditions that perpetually produce labor shortages. The ubiquitous and integral presence of foreign physicians not only reveals the racialized operations of US medicine, but it also makes visible how the political economy of care writ large operates in our globalized present.

5 June: Twenty-Ninth Annual Hans Rausing Lecture

Venue: Biffen Lecture Theatre, Department of Genetics, Downing Site

Asif A. Siddiqi (Fordham University)
But why here? Space technologies, the logic of location, and the violence of infrastructure

This talk is part of a larger project that imagines a history of space exploration centering the Global South as a crucial site for humanity's first steps off the planet. During the Cold War, when the United States, the Soviet Union, and many Western European nations first began to explore space, they stationed considerable ground infrastructure on Africa, Asia, and Latin America to track, communicate with, and launch satellites into orbit. Largely invisible in popular accounts of space exploration, these technoscientific stations, strewn across many postcolonial locales, produced a wide range of entanglements with local populations and environments, usually in the form of displacements of people or damage to local ecologies. In looking at the history of this 'passive' infrastructure in several locales, including Algeria, Kenya, and India – the talk offers insights along three threads. First it explores the ways in which the selection criteria for locating such technoscientific infrastructure derived from a certain kind of 'logic of location' which naturalized exclusionary practices as being 'rational' and opposition to them as being antimodern, ahistorical, and against the greater good. Second, it restores 'history' to these sites by situating them outside of the space program, thus linking them to broader political economies and colonial geographies, rendering visible the seams and sutures of a larger story of the (re)appropriation of postcolonial geographies in the late 20th century for space exploration. Finally, the talk offers a methodological intervention, situating this kind of technoscientific 'passive' infrastructure (and often, their abandoned ruins) as part of a global (and postcolonial) history of technology, one legible at multiple and overlapping registers, including the social, the technological, and the environmental.

 

Coffee with Scientists

The aim of this group is to explore and enhance the interface between HPS and science. Although many of us in HPS engage closely with scientists and their practices, we could benefit from more explicit discussions about the relationship between HPS and science itself, and from more opportunities for HPS-scholars and scientists to help each other's work.

We meet on Friday afternoons in Seminar Room 1. Further information, any reading materials, and links for online meetings will be distributed through the email list of the group. Please contact Hasok Chang (hc372) or Marta Halina (mh801) if you would like to be included on the list.

30 May, 2.30–4.00pm

Helene Scott-Fordsmand (Clare Hall & HPS, University of Cambridge) and Anatolii Kozlov (Department of Science & Technology Studies, University College London)
TheCultureLab

TheCultureLab was a series of participatory workshops for postdocs at the Physiology, Development and Neuroscience Department, designed to create a space of shared reflexivity. Each workshop combined creative exercises from applied theatre and creative writing with topics from the philosophy of science and STS to experientially explore scientific and extra-scientific aspects of postdoctoral research life and lay the ground for group reflection with an eye on developing more sustainable research cultures. The workshops became a site of fruitful interaction between philosophers and scientists as a case of philosophy of science in practice. As a result, three postdoctoral researchers agreed to travel 'across the road' to explore relevant links with historians and philosophers of science further in conversation at the HPS Department. In the session, they will introduce their work, share reflections on research culture and on their encounter with and thoughts about history and philosophy of science.

13 June, 3.30–5.00pm

Amy Orben (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge)
Science advice under uncertainty

In this session, Amy Orben, the leader of the Digital Mental Health Group at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, will talk about her experience of having to support evidence-based policy in the area of teen mental health and social media. Her vision on how this could be improved was described in Orben, Amy, and J. Nathan Matias, 'Fixing the science of digital technology harms', Science 388, no. 6743 (2025): 152–155.

 

Cabinet of Natural History

This research seminar is concerned with all aspects of the history of natural history and the field and environmental sciences. The regular programme of papers and discussions takes place over lunch on Mondays. In addition, the Cabinet organises a beginning-of-year fungus hunt and occasional expeditions to sites of historical and natural historical interest, and holds an end-of-year garden party.

Seminars are held on Mondays at 1pm in Seminar Room 1 unless otherwise stated.

For further details about upcoming events, or to be added to the mailing list for the Cabinet of Natural History, please contact Mika Hyman.

12 May

Ben Weissenbach (Polar Studies, Cambridge)
'North to the future': deep ecological fieldwork in Arctic Alaska

19 May

Eleanor Stephenson (History, Cambridge)
Vere, Lady Lynch (1647–1682): women colonists as artists and scientists in early English Jamaica

26 May

Katherine Enright (History, Cambridge)
Cave science, bat guano and prehistory in the Malay Peninsula, c. 1900

2 June

Christian Stenz (Heidelberg University)
Planting crops, gathering knowledge: scientific objects, plantation economies and knowledge production in nineteenth-century Guatemala

9 June

Chris Preston
Richard Relhan: can a portrait be reconstructed from the biographical bones?

Wednesday 11 June

Joint event with History of Science and Medicine in South East Asia Reading Group

Romain Bertrand (Sciences Po)
Sixteenth-century expeditions and modernity

16 June – Cabinet Garden Party

Emilie Raymer (Harvard University)
Time, agency and scale in ecological and human ecological scholarship

 

AD HOC

AD HOC (Association for the Discussion of the History of Chemistry) is a group dedicated to the history of chemistry. While our main focus is historical, we also consider the philosophical, sociological, public and educational dimensions of chemistry.

AD HOC has been meeting in various configurations since the summer of 2004, first at UCL and then also in Cambridge since 2010. Since 2008 our activities have been generously supported by the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC).

This term we will hold hybrid meetings, on Mondays, 5.00–6.30pm in the Board Room and online. The links for joining the online meetings, the exact specification or copies of the readings, and all updates on future activities will be circulated to the mailing list of the group. If you would like to be on the list please email Hasok Chang (hc372) or Mika Hyman (mjh291).

19 May

Gary Patterson

2 June

Peter Oakley

16 June

Lucy Havard

 

CamPoS

CamPoS (Cambridge Philosophy of Science) is a network of academics and students working in the philosophy of science in various parts of the University of Cambridge, including the Department of History and Philosophy of Science and the Faculty of Philosophy. The Wednesday afternoon seminar series features current research by CamPoS members as well as visitors to Cambridge and scholars based in nearby institutions. In the 2024–25 year, CamPoS is being organised by Miguel Ohnesorge (mo459).

Seminars are held on Wednesdays, 1.00–2.30pm in Seminar Room 2.

30 April

Clara Bradley (UCL)
The relationship between Lagrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics: the irregular case

7 May

CANCELLED

14 May

Teru Miyake (NTU Singapore)
Precision and active knowledge: measuring the fundamental physical constants, 1967–2018

21 May

Chiara Martini (Corpus Christi College, Cambridge)
Aristotle on what geometry is about

28 May

Lee McIntyre (Boston University)
The pragmatic vindication of warranted belief

4 June

CANCELLED

11 June

Jakob Ortmann (Leibniz University, Hannover)
But what is 'performativity of science'?

18 June

CANCELLED

 

Philosophy of Experimentation Reading Group

This reading group explores philosophical topics related to scientific experimentation. We meet on Thursdays from 11am to 12noon in the Board Room unless otherwise stated. All welcome!

Organised by Niall Roe (nrr32) and Marta Halina (mh801).

This term, we will read selected chapters from The Philosophy of Scientific Experimentation (2003), edited by Hans Radder.

8 May

Rom Harré, 'The Materiality of Instruments in a Metaphysics for Experiments'

15 May

Davis Baird, 'Thing Knowledge: Outline of a Materialist Theory of Knowledge'

22 May (Seminar Room 1)

Jim Woodward, 'Experimentation, Causal Inference, and Instrumental Realism'

29 May

Hans Radder, 'Technology and Theory in Experimental Science'

5 June

Evelyn Fox Keller, 'Models, Simulation, and "Computer Experiments"'

12 June

Mary S. Morgan, 'Experiments without Material Intervention: Model Experiments, Virtual Experiments, and Virtually Experiments'

19 June

David Gooding, 'Varying the Cognitive Span: Experimentation, Visualization, and Computation'

 

Pragmatism Reading Group

The Pragmatism Reading Group is held on Mondays at 11am–12noon in the Board Room.

Organisers: Damon Kutzin (dtk23) and Niall Roe (nrr32)

This term we will be reading selections from T.L. Short's wide reaching 2007 book, Peirce's Theory of Signs. This is much more than an introduction to semiotics, and covers most of Peirce's philosophy of science. We are reading it out of order, starting with the three final chapters on the development of science, philosophy of mind, and the nature of objectivity. Then we will go back and see how Peirce's theories of final causation and of signs lead to these positions (or if the group would prefer, we can instead pursue one of the topics of the final three chapters). Here we are (almost) following Short's own advice on how to approach the book for those who are not yet sure they want to learn about semiotics:

"Those doubting the value of time spent grappling with Peirce may want to look first at chapters 10–12, and only then, if curiosity has been aroused, read chapters 3–7."

5 May

Chapter 10 – How Symbols Grow

12 May

Chapter 11 – Semiosis and the Mental

19 May

Chapter 12 – The Structure of Objectivity

26 May

Chapter 4 / 5 – (Preface to) Final Causation (Excerpts)

2 June

Chapter 6 – Significance

9 June

Chapter 7 – Objects and Interpretants

16 June

Chapter 8 – A Taxonomy of Signs

 

History and Philosophy of Physics Reading Group

Tuesdays, 2–3pm (except for the workshop on Friday 9 May) in the Board Room

Organised by Hasok Chang (hc372), Richard Staley (raws1), and Neil Dewar (Faculty of Philosophy, nad42)

9 May, 9am–1pm: Workshop on Duhem and Philosophy of Science

09:15   Introductory remarks
09:30   Alexander Bird, 'The knowledge response to the Duhem Thesis'
10:30   Break
10:45   Nicholas Teh, 'Science as practical thought: an action-theoretic reading of Duhem's Aim and Structure'
11:45   Break
12:00   Neil Dewar, 'What conventionalism demands'

Alexander Bird (University of Cambridge)
The knowledge response to the Duhem Thesis

I refute the Duhem Thesis by noting that if one knows the truth of the auxiliary hypotheses and the relevant observation statement, one can know that a tested hypothesis is false. Duhem's thesis is thus tenable only by those who have independent reason to be sceptics about the possibility of knowledge of scientific hypotheses. It thus represents no threat to scientific realism.

Nicholas Teh (University of Notre Dame)
Science as practical thought: an action-theoretic reading of Duhem's Aim and Structure

Although Pierre Duhem's The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory is a seminal text in the History and Philosophy of Science, and his 'holism' thesis is widely appreciated, few commentators have discussed the action-theoretic aspects of Duhem's treatise. In this talk, I will argue for a neo-Aristotelian reading of Duhem's text by drawing on Elizabeth Anscombe's work on practical rationality, as well as that of subsequent commentators on the Anscombean tradition such as Michael Thompson and Sebastian Roedl. On this reading, it will emerge that a scientific theory is just a special kind of practical thought, and that Duhem's 'holism' is a manifestation of a more general indeterminacy inherent in practical thought. The reading will also be fruitful in clarifying Duhem's conception of the relationship between the history of science and the philosophy of science.

Neil Dewar (University of Cambridge)
What conventionalism demands

Conventionalism about theory choice appears to require both (a) that the two theories are equivalent (in order that the choice can be conventional rather than factual), and (b) that the difference between the two theories is not merely verbal (in order that the conventionalism be more than mere 'trivial semantic conventionalism'). I argue that the only way to reconcile (a) and (b) is to suppose that the theories are equivalent, yet apply the same concepts in different ways.

20 May, 2–3pm

Continued discussion of Olivier Darrigol, 'Geometry, mechanics, and experience: a historico-philosophical musing'. European Journal for Philosophy of Science 12, 60 (2022)

3 June, 2–3pm

Ernst Mach, 'Space and Geometry from the Point of View of Physical Inquiry'. In Space and Geometry in the Light of Physiological, Psychological and Physical Inquiry, edited by Thomas J. McCormack. Cambridge Library Collection – Physical Sciences, 94–144. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014 [1906].

Recommended background readings for the session on 3 June:

 

HPSTM in East Asia

This group meets fortnightly on Wednesdays, 11am–12noon in the Needham Research Institute (8 Sylvester Road, Cambridge, CB3 9AF) to focus on questions relating to the history of science, medicine and technology in East Asia.

Sessions will be a mix of formats, including close readings, discussions, presentations and paper workshops, and will offer a forum for conversations and dialogue between researchers from different perspectives, backgrounds, and disciplines. All are welcome!

Organised by Zhiyu Chen, Zhilin Chu, Arthur Harris and Fu Ge Yang.

7 May

The trouble with 'magic' in early Chinese medicine

21 May

In the name of compassion: vegetarianism, animal protection and the modernisation of Buddhism in modern China

4 June

Quackery? Commerce and medical authority in East Asia

18 June

Reading the body: physiognomy, phrenology and the human sciences in East Asia

 

Values in Science Reading Group

We meet on Wednesdays at 11am in Seminar Room 1. Organised by Florence Adams (fr355) and Monte Cairns (mlc92).

7 May

LaRosa, E. 'An Algorithm in Doctor's Clothing: Anchoring Trust Appropriately in AI Healthcare Deployment.' Special session with author in attendance. Draft to be circulated.

14 May

Anderson, E. (forthcoming). 'Local Knowledge in Institutional Epistemology.' Australasian Philosophical Review.

21 May

Prescott-Couch, A. (forthcoming). 'Narrative Understanding.' European Journal of Philosophy.

28 May

Badano, G. (forthcoming). 'Public Reason, Values in Science, and the Shifting Boundaries of the Political Forum.' Philosophical Studies.

4 June

Hirschman, D, & Berman, E. (2014). 'Do Economists Make Policies? On the Political Effects of Economics.' Socio-Economic Review 12:4.

11 June

Draft from Florence Adams (hopefully!)

18 June

Ortmann, J. (2025). 'Performative Paternalism.' European Journal for Philosophy of Science 15(2). Special session with author in attendance.

25 June

Draft from Monte Cairns (hopefully!)

 

Philosophy of Medicine Reading Group

Wednesdays at 12noon–1pm in the Board Room (unless otherwise stated).

Organisers: Henrik Røed Sherling (Philosophy) and Johanna Silva Stüger Pinto (HPS)

This term the Philosophy of Medicine Reading Group will be reading the proof of Gareth Owen's forthcoming book Psychiatry and Human Nature (CUP), kindly shared with us by the author. We will be meeting weekly to read clusters of related chapters, followed by an event with the author in the final week.

Anyone is welcome to attend. We hope to see you there!

7 May (Seminar Room 1)

Chapters 1–3: Introduction and Phenomenology

14 May

Chapters 4–5: Classification

21 May

Chapters 6–7: Understanding, Explanation and Formulation

28 May

Chapters 8–10: Suicide and Capacity

11 June

Chapters 11–12: Doctor-Patient Relationship and Conclusion

Friday 13 June, 1–3pm (Seminar Room 1)

Symposium with author and commentators; co-hosted by CamPoS

 

History of Science in Latin America Reading Group

The History of Science in Latin America Reading Group (HISSLA) meets once a fortnight, on Wednesdays at 2pm in the Board Room, to discuss historiography of science, technology, and medicine in Latin America as well as work in closely related fields such as anthropology, museum studies, and geography. All are welcome to join us to discuss pre-circulated readings. For further information, or to be added to our mailing list, please contact the co-conveners Theo Di Castri (td346) and Rosanna Dent (rd736).

During Easter Term we will be reading Margarita Fajardo's The World that Latin America Created.

30 April

Intro & Chapter 1

14 May

Chapter 2 & 3

28 May

Chapter 4 & 5

11 June

Chapter 6 & Epilogue

 

Cambridge Reading Group on Reproduction

Cambridge Reproduction invites all Cambridge researchers to attend a twice-termly reading group to engage with classics and new work across disciplines – all with a central theme of reproduction.

Tuesday 13 May, 12.30pm

Philippa Carter (HPS, Cambridge) will lead a discussion about Sonia Wigh's article 'Overcoming Childlessness: Narratives of Conception in Early Modern North India' (Medical History, 2025).

Room 78, Anatomy Building, Downing Site

 

HPS Workshop

Fridays, 5–6pm in the Board Room
Organised by by Niall Roe (nrr32) and Mallory Hrehor (mh2217)

The HPS Workshop seeks to break the isolation of postgraduate research and encourage collaborative thinking by allowing students to present work in progress in a supportive seminar environment. The workshops will have alternate sessions focusing on Philosophy and History, but interdisciplinary presentations are always welcome.

Students are invited to present on any aspect of their research that they are grappling with or desire feedback on, including:

  • Unpacking complicated sources, concepts, or archives
  • Presenting drafts of chapters, conference papers, or publications
  • Proposing new ideas or strategies towards HPS research


The session is composed of two parts: ~30 minutes where the speaker outlines their work (indicating areas that they would like feedback on) and ~30 minutes of discussion.

 

Postgraduate Seminar: History of Science and Medicine in Early Modern South Asia

Tuesdays, 1–2pm in Seminar Room 2 (7 one-hour seminars)

Convenor: Sonia Wigh

This seminar invites participants to read, learn, and discuss the major methodological concerns in the field of the history of science and medicine in Early Modern South Asia. Each session combines classic and recent secondary readings with a range of primary material to engender discussions around issues driving historical research in the field. These interactive sessions would be of interest to everyone, but a basic understanding of pre-modern South Asia and its socio-cultural and linguistic concerns would be welcome. Participants are encouraged to read the suggested secondary readings for each session for a more targeted, productive discussion.

13 May: Who creates knowledge

Secondary readings:

  • Sheldon Pollock, 'The Languages of Science in Early Modern India', in Sheldon Pollock (ed.), Forms of Knowledge in Early Modern Asia: Explorations in the Intellectual History of India and Tibet, 1500–1800 (London: Duke University Press, 2011), pp. 19–48.
  • Dhruv Raina, 'The Vocation of Indigenous Knowledge and Sciences as Metaconcept', in Engaging Transculturality: Concepts, Key Terms, Case Studies, Laila Abu-Er-Rub, Christiane Brosius, Sebastian Meurer, Diamantis Panagiotopoulos, Susan Richter (eds), (London: Routledge, 2019), pp. 277–290.
  • Eric M. Gurevitch, 'When is Medicine: Contesting the Temporality of Healing in Pre-colonial South Asia', Journal for the History of Knowledge, 4 (2023), pp. 145–164.

We will also discuss the creation of two digital archives of pre-modern medicine:

Further readings:

  • Marwa S. Elshakry, 'Knowledge in Motion: The Cultural Politics of Modern Science Translations in Arabic', Isis, Vol. 99, No. 4 (2008), pp. 701–730.

20 May: Humouralism

Secondary readings:

27 May: Scholarly persona and epistemic virtues

Primary reading:

  • 'Seventh Tale: The Fowler, The Parrot, and her Young Ones', in Francis Gladwin (ed. and trans.) The Tooti Nameh or Tales of a Parrot (London: Debrett, 1801), pp. 58–61.

I will also share images of physicians from early modern South Asia to facilitate a discussion about making of a visual archetype of a physician.

Secondary readings:

  • Dagmar Wujastyk, 'On Becoming a Physician', Well-Mannered Medicine: Medical Ethics and Etiquette in Classical Ayurveda (New York: Oxford University Press New York, 2012), pp. 68–106, 168–176.
  • Shireen Hamza, 'A Hakim's Tale: A Physician's Reflections from Medieval India', Asian Medicine, Vol. 15 (1) (2020), pp. 63–82.
  • Hunter Casparian Bandy, '"Gilanis on the Move": Mapping an Inter-Asian Society of Shiʿi Muslim Naturalists', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 67, 3–4 (2024), pp. 302–400.

3 June: Generating plants

Primary material:

  • Selections from Garcia de Orta, Colloquies on the Simples & Drugs of India, Francisco Manuel de Melo Ficalho (ed.), (trans.) Sir Clements Markham (London: H. Sotheran and co., 1913).

Secondary readings:

  • Nicolas Roth, 'Poppies and Peacocks, Jasmine and Jackfruit: Garden Images and Horticultural Knowledge in the Literatures of Mughal India, 1600–1800', Journal of South Asian Intellectual History, 7: 1 (2019), pp. 48–78.
  • Ines G. Zupanov, and Ângela Barreto Xavier, 'Quest for Permanence in the Tropics: Portuguese Bioprospecting in Asia (16th–18th Centuries)', Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 57, 4 (2014), pp. 511–548.
  • Tom Hoogervorst, 'If only plants could talk ... reconstructing pre-modern biological translocations in the Indian Ocean', in Satish Chandra and H.P. Ray (eds), The Sea, Identity and History: From the Bay of Bengal to the South China Sea (New Delhi: Manohar, 2013), pp. 67–92.

Further readings:

  • Ines Zupanov, 'Garcia de Orta's Colóquios: Context and Afterlife of a Dialogue', in Medicine, Trade and Empire; Garcia de Orta's Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India (1563) in Context, ed. Palmira Fontes Costa (Ashgate Press, 2015), pp. 49–66.
  • Anna Winterbottom, 'Of the China Root: A Case Study of the Early Modern Circulation of Materia Medica', Social History of Medicine, Vol. 28, No. 1, pp. 22–44.

10 June: Generating humans

Primary material:

  • Participants are invited to see selected South Asian primary material at the CUL. This will include a rare copy of the Taṣrīḥ-i Manṣūrī (Mansur's Anatomy), one of the first full-length coloured anatomical illustration in a Persian text. We will view the material and have a discussion in line with the suggested readings.

Secondary readings:

17 June: Communicable diseases

Primary text:

  • Excerpts from: Cyril Elgood (trans.) as 'A Persian Monograph on Syphilis', Annals of Medical History, 3, (1931), pp. 465–86.

Secondary readings:

  • Dagmar Wujastyk, 'Mercury as an Antisyphilitic in Ayurvedic Medicine', Asia, 69:4 (2015), pp. 1043–67.
  • Anna Winterbottom, 'The "Frankish Disease" and Its Treatments in the Indian Ocean World', in Gwyn Campbell and Eva-Marie Knoll (eds), Disease, Dispersion and Impact in the Indian Ocean World (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), pp. 59–84.

Further readings:

  • Kevin Siena, 'The Venereal Disease 1500–1800', in Sarah Toulalan and Kate Fisher (eds), The Routledge History of Sex and the Body, 1500 to the Present (Oxon: Routledge, 2013), pp. 463–478.

24 June: BYOB: Bring your own book/article

This session invites participants to suggest an article, a book chapter, a small section from a book, an encyclopedia or blog entry pertaining to the history of science and medicine in early modern South Asia. These will be pre-circulated so that all participants can read and prepare for the discussion in time.

 

Language Groups

German Therapy

German Therapy is an informal reading group, and all levels are welcome. This is an opportunity, among other things, to understand how Germans turn verbs into nouns and adjectives and back again, create new concepts by combining words and adding various prefixes and suffixes, and always place the verb at the very end of long and complicated sentences made up from a hierarchy of clauses. We will be translating and discussing German sources chosen by participants as relevant to their research, 'bei Kaffee und Kuchen'.

To be added to the mailing list, or to suggest a text, please contact Brian Li (bskl3) or Staffan Müller-Wille (sewm3).

The group will meet weekly in the Board Room, Fridays, 1pm–2pm.

Latin Therapy

Latin Therapy is an informal reading group. All levels of Latin are very welcome. We meet to translate and discuss a text from the history of science, technology or medicine. This is an opportunity to brush up your Latin by regular practice, and if a primary source is giving you grief, we'd love to help you make sense of it over tea and biscuits!

To be added to the mailing list, or to suggest a text, please contact Thomas Banbury or Debby Banham.

We will meet weekly on Fridays, 4–5pm in the Board Room.

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