Time: 8 June 2023, at 14–18
Venue: Finnish Literature Society (SKS), Juhlasali, Hallituskatu 1, Helsinki
As the first in a series of discussions on recent developments in the history of science and knowledge, the purpose of this afternoon seminar is to consider the challenges and promises of recent pathways in the history of science. Focusing on the role of space, place and the geopolitics of intellectual life, the lecture series is launched by two distinguished representatives of recent work on the local practices and international circulation of science.
Program
14:15 Opening words by Kati Mikkola (SKS) and Kimmo Kaski (Finnish Academy of Science and Letters)
Introduction by Stefan Nygård (Finnish Academy of Science and Letters & University of Helsinki)
14:50 Dr. Sarah Dry: (University of Cambridge) “How interdisciplinarity saved the world: global problems and climate change at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, 1972-1988”
15:50 Prof. Stéphane Van Damme (École Normale Supérieure), “Against the Globe? A look back at the debate on the deglobalisation of the history of science”
Dr. Sarah Dry is a writer and historian of science. She is currently working on a book about the history of systems thinking and participates in the Leverhulme-funded Making Climate History project at the University of Cambridge. She is the author of the 2019 book Waters of the World: The Story of the Scientists Who Unravelled the Mysteries of our Seas, Glaciers and Atmosphere – and Made the Planet Whole. Her previous publications have dealt with the history of Isaac Newton’s manuscripts, epidemics and global health policy, and Victorian fishermen and risk.
Stéphane Van Damme is a historian of science and professor of Early Modern History at the École normale supérieure in Paris. In his many publications he has explored the socio-cultural history early modern scientific knowledge in Europe, the icons and paradigmatic disciplines of the Scientific Revolution, the cultural history of philosophy and the urban history of knowledge. His latest book is Les Voyageurs du doute. L’invention d’un altermondialiste libertin, 1620–1820 (Paris 2023)
The event is hosted by the project History of Science in Finland (1917–) and moderated by its coordinator, docent Stefan Nygård.