Science & Technology, 1500-1800

Vesalius, De Humani Corporis Fabrica_mediumMarch 14, 2008
Annual EMC Conference
McCune Conference Room (HSSB 6020)

The Early Modern Center of the University of California, Santa Barbara, in collaboration with the Transcriptions Project, invites scholars to attend a conference on the Center’s 2007-2008 theme, “Science & Technology, 1500-1800.” This one-day interdisciplinary conference will be a forum to explore the interrelated fields of science and technology in the early modern period. We conceive of science and technology as a broad range of social and cultural practices, cultural and historical formations, and epistemological perspectives. How and why were systems of knowledge created and proliferated? What particular scientific developments participated in the exploration of the body, the mind, time, and space? How were individuals, communities, and nations impacted by new systems of knowledge, particular objects or hardware, or advanced procedures to accomplish tasks?

The program will consist of ten panelists representing a variety of disciplines, as well as the following keynote talks:

Ann Jensen Adams (History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara), “The Technology of Time and Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting”
Kevis Goodman (English, University of California, Berkeley), “Medics and Aesthetics: On the Disease Formerly Known as Nostalgia”
William R. Newman (History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University), “Art, Nature, Alchemy, and Newton: The Art-Nature Dichotomy in the Chymistry of Isaac Newton”
William Newman will unfortunately not be able to attend the conference


Call for Papers

The Early Modern Center of the University of California, Santa Barbara, in collaboration with the Transcriptions Project, invites paper proposals for an interdisciplinary conference on the Center’s 2007-2008 theme, “Science & Technology, 1500-1800.” This one-day interdisciplinary conference will be a forum to explore the interrelated fields of science and technology in the early modern period. We conceive of science and technology as a broad range of social and cultural practices, cultural and historical formations, and epistemological perspectives. How and why were systems of knowledge created and proliferated? What particular scientific developments participated in the exploration of the body, the mind, time, and space? How were individuals, communities, and nations impacted by new systems of knowledge, particular objects or hardware, or advanced procedures to accomplish tasks?

The program will consist of ten panelists representing a variety of disciplines, as well as the following keynote talks:

Ann Jensen Adams (History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara), “The Technology of Time and Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting”
Kevis Goodman (English, University of California, Berkeley), “Medics and Aesthetics: Nostalgia as a Pathology and Poetics of Motion”
William R. Newman (History and Philosophy of Science, Indiana University), “Art, Nature, Alchemy, and Newton: The Art-Nature Dichotomy in the Chymistry of Isaac Newton”

PROPOSALS

We invite proposals from across the disciplines that use a variety of thematic and methodological approaches. Papers ranging from specific case studies to broad explorations within the fields of science and technology are welcome. Possible topics might include, but are not limited to, discussions of horticulture, botany, engineering, automata, stage machinery, navigation, cartography, anatomy, medicine, alchemy, the occult, taxonomy, archiving, printing, and information science. Since both the Early Modern Center and the Transcriptions Project undertake initiatives that bridge the study of digital media and the humanities, we are also interested in proposals that apply the perspectives of new media study to the cultural formations of the early modern period.

Abstracts (300 words or less) for 15-minute minute papers should be sent to EMCConference@gmail.com by November 16, 2007. We hope to notify participants by December 1, 2007.


Conference Schedule

8:30-9:00 | Registration and Coffee
If you have not yet registered for the conference, you may do so online: please click here.

9:00-9:15 | Opening Remarks: Patricia Fumerton (English, Early Modern Center Director, University of California, Santa Barbara)

9:15-10:15 | Kevis Goodman (English, University of California, Berkeley), “Medics and Aesthetics: On the Disease Formerly Known as Nostalgia”
Introductory Remarks: Alan Liu (English, University of California, Santa Barbara)

10:15-11:30 | Panel 1: Poetics of Science and Technology
Moderator: Ken Hiltner (English, University of California, Santa Barbara)

Pavneet Aulakh (English, University of California, Santa Barbara), “‘Mean and small things discover great’: Bacon, Donne, and a New Poetics”
Michael Ursell (Literature, University of California, Santa Cruz), “Lyric Instruments: A Poetics of Science and Technology in John Donne’s Verse”
Christopher F. Loar (English, University of California, Davis), “Blazing Guns, Blazing World: Margaret Cavendish, Sovereignty, and Technological Performance”

11:30-1:00 | Lunch

1:00-2:30 | Panel 2: Technologies of Art/Nature
Moderator: Stefania Tutino (History, University of California, Santa Barbara)

Lawrence Lipking (English, Northwestern University), “Johannes Kepler and Twenty-First-Century Science”
Jessica Luther (History, University of Texas at Austin), “The Technological and Hermaphroditic Body of Early Modern Alchemists”
Mark A. Waddell (History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science, Michigan State University), “Imagined Technologies and the Jesuit Revelation of Nature”
Chad Wellmon (Germanic Languages and Literatures, University of Virginia), “Bodies of Knowledge, or Encyclopedic Technology”

2:30-2:45 | Break

2:45-3:45 | Ann Jensen Adams (History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara), “The Technology of Time and Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting”
Introductory Remarks: Ann Bermingham (History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara)

3:45-5:00 | Panel 3: Cultural Practice of Technology
Moderator: Carole Paul (History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara)

Ian MacInnes (English, Albion College), “Risk, Hazard, and the Measure of Time in Early Modern Mathematics”
Taika Dahlbom (Cultural History, University of Turku, Finland; Smithsonian Institution Archives, Washington DC), “Fish before the Bicycle: Ichthyological Specimens in the Early Modern Period”
Matthew H. Fisk (History of Art and Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara), “Cultivating an American Antiquity: The Post-Classicist Aesthetic of Charles Willson Peale’s Mastodon Fossils, 1783-1827”

5:00-5:15 | Closing Remarks: Anita Guerrini (History and Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara)


Conference Co-Sponsors

Early Modern Center
College of Letters & Sciences (Division of Humanities and Fine Arts)
UCSB Graduate Division
Interdisciplinary Humanities Center
Department of Theater & Dance
Department of History of Art and Architecture
Comparative Literature Program
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Department of Germanic, Slavic & Semitic Studies
Department of History
Women’s Studies Program

And in collaboration with the Transcriptions Project

Conference Committee

Sören Hammerschmidt, chair
Gerald Egan
William Hall
Megan Palmer
Catherine Zusky