ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Opening Plenary: Thinking Across Time: History is Now

Session Submission Type: Plenary Session

English Abstract

This joint plenary brings together two intersecting conversations on questions central to the history of science. The first examines the challenges of thinking across time—how historians move between scales, assess continuity and rupture, and compare knowledge across contexts. The second turns to the present, asking how historians understand and respond to moments of disruption affecting knowledge, institutions, and authority.

Thinking Across Time: Unsolved Problems in the History of Science
This opening conversation brings together scholars working across different periods and epistemic traditions to reflect on time not simply as the medium of historical narrative, but as a persistent problem in historical explanation, comparison, and scale. The aim is to surface unresolved difficulties that continue to structure the field: how we move between local practices and longue durée change; what genuinely endures in scientific knowledge; how far comparison across epistemic worlds can go without distortion; and where temporal assumptions silently enable—or constrain—our analytical work.

History is Now: Roles Historians of Science Play in Times of Crisis
Recent geopolitical developments suggest that we live an “age of disruption,” with profound impacts on academic freedom, higher education governance, and the funding and conduct of scientific research. This segment brings together scholars united by a shared concern about what roles historians of science play in times of crisis. It aims to reflect on how crises affect global and local perspectives and to consider possible responses. At present, they are met typically with a mix of protest statements, efforts to negotiate, and passive acceptance. Is there anything specific that historians of science have done before to address such “disruptions”? What can or should we do now?

Sub Unit

• ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Chairs

• Mackenzie Anne Cooley, Hamilton College

• Aileen Fyfe, University of St. Andrews

• Graeme Gooday, University of Leeds

• Christopher Heaney, Pennsylvania State University

• Roberto Lalli, Politecnico di Torino

• Ana Simões, Universidade de Lisboa

Presenters

• Adrian Johns

• Sachiko Kusukawa, Trinity College, Cambridge

• Dagmar Schaefer, MPIWG

• Suman Seth, Cornell University

• Mitchell G. Ash, University of Vienna

• John Krige, Georgia Institute of Technology

• Gisela Mateos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

• Abena Dove Osseo-Asare, University of Texas at Austin