A Cultural History of Chemistry: Putting the Series to Work for Historians of Science

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

English Abstract

This roundtable brings together several authors and editors of the six-volume A Cultural History of Chemistry (Bloomsbury, 2022) to discuss the scope and content of this new series, its place in the historiography of chemistry, and its intellectual and pedagogical uses for the broader fields of the history of science, technology, and medicine. Encompassing new work written and edited by nearly fifty historians, the series examines chemistry and its contexts from antiquity to the present, with essays addressing theoretical, experimental, laboratory, cultural, social and environmental, industrial, institutional, and artistic matters in each period.
During brief presentations, speakers will discuss the span and potential impact of the series, addressing questions such as: What defining features of chemistry emerge from the perspectives taken in these volumes? What connections emerge from cultural historical investigations across two thousand years of history? What new scholarly avenues and research opportunities emerge from individual volumes and from the series as a whole? With a mind toward its use in the classroom, museums, podcasts, and other venues of historical practice, speakers will also be asked to consider ways historians might make use of the series, and to suggest additional resources would usefully complement it. Taking the new Bloomsbury history as a starting point, this panel asks, “How do we put it to work?”
Substantial time will be set aside for audience participation.
This session is organized and sponsored by the HSS Forum on the History of the Chemical Sciences (FoHCS).

Sub Unit

• Roundtable

Chair

• Simon Werrett, University College London

Participants

• Margaret Garber, California State University Fullerton

• Alan Rocke, Case Western Reserve University

• Peter Ramberg, Truman State University

• Donna Bilak

Session Organizer

• Charlotte Abney Salomon, Science History Institute