Histories of Science That Lie Beneath

Scholarship in the history of science has often explored phenomena, objects, and people above ground–but what if we turn our perspective to the subterranean, submerged, or hidden sphere?

This year’s Institute’s Colloquium brings together scholars from the history of science and technology, anthropology, archeology, environmental humanities, and museum and heritage studies to explore histories of science that lie beneath, both literally and metaphorically. What happens when those histories are brought to light? Taking this question as both a material and figurative provocation, the series will examine how humans have sought to know, extract, and repurpose subterranean spaces and resources, while also critically examining, historicizing, and challenging the definition of “science” with the aim of moving beyond colonial and Western-centric perspectives.

This approach from beneath the surface raises critical ethical and political questions about research and representation:

• What happens when the buried past is reintroduced into the present?
• What responsibilities do researchers bear in these contexts?
• Are there stories, sites, or subjects that should remain unexposed? What does it mean to maintain opacity as a methodological stance?
• How might we address urgent and ongoing systems of violence without reducing people or places to narratives that foreground damage alone?
• And how does exploring stories underneath the surface change the way we think about the history of science more generally?

By exploring a range of responses to these questions, this year’s Institute’s Colloquium series will grapple with the act of exposing what lies beneath.