The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) offers a diverse program of public events, including colloquia, seminars, and workshops. Our Institute’s Colloquium is open and free to attend. Our other events often require registration or invitation—please check each individual event for details.
April 2021
- 11:00 to 13:30
- Reading Group
Troubling Epistemics and Postcolonialisms
- Dept. III
- Several Speakers
- Baldeep Kaur Grewal
- Marianna Szczygielska
Organizer(s)AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting PlatformContact and Registration
The group is open to all. If you are an external guest, please register by sending an email to Marianna Szczygielska at szczygielska@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de.
About This Series
“Troubling Epistemics and Postcolonialism” is a monthly reading seminar interrogating "postcolonial" as an analytic concept in the history of science. The goal is to understand the ethics and mechanisms of our own epistemic practices as they relate to politics and power. We aim to examine the ways that epistemology is both historically contingent and actively produced within the history of science with the goal of troubling our disciplinary positions. For each meeting we list and circulate
- a short ‘provocative text’ to carry the empirical element and to provoke us to go wider in attempting to attend to something that troubles. Everyone is expected to read that text
- two or three "theoretical" or descriptive papers that we feel might be useful in "attending to the trouble." These are optional readings. The idea is that everyone who attends the discussion will have read at least the short provocation paper and bring some "troubles" to the meeting
- 14:00 to 15:30
- Institute's Colloquium
Pandemic Polities: Science Governance in Democratic and Authoritarian Regimes
- Several Speakers
- Anna Lisa Ahlers
- Lino Camprubi
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
A number of places are available to the public. Please email public@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de by April 13, 2021 to register.
For further information about the series, please contact Lisa Onaga and/or Stephanie Hood.
- 14:00 to 15:30
- Research Workshop
Secure the Scientist: Scientific Labour against the Backdrop of Great Power Competition
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
For further information about the LMRG Research Workshop series, specific session or registration (a limited number of places are available), please contact Dieu Linh Bui Dao.
About This Series
The LMRG Research Workshop is a venue for members of the Lise Meitner Research Group, "China in the Global System of Science," to share work in progress on an ongoing basis. It is an opportunity to raise questions, discuss methodological challenges, or get feedback on preliminary conclusions. We aim to create a supportive atmosphere that combines rigorous criticism with genuine curiosity.
- Workshop
Visual Materials in Local Gazetteers
- Dept. III
- 17:00–19:00
Contact and Registration
Please contact Shih-Pei Chen for any additional information. If you would like to participate, please send an email to event_dept3@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de. Only limited spaces available.
- 14:00 to 15:00
- Discussion Group
Measuring the Earth Discussion Group
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
In case you have questions about the discussion group, a specific session or registration, please feel free to contact Wilko Hardenberg.
- 14:00 to 15:00
- Discussion Group
Clone of Measuring the Earth Discussion Group
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
In case you have questions about the discussion group, a specific session or registration, please feel free to contact Wilko Hardenberg.
- 15:00 to 16:30
- Research Colloquium
The Eye and the Art of Medicine in Early Modern Germany, 1500-1700
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
The Research Colloquium is organized and will be led by Hannah Erlwein, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Research Group "Experience in the Premodern Sciences of Soul & Body ca. 800–1650." Anyone who is interested please register in advance by emailing Hannah Erlwein. The meetings will be held via Zoom on Thursdays from 15:00 to 16:30 (Berlin time).
- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Undoing Extinction: the Role of Zoos in Breeding Back the Tarpan Wild Horse, 1922–1965
AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting PlatformContact and Registration
Attendance is mandatory for Department III members. We additionally have room for ten guests and welcome those who wish to join us from other Departments and Research Groups. Please register in advance by emailing EVENT_DEPT3@MPIWG-BERLIN.MPG.DE with subject heading "RSVP Dept III Colloquium" and the date of the colloquium you wish to attend.
- 09:30 to 17:30
- Workshop
Workshop: Natural Resources in Early Modern Economies of Knowledge
Organizer(s)AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting PlatformContact and Registration
For questions, the link of the event and registration, please contact: Helge Wendt (hwendt@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de), Pietro Daniel Omodeo (pietrodaniel.omodeo@unive.it).
May 2021
- 15:00 to 16:30
- Research Colloquium
The Experience of Laypeople and Experts in Premodern Islamic Science
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
The Research Colloquium is organized and will be led by Hannah Erlwein, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Research Group "Experience in the Premodern Sciences of Soul & Body ca. 800–1650." Anyone who is interested please register in advance by emailing Hannah Erlwein. The meetings will be held via Zoom on Thursdays from 15:00 to 16:30 (Berlin time).
- 16:00 to 18:30
- Workshop
What Does South-to-South Mean for Cold War Science and Technology in Asia
Organizer(s)AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting PlatformContact and Registration
Please register following this link. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Please contact event_dept3@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de for technical help if needed.
- 12:00 to 13:30
- Digital Humanities Workshop
Digital Humanities Brown Bag Lunch
AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting PlatformContact and Registration
Please email Research IT Group for the Zoom link.
All are welcome to attend, regardless of prior experience of the digital humanities. Registration is required for external participants. To register, and for further information on the Digital Humanities Brown Bag Lunch series email Research IT Group.
About This Series
Brown Bag Lunch is a meeting of researchers at the MPIWG who use or want to learn more about digital research methods, broadly encompassed by the term Digital Humanities. In the Brown Bag Lunch meetings, researchers can discuss tools, share ideas and experiences (good and bad), and learn from each other. Each session explores a new topic; workshops are usually interactive, and we often invite external speakers. Please feel free to bring your lunch, and a laptop or notebook in order to participate!
- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
A Fantasy of Control: Sound as a Technology in Wang Mang’s Declaration of Power
AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting PlatformContact and Registration
Attendance is mandatory for Department III members. We additionally have room for ten guests and welcome those who wish to join us from other Departments and Research Groups. Please register in advance by emailing EVENT_DEPT3@MPIWG-BERLIN.MPG.DE with subject heading "RSVP Dept III Colloquium" and the date of the colloquium you wish to attend.
- 15:00 to 20:30
- Exhibition
Self-Tracking in the Seventeenth Century
Organizer(s)AddressPlatz vor dem Roten Rathaus, Rathausstraße 15, 10178 Berlin, Germany
- 14:00 to 15:30
- Institute's Colloquium
Pulse Check: Public Communication and Trust in Science
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
The Institute’s Colloquium occurs once per month during the academic year. For further information about the series, please contact Lisa Onaga and/or Stephanie Hood.
This event will take place online: the meeting link will be sent to Institute members via MPIWG-Announce the day before the event.
A limited number of places are available to external participants—please email public@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de by the day before the event to register.
- 14:00 to 15:30
- Research Workshop
Internationalization or Centralized Control? People, Policy and Practice in Sino-European Joint Research after 1978
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
For further information about the LMRG Research Workshop series, specific session or registration (a limited number of places are available), please contact Dieu Linh Bui Dao.
About This Series
The LMRG Research Workshop is a venue for members of the Lise Meitner Research Group, "China in the Global System of Science," to share work in progress on an ongoing basis. It is an opportunity to raise questions, discuss methodological challenges, or get feedback on preliminary conclusions. We aim to create a supportive atmosphere that combines rigorous criticism with genuine curiosity.
- 14:00 to 15:00
- Seminar
Global Matters: Intersections between Histories of Science, Technology, and Environment
- Dept. III
- Several Speakers
- Wilko Graf von Hardenberg
- Jonas van der Straeten
AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting PlatformContact and Registration
TBA
About This Series
Organized in cooperation with the research project “A Global History of Technology (GLOBAL-HoT)” at TU Darmstadt, this seminar's aim is to seed a discussion bringing together diverse points of view about the ways in which global histories of science, technology, and environments can be produced.
- 15:00 to 16:30
- Research Colloquium
German Scientists, Their Observationes, and Institutional Ties to the New World in the Seventeenth Century
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
The Research Colloquium is organized and will be led by Hannah Erlwein, Postdoctoral Fellow in the Research Group "Experience in the Premodern Sciences of Soul & Body ca. 800–1650." Anyone who is interested please register in advance by emailing Hannah Erlwein. The meetings will be held via Zoom on Thursdays from 15:00 to 16:30 (Berlin time).
- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Alchemies of Soil Fertility: Vegetable Philosophy and Agricultural Improvement in Seventeenth-Century England
AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting PlatformContact and Registration
Attendance is mandatory for Department III members. We additionally have room for ten guests and welcome those who wish to join us from other Departments and Research Groups. Please register in advance by emailing EVENT_DEPT3@MPIWG-BERLIN.MPG.DE with subject heading "RSVP Dept III Colloquium" and the date of the colloquium you wish to attend.
- 14:00 to 15:00
- Discussion Group
Measuring the Earth Discussion Group
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
In case you have questions about the discussion group, a specific session or registration, please feel free to contact Wilko Hardenberg.