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.
November 2019
- 14:00 to 15:30
The Global History of the Swing
Organizer(s)AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265Contact and Registration
Attendance is mandatory for Department III members; those from other Departments and Research Groups are welcome! Due to space restrictions, we ask non-Dept. III participants to register in advance. Please send an email to event_dept3@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de if you would like to attend. We have ten spaces for visitors outside of the department.
About This Series
The Department III Colloquium series runs weekly (usually Tuesdays) during the semester. The paper for pre-reading is circulated by email one week in advance.
- Workshop
Knowing an Empire: Imperial Science in Early Modern Chinese and Spanish Empires
Organizer(s)AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomMain Conference RoomContact and Registration
Please register at event_dept3@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de.
- 11:00 to 12:30
- Reading Group
Troubling Epistemics and Postcolonialism
AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265Contact and Registration
Open to all, no registration required. Any questions about this or further sessions can be addressed by sending an email to Marianna Szczygielska at szczygielska@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de or by speaking directly to Marianna, Edna Bonhomme, or Helen R. Verran in person.
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
- 12:00 to 13:30
- Digital Humanities Workshop
Digital Humanities Brown Bag Lunch
AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215Contact and Registration
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 bi-weekly 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!
- 14:00 to 15:30
- Institute's Colloquium
The Changing Fate of Eternal Questions
Organizer(s)AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomMain Conference RoomContact and Registration
Open to all, no registration required. Please contact the organizer, Ohad Parnes, for further information.
About This Series
The Institute’s Colloquium occurs once per month during the academic year. The usual format is 45 minutes of presentation by the paper's author, followed by 45 minutes of Q&A discussion. No prior reading or preparation is required for this event series. Coffee and cake is served after the talk.
- 11:00 to 12:00
- Early Career Seminar
A Physicist Road to Emergence: A Revisited Story of “More Is Different”
Organizer(s)AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265Contact and Registration
All scholars throughout the Institute are encouraged to attend and contribute to the discussion. We do hope that many of you will take advantage of this wonderful opportunity for young researchers across the Institute to share their work in progress!
External participants should register in advance with Edna Bonhomme.
About This Series
The Early Career Seminar opens itself to early career researchers from across the Institute to discuss their work in a formal, yet friendly setting. We particularly welcome submissions of work in progress, such as dissertation chapters and drafts of papers intended for publication.
Sessions are held on Wednesdays, from 11:00 to 12:00, once a month.
Each session consists of a five-minute introduction by the presenter, followed by a discussion for the remainder of the hour concerning the presenter's pre-circulated paper. Pre-circulated papers should not exceed ca. 30 pages. Presenters are requested to submit their work to the organizers at least one week in advance of their session.
- 18:15 to 19:45
Nicola Vicentino's Archicembali and the Keyboarding of the Ars Perfecta
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
For registration and further information please contact: officeacoustics@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
December 2019
- 14:00 to 16:00
- Seminar
TBC
- Max Planck Research Group (Final Theory Program)
- Charles Pence (Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
Organizer(s)AddressHarnackstraße 5, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomVilla, Room V005/Seminar RoomContact and Registration
All welcome, no registration required.
About This Series
Further information: email officeblum@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
- 14:00 to 15:30
Epistemology of the Zoological Closet: Curating (Dis)Order
Organizer(s)AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265Contact and Registration
Attendance is mandatory for Department III members; those from other Departments and Research Groups are welcome! Due to space restrictions, we ask non-Dept. III participants to register in advance. Please send an email to event_dept3@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de if you would like to attend. We have ten spaces for visitors outside of the department.
About This Series
The Department III Colloquium series runs weekly (usually Tuesdays) during the semester. The paper for pre-reading is circulated by email one week in advance.
- Conference
Alexander von Humboldt: Circulation of State Knowledge in Europe and Latin America
Organizer(s)- Helge Wendt
- Jakob Vogel
- Barbara Göbel
Contact and Registration
Information: Helge Wendt or Diana von Römer
Conference registration: anmeldung@cmb.hu-berlin.de
Keynote Lecture registration: registration@iai.spk-berlin.de- Workshop
Animal Materialities: Compositions and Practices in the History of Science
Organizer(s)AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomMain Conference RoomContact and Registration
If you would like to attend, please register by emailing event_dept3@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de before November 30, 2019.- 12:00 to 13:30
- Digital Humanities Workshop
Digital Humanities Brown Bag Lunch
AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215Contact and Registration
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 bi-weekly 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!
- 14:00 to 15:30
Touched Nature: Building in, with, and against the Environment in Norway after 1960
- Dept. III
- Finn Arne Jørgensen
Organizer(s)AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265Contact and Registration
Attendance is mandatory for Department III members; those from other Departments and Research Groups are welcome! Due to space restrictions, we ask non-Dept. III participants to register in advance. Please send an email to event_dept3@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de if you would like to attend. We have ten spaces for visitors outside of the department.
About This Series
The Department III Colloquium series runs weekly (usually Tuesdays) during the semester. The paper for pre-reading is circulated by email one week in advance.
- 16:00 to 18:00
- Cold War Seminar Series
Margaret Thatcher, the Cold War, and International Science in the 1980s
- Changing Contexts and Practices of Basic Science during the Twentieth Century
- The Renaissance of General Relativity in the Post-World War II Period
- The Role of Institutions and Commissions in Forming Research Agendas: Networks …
- Networks, Network Science, and Knowledge Graphs
- IV. Knowledge in and of the Anthropocene
- Anthropocene Knowledge: Earth History in the Making
- Ecologizing Borderlands, Racializing Border People: The International Biologica…
- Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs
AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomMain Conference RoomContact and Registration
Open to all, no registration required. Please contact the organizers if you have any questions about the event.
About This Series
The seminar series "Science, Technology and Diplomacy During the Cold War and Beyond: Frameworks, Perspectives, and Challenges" aims to provide a forum that takes account of exciting developments within recent scholarship on science during the Cold War—especially, but not limited to, the approaches of transnational and global history. Read more about the series here.
- 11:00 to 12:30
- Reading Group
Troubling Epistemics and Postcolonialism
AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265Contact and Registration
Open to all, no registration required. Any questions about this or further sessions can be addressed by sending an email to Marianna Szczygielska at szczygielska@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de or by speaking directly to Marianna, Edna Bonhomme, or Helen R. Verran in person.
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
- 11:00 to 12:30
Rosemarie Trockel’s Rorschach-Bilder
Organizer(s)AddressHarnackstraße 5, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomVilla, Room V005/Seminar RoomContact and Registration
For registration and further information please contact: officeacoustics@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
- 14:00 to 15:30
A New Theory of Soul-Tuning?
Organizer(s)AddressHarnackstraße 5, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomVilla, Room V005/Seminar RoomContact and Registration
For registration and further information please contact: officeacoustics@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
- 15:15 to 16:45
Sounding Transatlantic Relations: The Making of Concert Pitch Between Europe and the United States (1863–1935)
Organizer(s)Contact and Registration
For registration and further information please contact: officeacoustics@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
- 14:00 to 15:30
- Institute's Colloquium
Precision and Prestige in Nineteenth-Century Paris
Organizer(s)AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomMain Conference RoomContact and Registration
Open to all, no registration required. Please contact the organizer, Ohad Parnes, for further information.
About This Series
The Institute’s Colloquium occurs once per month during the academic year. The usual format is 45 minutes of presentation by the paper's author, followed by 45 minutes of Q&A discussion. No prior reading or preparation is required for this event series. Coffee and cake is served after the talk.
- 11:00 to 12:00
- Early Career Seminar
TBC
Organizer(s)AddressBoltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265Contact and Registration
All scholars throughout the Institute are encouraged to attend and contribute to the discussion. We do hope that many of you will take advantage of this wonderful opportunity for young researchers across the Institute to share their work in progress!
External participants should register in advance with Edna Bonhomme.
About This Series
The Early Career Seminar opens itself to early career researchers from across the Institute to discuss their work in a formal, yet friendly setting. We particularly welcome submissions of work in progress, such as dissertation chapters and drafts of papers intended for publication.
Sessions are held on Wednesdays, from 11:00 to 12:00, once a month.
Each session consists of a five-minute introduction by the presenter, followed by a discussion for the remainder of the hour concerning the presenter's pre-circulated paper. Pre-circulated papers should not exceed ca. 30 pages. Presenters are requested to submit their work to the organizers at least one week in advance of their session.