“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

1. 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
2. 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

The series of reading sessions "The Premodern History of Signification: Putting Experiences into Words, Images, and Signs" explores how the premodern experiences of the natural world were expressed, recorded, and communicated through verbal, visual, and semiotic means. By analyzing the premodern theorizing and practices concerning signification we aim to clarify how diverse views on it as an intellectual, cognitive, and performative process affected the production of knowledge in the premodern world. The group will meet online in November 2020 to February 2021 and discuss the primary sources suggested and introduced at each session by the group participants specializing in historical areas from classical to premodern traditions up to the eighteenth century on a global scale.

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!

The series of reading sessions "The Premodern History of Signification: Putting Experiences into Words, Images, and Signs" explores how the premodern experiences of the natural world were expressed, recorded, and communicated through verbal, visual, and semiotic means. By analyzing the premodern theorizing and practices concerning signification we aim to clarify how diverse views on it as an intellectual, cognitive, and performative process affected the production of knowledge in the premodern world. The group will meet online in November 2020 to February 2021 and discuss the primary sources suggested and introduced at each session by the group participants specializing in historical areas from classical to premodern traditions up to the eighteenth century on a global scale.

The "Ability and Authority" primary source discussion group aims to address the major research questions of the working group through the introduction of its members' key primary sources. The four meetings of the series are organized according to themes, each led by several working group members. Reading material and leading questions of each session will be circulated in advance. In the meeting itself we will devote most of the time to discuss the key questions. 

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!

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.

Sessions are meant to be open-ended discussions. Therefore the virtual meeting space on Zoom will be open and available for half an hour beyond the given time to allow room for ongoing conversations to end according to their individual pace. Each participant is invited to bring their own expertise and suggestions for further readings. As a discussion starter the conveners will offer a set of questions framing the issue at stake and a brief text presenting recent developments in the literature. All additional readings are to be considered absolutely voluntary and the choice of which questions to actually discuss will fall collectively on all participants.

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!

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.

Sessions are meant to be open-ended discussions. Therefore the virtual meeting space on Zoom will be open and available for half an hour beyond the given time to allow room for ongoing conversations to end according to their individual pace. Each participant is invited to bring their own expertise and suggestions for further readings. As a discussion starter the conveners will offer a set of questions framing the issue at stake and a brief text presenting recent developments in the literature. All additional readings are to be considered absolutely voluntary and the choice of which questions to actually discuss will fall collectively on all participants.

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!

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!