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.
January 2026
- 12:00 to 13:00
- Digital Humanities Brown Bag Lunch
No experiments!? The Stabi Lab as an incubator for innovative data culture
- Digital Humanities
- Several Speakers
- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Introduction: The Enchanted Basin and the Afterlives of Knowledge
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265 & Online- 16:00 to 17:30
- Reading Group
Reclaiming Turtles All the Way Down Reading Group Meeting
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Harnackstraße 5, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomVilla, Room V005/Seminar Room- 10:30 to 12:00
- Colloquium
Earth System and World Order: On the Geopolitics of Carbon Management
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215- 14:00 to 15:30
- Institute's Colloquium
Deep Time Politics
Organizer(s)AddressHarnack House, Conference Venue of the Max Planck Society, Ihnestraße 16-20, 14195 Berlin, Germany
- 17:00 to 18:30
- Talk
The Allure of Modernization: Guizhou’s Shift from Inclusive Development to Indebted Growth
Organizer(s)AddressHumboldt University Berlin, Institute for Asian and African Studies, Humboldt University Berlin, Institute for Asian and African Studies, Johannisstraße 10, 10117 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 201- 14:00 to 16:00
- Colloquium
Talk: On the Necessary Transgressions of #MeToo
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215- 15:00 to 16:00
- Reading Group
Perceptions of and Reactions to Meteorological Anomalies in an Arabic Chronicle from the Ninth Century
AddressMax-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
February 2026
- 11:30 to 13:00
- Talk
Farming with Household Trash in Late Medieval Syria
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265- 18:00 to 19:30
- Colloquium
Hatte die Horoskop-Astrologie einen Gegenstand?
AddressInstitute for the Study of Knowledge in the Ancient World, Freie Universität Berlin, Arnimallee 10, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 010- 10:30 to 12:00
- Colloquium
Exploding into the Future: Environmental Damage and the Gendered Distribution of Repair at SpaceX’s Boca Chica Site
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215- 11:00 to 12:30
- Talk
Ancient Egyptian Medicine: Perceptions from Different Points of View
Organizer(s)AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomMain Conference Room & Online- 14:00 to 16:00
- Colloquium
Film and Discussion: "Getty Abortions"
Organizer(s)AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomMain Conference Room & Online- 14:00 to 15:30
- Colloquium
Sociology of Hyperauthorship
Organizer(s)AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
Room219/Online- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Mahouts’ Secret Language: Human–Elephant Communication in Persianate South Asia
Organizer(s)AddressMax Planck Institute for the History of Science, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomZoom/Online Meeting Platform- 15:00 to 16:00
- Reading Group
Field Walls and Terraces in Mamluk Bilad al-Sham
AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 265 & Online
March 2026
- 14:00 to 15:30
- Institute's Colloquium
Catastrophe and Deep Time
Organizer(s)AddressHarnack House, Conference Venue of the Max Planck Society, Ihnestraße 16-20, 14195 Berlin, Germany
- 10:30 to 12:00
- Colloquium
From Nuisance to Cinderella: Cottonseed and the Many Afterlives of King Cotton
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215- 10:30 to 12:00
- Colloquium
Surveilling the Surveyors
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Boltzmannstraße 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomRoom 215- 13:30 to 15:00
- Colloquium
Turning Tables: Tracking Movement of Desire in Early Modern South Asia
Organizer(s)AddressMPIWG, Harnackstraße 5, 14195 Berlin, Germany
RoomVilla, Room V005/Seminar Room