Two hands holding a smart phone photograph a placental dyeing procedure that researches freemartinism in cows.

Doctors at Leiden University hospital reenact Frank Lillie’s early placental dyeing method used as a diagnostic tool for assessing placental anastomosis. Used to study a biological phenomenon in genetically female cows born from a dizygotic twin pregnancy, called freemartinism, the dyeing technique maps the exchange of blood and hormones across the placental connection that renders the female twin intersex and unable to conceive. Film still from Flush (2023). © Lucy Beech, courtesy of the artist.

Department Artifacts, Action, Knowledge studies the history of knowledge and action considering the interchangeable role of artifacts as texts, objects, and spaces. Collaborative working groups focus on project-based outputs that promote discussion and debate on the production of knowledge across all domains of life. Our research structure is organized around three key facets of knowledge: material artifacts, social action, and formalized epistemic expressions.

Research

EduTrack
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UTMOST
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Metals, Minerals, and the Life Cycle
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Heavens in Your Hand
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Common Knowledge and Its Sources in the Sinosphere
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Reclaiming Turtles All the Way Down
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News & Press

New vacancies and fellowships in research, administration and/or technical support

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Adrija Roychowdhury in The Indian Express on the international race to decipher the "Indus Code"

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Gloria Maritza Gómez Revuelta and Lachlan Summers receive Ronald Rainger Prize at HSS/ESHS annual meeting

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Events

Transmission of Mechanical Knowledge between Late Antiquity and Early Islam

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Chinese City Views and City Plans in Early Modern Europe

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Knowing Orchids: Observation, Classification, and the Making of Botanical Knowledge in Song Natural History

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Publications

Multimedia & Digital Resources