The history of science has developed into a unified study of artifacts, practices, action, and knowledge that brings together a multitude of scholars with different methodological skills and preferences. The Methods Intensive Master Class series mobilizes this methodological diversity as a reflexive tool for assessing the current state of the discipline and its cross-disciplinary potential.
The goal of the series is to identify, analyze, and discuss a number of questions concerning the essential characteristics of the history of science: Which topics are of interest for historians of science, and which methods do they customarily draw upon? What methods, presently, are we using to study “artifacts, practices, action, and knowledge”? What are the exemplary studies? How can the effectiveness of different methods be assessed?
The Master Class series offers a forum where participants from a spectrum of disciplines can critically compare, confront, and combine their specific methodological skills and training in scientific, practical, or humanistic analysis. We see this as a creative platform to explore agendas, discuss limits, and expand the cross-disciplinary boundaries of the history of science.