Workshop Agenda
In the past few decades, scholarship on the globalization of science has grown dramatically and pushed our field into closer conversation with other disciplines such as anthropology, geography, area studies, and indigenous studies. This “global” turn has de-centered histories of science focused on Europe and North America and opened up exciting new horizons for research. Our workshop takes inspiration from these new approaches and will address a topic that has as yet received little attention: how to integrate global perspectives into our graduate and undergraduate teaching.
The theme of the conference will be Collaboration as rethinking the history of science from a global frame is beyond the capacity of any one teacher-scholar and necessarily requires collaboration between different area, and disciplinary, specialists, within and beyond a single institution.
The workshop aims to bring together historians of science with different regional specialties (including South and East Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa) to tackle the challenges, complexities, and opportunities that collaborative pedagogy entails.
Call For Participation
We seek the participation of graduate students whose research and teaching center on the history of science, technology, and medicine beyond North America and Europe. The workshop will feature several panels that tackle both theoretical and more practical concerns faced by instructors of the global history of science:
- What are the existing narratives being taught to students in introductory-level classes? What are the roles of case studies in the history of science?
- How can we improve our syllabi for undergraduate and graduate students?
- What are some of the available resources, including databases and primary sources, for the history of science?
If these questions have informed your teaching, whether you’re a seasoned-instructor or a first-time teaching assistant, we would love to hear from you. To join us as a participant, please fill out this form.
As we intend to keep our workshop rather small (30-40 participants) and provide modest funding for those who attend, we cannot accept all applicants. Please submit your application no later than August 31, 2019. You can reach out to us at sciencebeyondthewest@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns.
Program
October 11, 2019
9:00-9:20 Opening Remarks
Nikhil Dharan, Taylor Dysart, Claire Sabel, Koyna Tomar
(University of Pennsylvania)
9:30-10:30 Session I
Why and How to Teach the Global History of Science
Existing and Alternative Narratives
Speakers: James Delbourgo (Rutgers University) and Marwa Elshakry (Columbia
University)
Empowered Chair: Whitney Laemmli (Carnegie Mellon University)
10:30-10:45 Coffee Break
10:45-12:15 Facilitated Discussion: Case Studies and Grand Narratives
12:15-1:15 Lunch
1:15-2:00 Session II
Resources for the Classroom
Speakers: Julia Rodriguez (University of New Hampshire) and Pierce Salguero
(Penn State Abington)
Empowered Chair: Rosanna Dent (NJIT/Rutgers University)
2:00-3:15 Facilitated Discussion: Resources and Assignments
3:15-3:30 Coffee Break
3:30-4:15 Session III
Syllabus Design
Speakers: Tiago Saraiva (Drexel University) and Kavita Sivaramakrishnan
(Columbia University)
Empowered Chair: Harun Küçük (University of Pennsylvania)
4:15-5:30 Facilitated Discussion: The Dream Syllabus
5:30-6:30 Reception
6:30 Unsettlingly Radical Implications of Teaching Global Histories of Science
Public Keynote Lecture by Shigehisa Kuriyama (Harvard University)
Empowered Chair: Ramah McKay (University of Pennsylvania)
Day 2 – October 12, 2019
9:30-11:00 Roundtable: Reflecting on Collaboration in Teaching the Global History of Science
Participants: Sebastián Gil-Riaño (University of Pennsylvania), Shigehisa
Kuriyama (Harvard University), Eugenia Lean (Columbia University), Projit
Mukharji (University of Pennsylvania), and Charu Singh (University of
Cambridge)
Empowered Chair: Sebastián Gil-Riaño (University of Pennsylvania)
11:00-11:30 Closing Remarks and Next Steps
About Us
Science beyond the west is a community of faculty and graduate students in the department of history and sociology of science, University of Pennsylvania.
We explore, excavate, and workshop ideas and problems in histories of science, medicine, and technology which extend beyond North America and Western Europe
