‘It Takes a University: Towards Critical Eugenics in the Academy’, Subhadra Das A public lecture on the histories and legacies of eugenics in UK universities 17:00-18:00, Friday 10th May Lecture Theatre, History Faculty, University of Oxford, George Street, Oxford, OX1 2RL & online via Zoom Description: It was during one of the last meetings of the Commission of Inquiry into the History and Legacy of Eugenics at UCL when one of my fellow committee members turned to me and said, “If you think UCL is so bad, why don’t you go and work somewhere else?”. This is a question many non-white peopl ..read more

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Dear colleagues, I’m very happy to announce that the first issue of the BJHS for 2024 will shortly be arriving! Appropriately for spring, you’ll find that many of the articles in this issue discuss aspects of natural history, the environment and the biological sciences. Sean Nixon reflects on the development of the ‘ethological eye’ in 20th century natural history film-making and photography, as the techniques and practices of ethologists filtered into wider culture. Elliott Honeybun-Arnolda considers the role played by Sir Solly Zuckerman in emergence of the ‘environmental sciences’ as an in ..read more

The Cambridge Atmospheric Humanities Reading Group is pleased to invite papers for its inaugural workshop, generously funded by the BSHS and hosted by HPS, Cambridge. This one-day event will explore perception, receptions, and representations of ‘atmosphere/s’ in multiple contexts, and we welcome contributions from a variety of disciplines, including but not limited to: history, HPS, geography, literary studies, ecocriticism, earth and atmospheric sciences, and philosophy, as well as interdisciplinary approaches. Papers might engage with any ‘atmospheric’ issues, but may relate in particular ..read more

Hello to all digital subscribers, my name is Joe and this is my first issue as editor of Viewpoint. I am overjoyed to have been appointed to this position, and I am excited to continue the excellent standards set by Jen and everyone else at the BSHS. You can find out a bit more about me and my background in the interview on page 15, and I am keen to play my part in the history of science knowledge dissemination by spotlighting excellent original research from ECRs and independent scholars. This issue ‘orbits’ astrophysics and photography, as the various authors explore different historical c ..read more

Nominations are now open for the BSHS Pickstone Prize, awarded every two years to the best scholarly book in the history of science (broadly construed) in English. The Prize aims to recognize pioneering works that advance the scholarly understanding and interpretation of the scientific past. In focusing on academic books, it complements the Society’s Hughes Prize, which rewards engagement with broader audiences. Established in 2014, the prize honours the memory of our colleague Professor John Pickstone (1944-2014), whose research and teaching so keenly exemplified the scholarly virtues that ..read more

Dyddiad Cau yr 23ain o Chwefror, 2024 Galwad am Bapurau Mi fydd cynhadledd blynyddol y Gymdeithas Prydeinig dros Hanes Gwyddoniaeth yn cymryd lle o ddydd Mercher y 10fed i dydd Sadwrn y 13eg o Orffennaf ym Mhrifysgol Aberystwyth yng Nghymru. Y Pwyllgor Cynadleddau Mae’r Gymdeithas Prydeinig dros Hanes Gwyddoniaeth nawr yn gwahodd cynigion ar gyfer papurau unigol a sesiynau o haneswyr gwyddoniaeth, technoleg, a meddygaeth, ac o’u cydweithwyr o fewn y gymuned ysgolheigaidd ehangach, ar unrhyw thema, pwnc, neu gyfnod ar gyfer ei Gyfarfod Blynyddol yn Haf 2024. Mae cynigion gan ymchwilwyr o bob c ..read more

In July 2023 Dr Jenny Bulstrode published an article entitled ‘Black metallurgists and the making of the Industrial Revolution’ in the refereed journal History and Technology. Since then the author has been subject to sustained abuse in newspapers and on social media, sparking a campaign of personal vilification. The detailed and wide-ranging evidence the article accumulates concerning Black metallurgists’ material cultures in relation to key innovations has been curtly dismissed by critics. These attacks by a small group of people have neglected both common courtesy and established academic ..read more

Dear BSHS member, This has been an exceptionally busy few months for BSHS. In July we held a major global digital festival on the theme of ‘Intersections’, and in September we co-sponsored another digital event on future trends in collaboration with the Division of History of Science and Technology of the Union for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology. Together the two meetings provide a remarkable snapshot of the current state of the discipline from around the world. Thanks to the outstanding work of Alexander Stöger, talks from both meetings are available online at the BSHS ..read more

CfP for the BSHS Postgraduate Conference 2024 The call for papers for the 2024 British Society for the History of Science Postgraduate Conference is now open. This year’s conference theme is the Global History of Science, Technology and Medicine. The event will be held in person at the University of Warwickin collaboration with Warwick’s Global History and Culture Center (GHCC) and will take place on Friday 19 April and Saturday 20 April. We welcome papers from postgraduate students working in any area of the history of science, technology and medicine, in any period of history. We are commit ..read more