Chair for the History of Sciences

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Eine Betonwand mit der Aufschrift "Tout verite est negociable."

Call for Papers: "Truth Politics between Science and Society. Political Epistemologies of the 1990s Science Wars"

08. & 09. July 2025 | Conference | University of Erfurt | Submission Deadline: 22. April 2025

The Science Wars represent a historic peak and intersection of academic, political, and epistemological debates that had been smoldering for decades before, leaving a contested legacy.

A fresh perspective on the Science Wars – one that acknowledges their historical complexity, moves beyond a dualistic framing, and situates them firmly in their historical moment – promises to illuminate the social, political, and cultural ramifications on academia and beyond. The workshop aims to map and historicize the shifting epistemological landscapes of the 1990s from an international perspective informed by methods of Historical and Political Epistemology. 

Should you be interested in partaking in the conference, please see the full CfP for more detailed information. Please note that the CfP for the master class on 10 July 2025 is seperate from this one. You can find it below under “In other News”.

Further Information | Full Call for Papers | Master Class

In other News

Call for Papers: "Truth Politics between Science and Society (1960-today)" | 10 July 2025

10 July 2025 | Master Class | University of Erfurt | Submission Deadline: 30 April 2025

The masterclass is part of the workshop “Truth Politics between Science and Society. Political Epistemologies of the 1990s Science Wars” (July 8-9, 2025). It will be led by Jamie Cohen-Cole (George Washington University), Bernhard Kleeberg (University of Erfurt), and Anja Laukötter (Friedrich Schiller University Jena). We invite early career researchers (Master and PhD students) to explore historical debates at the nexus of truth, science, and society.

We invite early career researchers to send a short CV, and a 300-word abstract of their research to forschungsstelle.wahrheit@uni-erfurt.de. The deadline for submission is April 30, 2025. Applicants will be notified of the acceptance of their proposal by mid-May. Accepted participants are required to send in their full paper (about 20 pages) by June 16, 2025. All papers will be pre-circulated and constitute compulsory reading for the masterclass.

Further Information | Full Call for Papers

 

Call for Papers: "Figures, Types, and Images of the Social in the 19th and 20th Century: Practices of Social Imagining in the History of Knowledge and the Sciences" | 21 & 22 November 2025

Title Picture of the Workshop

November 20. & 21., 2025 | Interdisciplinary Workshop | Universities of Erfurt & Jena

“It is no easy matter […] to arrange the several varieties of work into ‘orders’, and to group the manifold species of arts under few comprehensive genera, so that the mind may grasp the whole at one effort – it is a task of most perplexing character”, Henry Mayhew wrote in his London Labor and the London poor (1849–1851). Mayhew’s early London social research is well known, while it is less well known that he lived in Paris at the end of the 1830s, when the new medium of illustrated journals and collective publications was at its peak, bringing together images and texts, artistic-literary and (popular) scientific circles in a new, creative way. Back in London, Mayhew also worked between journalism and social statistics and deliberately drew on pictorial representations of social types for the latter, shaping imaginations of the social.

We look forward to abstracts (max. 400 words, in pdf format) with proposals for approx. 25- minute presentations together with a short CV by May 2, 2025, to adriana.markantonatos@uni-jena.de. The presentations will be in English, the discussions bilingual English/German. The workshop will take place in Erfurt. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the organizers.

Full Call for Papers

Call for Papers: "8th Writing Workshop on the History of the Sciences of the Psyche" | 16 & 17 September 2025

16. & 17. September 2025 | International Meeting Centre | University of Erfurt

For the eighth time, the Forum for the History of the Human Sciences, in collaboration with the Chair of the History of Science at the University of Erfurt, the University of Lübeck, and the History of Psychology Section of the German Psychological Society (DGPs), is organizing a writing workshop for ongoing projects on the history and theory of psychology and related fields (psychotherapy, psychiatry, anthropology, etc.). The goal is to engage in constructive work on articles and chapter drafts for book projects, dissertations, or theses, which will be further developed through collective feedback and exchange with experienced researchers. The workshop will be held in German.

All interested individuals are warmly invited to apply by June 15, 2025, by submitting a half-page abstract and a short CV via email to verena.lehmbrock@uni-erfurt.de. Final manuscript drafts must be submitted by August 31, 2025, following acceptance of the abstracts. During the workshop, the manuscripts will be briefly commented on and then discussed in detail. 

Travel and accommodation costs will be covered for all active participants.

 

Research Workshop on the History of Sciences 2025/1 | 12. Februar 2025

12. February 2025 | 10:00 - 18:00 Uhr | Small Synagogue Erfurt

In February, the Chair for the History of Sciences is hosting another Research Workshop to discuss current research- and publication projects of it's attached and associated researchers.

Among others, contributions from Alexej Lochmatov, Anna Möller, Dirk Schuck, Erik Kaiser, Johanna Hügel, Karin Reichenbach, Nadija Kiss, Sascha R. Harnisch, Sebastian Ripl and Tania Arcimovich will be presented.

News

The Chair for the History of Sciences, together with it's cooperation partners, is hosting the workshop and master class "Truth Politics between Science and Society" from 08-10 July 2025.

The new programme of the Colloquium on the History of Sciences for the summer semester 2024/2025 is online!

Funding for the TRR 294 "Structural Change of Property" has been extended for another four years. The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved funding totalling around 13.4 million euros for the project run by the Universities of Jena and…

The report for the conference "Why Intelligence? The Political and Social Roots of a Scientific Object" has been published and is now available online.

Events

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May
C18 – Teaching building 4 (Campus)
27
May
C18 – Teaching building 4 (Campus)

Current Publications

2025
2024
2023
2023
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2021

Contact us

Gloria Puscher, M.A.
Sekretariat der Professur für Globalgeschichte
(Faculty of Philosophy)
C18 – teaching building 4 / Raum 01.02
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Postal address

Eingang zum Lehrgebäude 4 auf dem Campus der Universität Erfurt

Universität Erfurt
Philosophische Fakultät
Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Postfach 90 02 21
99105 Erfurt