ELFT HÍRADÓ

["Szegedi Péter" <pszegedi AT caesar.elte.hu>]

Tisztelt Kollegak,

az alabbi Budapesten rendezendo konferencian termeszetesen a fizika
tortenetevel foglalkozo szekciok is lesznek, sot barki kezdemenyezhet
adott szukebb temakat targyalo szimpoziumokat is.

The International Union for the History and Philosophy of
Science/Division of History of Science and Technology (IUHPS/DHST) is
organizing its XXIIIrd Congress of History of Science and Technology
from July 26-31, 2009 in Budapest, Hungary.

Congress Secretariat
c/o SCOPE Ltd.
Kende u. 13-17.
phone: +36-1-209-6001
fax: +36-1-386-9378
e-mail: 
ichst09 AT conferences.hu
homepage: http://www.conferences.hu/ichst09

The main topic of the Congress is: "Ideas and Instruments in Social
Context."
This slogan, conjuring images of both scientific theory and practice,
is meant to suggest a broad agenda, not a restrictive one. The
organizers welcome a wide range of proposals for papers and sessions,
covering any period from antiquity to the present and any place on
the face of the globe.
Although all presentations should relate to the history of science or
technology, they may focus on institutions as well as beliefs,
inventions as well as applications, the popular as well as the
abstruse. They may explore the historical relations of science and
technology with such topics as politics, medicine, religion, gender,
education, and the arts-or look at the intersection of the history of
science and technology with philosophy and sociology.
Ideas mean, in this respect, all kinds of scientific, technical,
philosophical, religious, political and social ideas that influenced,
in a given period and in a given area, the development of science and
technology. Topics that show the mutual influence of philosophical,
religious, political and social ideas and scientific and technical
development are highly appreciated. The analysis of ideas that
brought into being or changed an instrument or an institution forms
also part of the topic.
All kinds of scientific and technical instruments as preserved in
museums, descriptions, memories and in art belong to the topic of the
congress. The influence of the instruments on the culture of the
laboratories and on everyday life in the different periods is also a
highly appreciated topic of the congress.
The history of all kinds of "instruments" that helped or hindered the
development of science and technology like legislation,
international, state or local influence, and institutions are
incorporated into the second part of the topic.
For much of the history of our discipline, two separate and sometimes
antagonistic approaches to the history of science have focused on the
study of ideas, and on the study of instruments. However, in the past
few decades, more and more scholars have striven to integrate both
aspects, showing that instruments not only constitute the material
culture of science, but also shape and even embody ideas. They are
also central in understanding how science operates within societies,
is shaped by the milieus as well as the material conditions in which
it is produced, and in return contributes to the construction of
these societies. The advent of "Big Science" in the twentieth
century, closely dependent on highly sophisticated and costly
instruments, has forcefully brought forward the importance of their
study by historians of science.
Moreover, the Budapest Congress will be the first to be held after
our Division´s change of name from "Division of History of Science"
to "Division of History of Science and Technology" in 2005. In order
to explicitly bring out the ways in which science and technology have
been interrelated in history and how studies of both fields are
complementary, a series of plenary lectures, symposia and special
sessions will be devoted to "Science and ideas in social context",
with the aim of bringing together historians of science and
historians of technology, and to enhance common discussion on objects
that are traditionally regarded as pertaining exclusively to one or
the other.
The most important deadlines are:
Deadline for symposia proposals 30 June 2008
Second Circular 30 September 2008
Deadline for determination of the final symposia programs       15 December
2008
Deadline for grant applications 15 January 2009
Confirmation of grant applications      15 February 2009
Deadline for submission of paper abstract       15 March 2009
Deadline for notification of working meeting by DHS Commission  15
March 2009
Deadline for acceptance of abstracts    15 April 2009
Deadline for early registration 30 April 2009
Deadline for hotel reservations 30 April 2009
Third Circular  31 May 2009
Opening of the Congress 26 July 2009

For all other information please visit the Congress homepage:
http://www.conferences.hu/ichst09.
To receive further information please register using the "Intention
to participate form" on the website.

We are looking forward to meeting you in Budapest in July 2009.

On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC).

Dr. Szegedi Peter
a LOC tagja

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Szegedi Peter              
pszegedi AT caesar.elte.hu
ELTE TTK Tudomanytortenet es Tudomanyfilozofia T.
1117 Budapest, Pazmany Peter setany 1/C I. 1.111
T/Rogz.: 209-0555/66-70        Fax: 209-0555/66-74
Postacim: 1518 Budapest Pf. 32
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