Colonial Science in the German Empire

Please set your timezone at https://www.chstm.org/user

Respectful Behavior Policy

Participants at Consortium activities will treat each other with respect and consideration to create a collegial, inclusive, and professional environment that is free from any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.

Participants will avoid any inappropriate actions or statements based on individual characteristics such as age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, ability status, educational background, or any other characteristic protected by law. Disruptive or harassing behavior of any kind will not be tolerated. Harassment includes but is not limited to inappropriate or intimidating behavior and language, unwelcome jokes or comments, unwanted touching or attention, offensive images, photography without permission, and stalking.

Participants may send reports or concerns about violations of this policy to conduct@chstm.org.

 

Upcoming Meetings

There are no currently scheduled upcoming events.

Past Meetings

  • February 22, 2021

     
    Race, Colonial Medicine, Tropical Hygiene
    With Sarah Ehlers (Deutsches Museum /Technische Universität München)
    Main readings: 
    – Sarah Ehlers, “Medical Missions – Racial Visions: Fighting Sleeping Sickness in Colonial Africa in the Early Twentieth Century” in Health and Difference. Rendering Human Variation in Colonial Engagements, ed. Alexandra Widmer and Veronika Lipphardt (Berghahn, 2016), 91–110.
    – Manuela Bauche, "Von der Unmöglichkeit, klare Grenzen zu ziehen. Rassismus und Medizin in den deutschen Kolonien" in Das Phantom "Rasse". Zur Geschichte und Wirkungsmacht von Rassismus, ed. Naika Foroutan, Christian Geulen, Susanne Illmer, Klaus Vogel, Susanne Wernsing (Vienna: Böhlau, 2018), 115–127.

    Optional readings: 
    – Hans Pols and Warwick Anderson, "The Mestizos of Kisar: An insular racial laboratory in the Malay Archipelago" in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 49:3 (2018), 445–463.
    – Wolfgang Eckart, "The Colony as Laboratory: German Sleeping Sickness Campaigns in German East Africa and in Togo, 1900-1914" in History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences  24:1 (2002), 69–89.
  • January 25, 2021

    Introduction: Scientific Knowledge and German Colonialism
    Readings

    • Helen Tilley, Africa as a Living Laboratory. Empire, Development and the Problem of Scientific Knowledge, 1870-1950 (University of Chicago, 2011), Introduction, 1-30.
    • *Stephan Besser, “Die Organisation des kolonialen Wissens. 10. Oktober 1902: In Berlin tagt der erste Deutsche Kolonialkongreß” in Mit Deutschland um die Welt: Eine Kulturgeschichte des Fremden in der Kolonialzeit, ed. Alexander Honold and Klaus R. Scherpe (Metzler, 2004), 271-78.

    *For those who do not read German, we have provided a (quite serviceable) machine translation of Stephan Besser's text "The Organization of Colonial Knowledge".