Chemical Heritage Foundation
Dates: June 12 - 13, 2009
Location: Chemical Heritage Foundation
Free, but registration is required.
The Chemical Heritage Foundation (CHF) invites you to join us for a 1½-day conference, "Composition to Commerce: Chemistry, History, and the Wider World," to be held at CHF headquarters in Philadelphia, 12 - 13 June 2009. Conference organizers are Seymour Mauskopf (Duke University), Alan Rocke (Case Western Reserve University), and Anke Timmermann (Chemical Heritage Foundation).
The history of chemistry has a long and distinguished lineage of chemist/historian practitioners. The professionalization of the history of science in the second half of the 20th century has broadened the topics of investigation in the history of chemistry, but also produced a need for historians to be aware of the methods and implications of their research. Today, historians of chemistry pursue a rich array of research topics ranging from medieval and early modern chymistry to contemporary nanotechnology, and from laboratory and industrial practice to the functions and challenges of chemistry in the public sphere. "Composition to Commerce: Chemistry, History, and the Wider World" is intended to bring together some of the leading scholars of the history of chemistry both to present the fruits of their current research and to reflect on how their work relates to general themes in the recent historiography of chemistry and science.
The conference will commence on Friday, June 12, with two back-to-back sessions on: "Chemistry as Technoscience" (speakers Ursula Klein & Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent) and "Material Culture of the Chemical Laboratory" (speakers Marco Beretta & Carsten Reinhardt)
Friday's sessions will be followed by a reception for all participants.
Also see listing for Saturday, June 13.