The BSHS has been involved in a wide variety of meetings, ranging from lectures, through specialist day conferences, to much larger events. Several such meetings have been joint ventures, held in association with other organisations in the UK and internationally.
Organising a Meeting
If you have a suggestion for a possible future BSHS conference, we’d like to hear it. Please direct initial queries to the Conferences Committee at conferences@bshs.org.uk.
Future Meetings
Past Meetings (a selection)
- Medicine of Words (medicine, literature, and theology during the Middle Ages) (BSHS-Sponsored). University of Oxford, September 2015.
- Leibniz – scientist, Leibniz – philosopher (BSHS-Sponsored). Lampeter Campus, University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, 3 – 5 July 2015.
- 1st International Summer School of Sciences, History and Philosophy of Sciences & Science Education (BSHS-Sponsored). Lille, 22-26 June 2015.
- Archival Afterlives: Live, Death, and Knowledge-Marking in Early Modern British Science and Medical Archives (BSHS-Sponsored). Royal Society, 2 June 2015.
- Ruling Climate: the theory and practice of environmental governmentality 1500-1800 (BSHS-Sponsored). Centre for the Study of the Renaissance and History Department, Warwick, 16 May 2015.
- Abnormality and the Abnormal in the Nineteenth Century (BSHS-Sponsored). Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, Durham University, 7 May 2015.
- Monasticism: Science, Medicine and the Natural World, Annual Postgraduate Monasticism Conference (BSHS-Sponsored). University of Leeds, 8-9 May 2015.
- Beyond Leeches and Lepers: Medieval and Early Modern Medicine (BSHS-Sponsored). University of Edinburgh, 2 May 2015.
- 10th Integrated History and Philosophy of Science Conference (BSHS-Sponsored). Durham University, 16-17 April 2015.
- Cultivating Innovation (BSHS-Sponsored). University of Leeds, 14 April 2015.
- The Total Archive: Dreams of Universal Knowledge from the Encyclopaedia to Big Data (BSHS-Sponsored). CRASSH, University of Cambridge, 19-20 March 2015.
- 6th Norwegian Conference on the History of Science, Oslo, Norway (BSHS-Sponsored). 11-13 February 2015.
- 9th London Ancient Science conference (BSHS-Sponsored). Science and Technology Studies (UCL) and The Institute of Classical Studies, London, 16 – 17 February 2015.
- Approaches Within the Philosophy of Science (BSHS-Sponsored). UCL, 2-3 September 2014.
- The “Artificial” and the “Natural” in the Life Sciences, c. 1850-1950 (BSHS-sponsored). University of Exeter, 25-27 June 2014.
- popular Science, Altered Consciousness and 20th-Century Culture (BSHS-sponsored). Queen Mary, University of London, November 2013.
- The Medical History of the First World War in Europe (BSHS-sponsored). University of Leeds, 17-18 October 2013.
- Scientiae (BSHS-sponsored). University of Warwick (UK), 18th-20th April 2013.
- Cultures of Ancient Science (BSHS-sponsored). University College, London, 15-17 March 2013.
- Integrated History and Philosophy of Science Annual Meeting (BSHS-sponsored), University of Aberdeen (UK), 11-12 April 2013.
- Medical Matters: the cultural politics of the body in eighteenth-century Britain (BSHS-sponsored). University of York, 9 March 2013.
- Electrifying the City: Spaces and Places for Electricity in Twentieth Century Britain (BSHS-sponsored). University of Leicester, 19 November 2011.
- Franco-British Interactions in Science since the Seventeenth Century (jointly organised). Maison Française, Oxford, UK, 24-25 March 2006. An outcome of this conference is Robert Fox and Bernard Joly (eds), Echanges franco-britanniques entre savants depuis le XVIIe siècle / Franco-British interactions in science since the seventeenth century.
- Third Annual Conference on Science and the Public (BSHS-sponsored). Victoria Baths, Manchester, UK, 21-22 June 2008.
- Darwinism after Darwin: new historical perspectives (BSHS-sponsored). University of Leeds, UK, 3-5 September 2007
- Science and Religion: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (BSHS-sponsored). University of Lancaster, UK, 23-26 July 2007
- Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Science. University of Edinburgh, UK, 18-21 July 2007
- Varieties of Cultural History: Theory and Practice in the Cultural Histories of Medicine, Science, Literature, and the Arts (BSHS-sponsored). University of Aberdeen, UK, 5-8 July 2007
- Lifting the lid on radiation risks. Evening speaker meeting. Dana Centre, London, UK, 19 September 2006
- Scientists and social commitment. Science Museum, London, UK, 15-17 September 2006
- Computers in use: historical and social perspectives (BSHS-supported). University of Manchester, UK, 22-23 July 2006
- The Worlds of Oronce Fine: mathematics, instruments and the book in Renaissance France (BSHS-supported). University of St Andrews, UK, 12-14 May 2006
- Electrifying Experimentation: Science in Nineteenth-Century Britain. University of Sheffield, UK, 25 February 2006 (co-sponsored event)
- Science and technology in Ireland, 1780-1920: historical and cultural perspectives. National Museum of Ireland, Dublin, 23 June 2005
- Do collections matter for instrument studies? Held in association with the Scientific Instrument Commission. University of Oxford, 29-30 June 2002
- Les rêves et les choses. Joint BSHS/SFHST meeting on the history of science in museums. Musée des arts et métiers, Paris, 30 June – 1 July 2001
- Edwardian Science: Was There Such a Thing? Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, 21 May 2001
- Ideas Whose Time Had Come. Royal Institution, London, 15 September 2000
- Science Communication, Education and the History of Science. Royal Society, London, 12-13 July 2000
- Portraiture and Scientific Identity. National Portrait Gallery, London, 23-24 June 2000
- ACE 2000. Marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Pilot Model Automatic Computing Engine, London’s first computer. Science Museum, London, and National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, 18-19 May 2000
- Two Hundred Years of Electricity. Organised jointly with the Royal Institution and the Institute of Electrical Engineers, marking the bicentenary of Volta’s discovery of electricity produced by chemical means and of the Royal Institution’s foundation. Royal Institution, London, 7 April 1999
- Defiant Modernism. Sponsored jointly with the Science Museum and Institute for Contemporary British History, addressing technological and cultural change after the Second World War. Science Museum, London, 25-26 June 1999
- On Time: History, Science, Commemoration. Organised jointly with the Royal Historical Society and National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, an interdisciplinary meeting on time, timekeeping and commemoration. Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool, 16-18 September 1999
- The History of Scientific Textbooks. University of Leeds, 10 January 1998
- P M S Blackett: Science and Politics in Twentieth-Century Britain. Imperial College London, 16-17 April 1998
- New Directions in the History of British Computing. University of Manchester, 16-17 June 1998
- Gender and Science. St Edmund Hall, Oxford, 11 July 1998
- Anthropology and Psychology: the Legacy of the Torres Straits, 1898-1998. Joint meeting with several institutions and university departments. St John’s College, Cambridge, 10-12 August 1998
- The Electron: 100 Years of Physics and History. Royal Society and Science Museum, London, 11-12 April 1997
- Aspects of the History of Microscopy. Joint meeting with the Royal Microscopical Society. Society of Antiquaries, Burlington House, London, 4 June 1997Psychoanalysing Robert Boyle. Birkbeck College, London, 12 July 1997
- Fiftieth Anniversary Conference: History of Science as Public Culture. University of Leeds, 9-11 September 1997
- The Meanings of Practice. Joint meeting with the Society for the Social History of Medicine on the meanings of the term ‘practice’ in analyses of the history and current organization of STM. University of Manchester, 14 November 1997
- Semaphores to Short Waves. Joint meeting with the Newcomen Society and the Royal Society of Arts. Marking the 150th anniversary of the Electric Telegraph Company’s incorporation. Royal Society of Arts, London, 29 July 1996
- Images and Practice. Three-site meeting considering issues of representation in the history of Science. Modern History Faculty; Museum of the History of Science; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 12 June 1996
- Archives of the Scientific Revolution. Joint meeting with the Royal Society. Royal Society, London, 11-12 April 1996
- Medical Matters: the cultural politics of the body in eighteenth-century Britain