Collaborative projects by Charlotte Bigg
International conferences are standard features of scientific life today. Since their emergence, ... more International conferences are standard features of scientific life today. Since their emergence, in the second half of the nineteenth century, some 170 000 of them are estimated to have taken place. Still the reasons for this rise, and the functions that conferences have fulfilled in scientific practice, have rarely been studied.
In a new joint research project, "The Scientific Conference: A Social, Cultural, and Political History" (SciConf), a European team of scholars will study conferences, not as a background for other, ‘real’ action, but as a phenomenon to be grasped in itself. What happened at scientific conferences? How have they exchanged knowledge and shaped expertise? What forms of sociability have developed in these meetings, what rituals have been performed? How have scientific conferences embodied social hierarchies and international relations? How have they informed policies on relevant subjects? The project will look at conferences as “public spaces” and address these questions through that lens.
Edited volumes and special issues by Charlotte Bigg
Journal articles and book chapters by Charlotte Bigg
Early Popular Visual Culture, 2017
Tables, graphs, chemical formulae, maps and other two-dimensional abstract visual representations... more Tables, graphs, chemical formulae, maps and other two-dimensional abstract visual representations constitute a family of powerful and effective tools widely used in science. They are referred together as diagrams, or spatial arrangements on a two-dimensional surface of letters, numbers and/or words in combination with lines, shapes or images. More than a combination of text and image, diagrams can best be understood as tools for thinking and acting : they portray relations, help manipulate numbers and other entities, they organize, display and communicate information, and they are put to many practical uses. Across the wide diversity of their forms and historical contexts, diagrams help to mediate between the world and abstract knowledge, and between different actors involved in scientific enterprises, such as scientists, students, engineers or craftspeople.
The early astrophysicist Norman Lockyer was both editor of the journal Nature from its creation i... more The early astrophysicist Norman Lockyer was both editor of the journal Nature from its creation in 1869 and for the following five decades, and an early practioner of the new astronomy. He frequently used the journal to expound his scientific theories, report on his work and send news home while on expeditions. I look into the particular visual culture of astrophysics developed by Lockyer in Nature, its evolution at a time of rapid development both of the techniques of astrophysical observation and visualization and of the techniques of image reproduction in print. A study of the use and reuse of visual materials in different settings also makes it possible to sketch the circulating economy of Lockyer’s images and the ways in which he put himself forward as a scientist, at a time when he was advocating the State support of research and scientists and helping create the modern scientific journal.
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Collaborative projects by Charlotte Bigg
In a new joint research project, "The Scientific Conference: A Social, Cultural, and Political History" (SciConf), a European team of scholars will study conferences, not as a background for other, ‘real’ action, but as a phenomenon to be grasped in itself. What happened at scientific conferences? How have they exchanged knowledge and shaped expertise? What forms of sociability have developed in these meetings, what rituals have been performed? How have scientific conferences embodied social hierarchies and international relations? How have they informed policies on relevant subjects? The project will look at conferences as “public spaces” and address these questions through that lens.
Edited volumes and special issues by Charlotte Bigg
Journal articles and book chapters by Charlotte Bigg
In a new joint research project, "The Scientific Conference: A Social, Cultural, and Political History" (SciConf), a European team of scholars will study conferences, not as a background for other, ‘real’ action, but as a phenomenon to be grasped in itself. What happened at scientific conferences? How have they exchanged knowledge and shaped expertise? What forms of sociability have developed in these meetings, what rituals have been performed? How have scientific conferences embodied social hierarchies and international relations? How have they informed policies on relevant subjects? The project will look at conferences as “public spaces” and address these questions through that lens.