Dear blog,
The fourth event of the AHRC training programme was held last week and I have to say that I think it was my favourite so far. It was, of course, absolutely bang on target for my area of interest. It did dawn on me that this was an event set up to benefit English Literature students more than those of other disciplines, though the historians of medicine present assured me that there was still something there for them.
The first day, at CHSTM in Manchester, was a brilliant opportunity to fill in the many gaps in my knowledge of the history and philosophy of science. Hasok Chang (Cambridge) and James Sumner (Manchester) delivered accessible and fun talks and seminars that really explained how things fitted together, the genealogy of ideas I had read about already, and the consequences and implications of the new ways of thinking about scientific writing. I was glad that the examples Hasok used came from Nicholson’s Journal, a journal I need to read more of myself given William Godwin’s close friendship with Nicholson.
Day two, though, held at the University of Salford, for me, was nothing short of inspirational. I was so pleased to hear John Holmes justifying why poetry was important, as a space for imaginative thought and a place where contradictories can exist simultaneously, and for many other reasons. Michael Whitworth’s attempts to reach a set of questions that could be used for poetry that responds to science in various ways, was really very impressive and useful also. We used the questions and ideas prompted by both papers in our group discussion in the afternoon where students talked about the poems they had come prepared with, which ranged in our group from Anna Barbauld and Humphry Davy to James Clerk Maxwell and Adam Dickinson. There were some great poems and good discussion; I only wish that we’d had more time.
Soon we’ll have our resources page up for this event and this will have links to the filming that we did at the event and slides that speakers used, reading lists, etc. Event five is coming up soon too – it’s to be held on Thursday 14th and Friday 15th April on the subject of ‘Science and Film: the Material Culture of Science, Technology and Medicine’ (Blythe House, Science Museum) and ‘Image and Object in Art and Science’ (London Consortium). Watch out for application forms for this!
Finally, I’m giving my inaugural lecture on Tuesday 22nd February and if you’d like to come alone you need to register at http://www.salford.ac.uk/events/details/1380. Everyone is welcome!
More soon, all best,
Sharon