10th European Society for the History of Science (ESHS) Meeting: Science Policy and the Politics of Science

The overarching theme of the European Society for the History of Science Society 2022 Meeting is
'Science Policy and the Politics of Science', a topic with a particular resonance over these past years.
The outbreak of Covid-19 has called attention to the shifting legitimacy of science-based expertise
and the reliance on expert knowledge and authority in policy-making by state and national
governments. Clearly, this serves as an indication for a need to understand the role of scientists and
scholars in society within a broader historical framework. From a historiographical viewpoint, the
conference will be an opportunity to showcase the latest research of science and scientific institutions
across space and time. Beyond the traditional views on history of science governance and
management, recent studies have enhanced our understanding of scientific knowledge and practice
from global, epistemological, and gendered perspectives, encompassing new experimental and digital
methodologies.
The 10th ESHS Meeting will welcome proposals on all periods, geographic locations, and areas of
specialisation, addressing topics including, but not limited to, the following: institutions, places, and
spaces of scientific knowledge: centre and peripheries; patronage and science funding: public and
private interests; theory and practice in scientific and technical expertise; material, visual, and
textual cultures in the institutionalisation of the sciences; circulation and networks of scientific
knowledge; colonial histories and heritage in the sciences; gender and ethnicity in scientific
institutions and leadership; trials and standardisation in science making; openness and secrecy in the
dissemination of scientific knowledge; amateur scholarship, lay practice, and citizen science;
implementation of scientific knowledge in society; trust and authority in scientific discourse and
policy; and scientific movements, ideologies, and related historiographical narratives.