Alchemy and Chemistry as Vessels for Cultural Discourse
Online / New Seminar Room (St John’s College, University of Oxford)
14th January 2025
For those attending in person, please meet at the St John’s College lodge at 8:30.
If you wish to attend in person, please email Josh Werrett at studentrep[at]ambix.org
Zoom details will be released closer to the time of the event.
Welcome: 9:00 – 9:05
Session 1: 9:05 – 10:20
- Josh Werrett, University of Oxford / Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Baptism and the Reborn Body: Zosimos’ Alchemy in a Pre-Nicene Context
- Paulina Gennerman, Marburg University
The Complex Shades of ‘Drug’: Psychoactive Substances as Part of Cultural and Social Discourse
- Lea Elisabeth Hinterholzer, Georg-August-University
John of Teschen’s Lumen Secretorum: Poetry Inside or Outside the Laboratory?
Break: 10:20 – 10:35
Session 2: 10:35 – 12:15
- Brian Li, University of Cambridge
The Material and Moral Cultures of Living Alchemy in the Paracelsan Tradition
- Ellen Hausner, University of Oxford
Comprehending Characters: Keys to Abstract Notations in Early Modern Alchemical Texts
- Elena Morgana, University of Oxford
From Elixir to Alkahest: The Evolution of a Panacea in the Kingdom of Naples, 1620-1670.
- Sergei Zotov, University of Warwick
Vomiting the Sea of Blood: Unique Image Series in CG Jung’s Alchemical Manuscripts
Lunch: 12:15 – 13:15
Session 3: 13:15 – 14:30
- Johannes Chan, York University
Bounded Life and Imperial Metabolisms: The Mechanics of Mills and Labouring Bodies
- Sajdeep Soomal, University of Toronto
The Looping Effects of Settler Colonialism: Agrarian Expansion in the Canadian North-West and the Chemical Utilization of Industrial Waste, 1874-1910
- Silvia Perez Criado, University of Valencia
From Laboratory to Society: DDT and Public Health in Franco’s Spain
Break: 14:30 – 14:45
Session 4: 14:45 – 16:00
- Christopher Halm, Deutsches Museum Munich
Seeking Refuge in Earth’s Deepest Time: Cosmochemistry and How to Escape the Tragedies of World War II
- Robert Slinn, University of York
Vocational Education and Training in the British Chemical Industry, 1945-1995
- Sofiya Kamalova Rogova, University of Valencia
Tracing Toxicity: The Chemical Product Cycle in the Ardystil Case
Break: 16:00 – 16:15
Session 5 (Keynote): 16:15 – 16:45
- Justin Sledge (Esoterica) – Title TBC
Closing Remarks: 16:45 – 17:00
Post-conference drinks for those attending in Oxford.