SHAC Spring Meeting CfP – Deadline extended!

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We have extended the CFP deadline for the Spring Meeting to 10th of March. The original call is attached below. Hope this will encourage more of you to submit!

(Original Call below:).

SHAC Spring Meeting – Call For Papers

The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry (SHAC) invites abstract submissions for its Annual Spring Meeting, to be held at the University of Oxford (Maison Francaise d’Oxford) on 28 May 2024. The meeting will be hybrid, although we strongly encourage in person attendance.

The keynote speaker is Prof. Jennifer M. Rampling (Princeton).

The theme is ‘From Late Antique to Early Modern Alchemy: New Approaches, New Horizons’. Under this broad remit, we encourage submissions that explore:

·                     New methodologies and approaches to the study of alchemy / chymistry

·                     Interdisciplinary perspectives setting alchemy / chymistry in dialogue with other fields of learned or craft knowledge

·                     Case studies of individuals, groups, or institutions pursuing alchemy / chymistry in conjunction with other fields of knowledge

·                     The material, visual, and experimental cultures of alchemy / chymistry

·                     Diverse sites of alchemical / chymical practice

The submissions can be individual presentations, panels with 3 speakers or roundtable proposals. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes in length.

Please submit your abstract, together with a CV or a paragraph detailing your background, to: georgiana.hedesan [AT] history.ox.ac.uk by 1 March 2024.

Upcoming March Seminar on Thomas Garnett

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Next on Line Seminar 21st March

The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Professor Robert Fox (University of Oxford) who will present:

Thomas Garnett: Science, medicine, mobility in eighteenth-century Britain


This will be live on Thursday, 21 March 2024, beginning at 5.00pm GMT (6.00pm CET, 1pm EDT, 10.00am PDT). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.


As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link:

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/t-earnvkk 

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/5g8UnYocouw?feature=share

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry
 

Thomas Garnett: Science, medicine, mobility in eighteenth-century Britain

Robert Fox

Thomas Garnett’s career took him from rural obscurity in eighteenth-century Westmorland to metropolitan prominence as the Royal Institution’s first professor of natural philosophy and chemistry, before his premature death at 36 in 1802. His rise to the summit of British science, via an Edinburgh M.D. and practice as a pioneering spa doctor in Harrogate, was far from easy. But in this talk I present his trajectory as less of a “rags to riches” story of success against the odds than as an exemplar of the opportunities that existed in the expanding marketplace for scientific and medical knowledge in the early years of British industrialization. 

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Other Dates for your diary

The next SHAC webinars will be held on Thursdays 23 May, 11 July, 26 September and 28 November. Details will be sent to members by email and look out for the recordings on our YouTube channel afterwards.

SHAC’s AGM will be held on Tuesday 14 May on Zoom at 2pm. Further details will be published in March.

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Best regards

Rob Johnstone

Hon Treasurer, SHAC

SHAC 2024 Spring Meeting – Call for Papers

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The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry invites abstract submissions for its Annual Spring Meeting, to be held at the University of Oxford (Maison Francaise d’Oxford) on 28 May 2024. The meeting will be hybrid, although we strongly encourage in person attendance.

The keynote speaker is Prof. Jennifer M. Rampling (Princeton).

The theme is ‘From Late Antique to Early Modern Alchemy: New Approaches, New Horizons’. Under this broad remit, we encourage submissions that explore:

  • New methodologies and approaches to the study of alchemy / chymistry
  • Interdisciplinary perspectives setting alchemy / chymistry in dialogue with other fields of learned or craft knowledge
  • Case studies of individuals, groups, or institutions pursuing alchemy / chymistry in conjunction with other fields of knowledge
  • The material, visual, and experimental cultures of alchemy / chymistry
  • Diverse sites of alchemical / chymical practice

The submissions can be individual presentations, panels with 3 speakers or roundtable proposals. Presentations should not exceed 20 minutes in length.

Please submit your abstract, together with a CV or a paragraph detailing your background, to: georgiana.hedesan [AT] history.ox.ac.uk by 1 March 2024.

Please address any queries to the same address.

Upcoming Post Graduate Conference (Saturday, 13th January 2024)

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Here’s somewhat short notice about the upcoming Post Graduate Conference and, by the way the next SHAC on line seminar will be on Thursday 18th January 2024, not in 2025 as recently advised!

The SHAC PG Conference, Uncovering the Secrets of the Universe, will be held this Saturday (13th January 2024) coming from St John’s College, Oxford.

It can be accessed via Zoom.

Programme:

Welcome and Introduction: 11.00 – 11.15 

Session 1: 11.15 – 12.30 

  • Josh Werrett, University of Oxford 

imitatio Christi and the Aesthetics of Martyrdom in The Visions of Zosimos of Panopolis 

  • Yusuf Tayara, University of Oxford 

Towards a Literary Heresiology: Esotericism, Language, and Reason in the Work of al-Safadi 

  • Diego Gorini, University of Salento / University of Cologne 

“Rotam Rotare”: The Wheel as an Instrument of the Scientific Investigation of Nature in the Pseudo-Lullian Alchemical Works. 

Lunch: 12.30 – 13.30 

Session 2: 13.30 – 14.45 

  • Sergei Zotov, University of Warwick 

Toads, Feathers, Horseshoes, and The Seven-Footed King: Recent Developments in the Study of The Ripley Scrolls 

  • Ellen Hausner, University of Oxford 

Angels, Magic, and the Philosophers’ Stone: The Manuscripts of a Sixteenth-Century Physician 

  • Maddie Reynolds, University of Edinburgh 

‘Heavenly alchemy’: Material Culture and the Divine Cosmos in John Dee’s Apocalyptic World 

Break: 14.45 – 15.00 

Session 3: 15.00 – 16.00 

  • Elena Morgana, University of Oxford 

William Yworth’s Alkahest: Alchemical Philosophy in the 18th Century 

  • Leonardo Anatrini, University of Florence 

From Ether to God (and Everything in Between): On the Alchemical Philosophy and Laboratory Practice of François Jollivet-Castelot 

Break: 16.00 – 16.15 

Keynote Lecture: 16.15 – 16.45 

  • Frank James, University College London 

Bringing the Universe Together: The Field Theory of Michael Faraday 

Closing Remarks: 16.45 – 17.00 SHAC Conference 

2024 Morris Award: Call for Nominations

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The Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry solicits nominations for the 2024 John and Martha Morris Award for Outstanding Achievement in the History of Modern Chemistry or the History of the Chemical Industry. This award honours the memory of John and Martha Morris, the late parents of Peter Morris, the former editor of Ambix, who has contributed the endowment for this award. The recipient chosen to receive the Morris Award will be expected to deliver a lecture at a meeting of SHAC, where the awardee will be presented with an appropriate framed photograph, picture or document and the sum of £300. The award is international in scope, and nominations are invited from anywhere in the world. Past winners of the Award include Ernst Homburg, Yasu Furukawa, Anthony S. Travis, Mary Jo Nye and Raymond Stokes.

A complete nomination consists of

• a complete curriculum vitae for the nominee, including biographical data, educational background, awards, honours, list of publications, and other service to the profession;

• a letter of nomination summarising the nominee’s outstanding scholarly achievement in either the history of the chemical industry or in the history of recent chemistry (post -1945) and the unique contributions that merit this award; and

• names of two or three individuals for the panel to contact for further information if needed.

Only complete nominations will be considered for the award and the nomination documents must be submitted in electronic form. The Award will be judged by the selection panel on the basis of scholarly publication. All nomination materials should be submitted by e-mail to Peter Morris at doctor@peterjtmorris.plus.com and a separate email which indicates that the material has been submitted should be sent to the same address (a precaution in case of incomplete transmission of documents) for arrival no later than 1 May 2024.

Upcoming Online Seminar: The Davy Notebook Project 

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The next on-line seminar of the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry will be given by Professor Sharon Ruston (Lancaster University) who will present: 

The Davy Notebook Project 


This will be live on Thursday, 18 January 2024, beginning at 5.00pm GMT (6.00pm CET, 12noon ET, 9.00am PT). The format will be a talk of 20-30 minutes, followed by a moderated discussion of half an hour.  


As with recent seminars the Zoom link can be freely accessed by anyone, member of SHAC or not, by booking through the following Ticket Source link: 

https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/society-for-the-history-of-alchemy-and-chemistry/t-rpgpgpn

 

The seminar will be also accessible live on YouTube at https://youtube.com/live/0CuHR7jqovI?feature=share

Most previous on-line seminars can be found on the SHAC YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SocietyforHistoryofAlchemyandChemistry

 

The Davy Notebook Project 

Sharon Ruston 

Coming to the end of a four-year project crowdsourcing transcription of Sir Humphry Davy’s notebooks, Professor Sharon Ruston will reflect on the discoveries that have been made and the joys and pitfalls encountered. Nearly 3500 people around the world have been transcribing Davy’s surviving notebooks funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council in the UK using the platform Zooniverse. They will be published via Lancaster Digital Collections. Details of the project can be found here: https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/davynotebooks/ 

Best wishes

Frank James

Chairman, SHAC