Notices

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2025 AAHPSSS Conference CfP

Submissions are now open and are due by August 8th. Abstracts can be submitted here.

We are pleased to announce that the 2025 conference of the Australasian Association for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (AAHPSSS) will be held in a hybrid format at the University of Queensland from Wednesday 3rd December to Friday 5th December.

The signature event for the conference will be the annual Dyason Lecture, presented in 2025 by Professor Peter Harrison (University of Queensland/University of Notre Dame). Other highlights will include keynote presentations from speakers across the range of HPS disciplines, special events for postgrads and early career academics, and other organised workshops. As usual, we will award the Langham Prize for the best presentation by a postgraduate student. 

We invite participation from scholars working in any area related to the history, philosophy and social studies of science, medicine or technology (including science and technology studies, sociology of health, environmental humanities, science communication, science policy, and metascience). We will be accepting submissions for:

  • Full papers (20 minutes) – to be allocated to sessions
  • Short presentations (10 minutes) – to be allocated to sessions
  • Organised sessions (90 minutes) – format and presenters arranged by organisers

Early-career academics, research students and scholars from historically underrepresented or disadvantaged groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, women, people with disabilities, and people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Bursaries will be available for postgrads and insecurely-employed academics who reside outside south-east Queensland to attend in-person.

Join AAPHSSS here.

Please send any questions, suggestions or feedback to mail@aahpsss.net.au.

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Membership payments – switching from PayPal to Stripe

In 2024 the AAHPSSS Executive Committee decided to move our membership payment system from PayPal to Stripe. This will allow more transparency in payments for members as well as providing a more workable interface for administration. Existing members will be moved from PayPal to a recurring subscription on Stripe at their current membership level. However, instead of automatically deducting payments, as PayPal currently does, members will be sent an annual invoice which can be paid using a standard bank credit or debit card. Look out for these invoices arriving in your email inbox in coming weeks (please keep an eye on your spam/junk folder). These invoices will include a free trial membership period to cover the remaining period left on your existing membership. 

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PhD Scholarship – University of Melbourne

Life Blood: Cultural meanings of blood stem cells and transplantation in the context of laboratory grown alternatives

This Melbourne based PhD project will explore the cultural significance of blood stem cells and transplantation in the context of possible future treatments. The project will seek to gain insights on what people understand about blood stem cells and current treatments involving stem cell transplants, including how their views are shaped and what matters to them.

This project will be jointly supervised between the School of Medicine, and the History and Philosophy of Science department at the University of Melbourne.

For more details, including how to apply, see: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/opportunity/1430-life-blood–cultural-meanings-of-blood-stem-cells-and-transplantation-in-the-context-of-laboratory-grown-alternatives

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AAHPSSS at CHASS 2024: Pedagogical Innovations in Philosophy of Science

Panellists: PROF. ROB WILSON (UWA), GEMMA LUCY SMART (USYD), DR. ALAN JURGENS (UOW)

This panel will explore new approaches to teaching philosophy of science, with a focus on making pedagogy more inclusive and interdisciplinary. Prof. Rob Wilson will examine how philosophy of science units can expand their appeal by incorporating diverse formats and topics such as psychiatry, bioethics, and the politics of biology. Dr. Alan Jurgens will discuss how philosophy of science connects with other disciplines, offering students insights into shared scientific processes and the influence of social norms on scientific practice, especially through the lens of feminist philosophy of science. Gemma Lucy Smart will highlight the importance of inclusivity, advocating for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to engage students from diverse backgrounds and promote critical thinking through flexible teaching methods. Together, these talks will propose a vision for philosophy of science education that is accessible, interdisciplinary, and responsive to the needs of today’s students.

The event is available both in person and online, from 10am-12pm AWST, Tuesday, November 26th.

Further details, including online access, can be found here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/pedagogical-innovations-in-philosophy-of-science-tickets-1086539953249

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2024 Dyason Lecture – Professor Alison Bashford (UNSW)

We are pleased to announce that the 2024 Dyason Lecture is set to be given by Professor Alison Bashford on Wednesday, December 4th at 6.30pm at the Forum Theatre at the University of Melbourne. The title of the lecture is Secrets Disclosed: Reading the Hand from Chiromancy to Genetics.

Speaker: Professor Alison Bashford (UNSW)
Title: Secrets Disclosed: Reading the Hand from Chiromancy to Genetics
When: 6:30pm, Wednesday 4th December
Where: Forum Theatre, Arts West, The University of Melbourne

Further details and abstract to follow.

Professor Alison Bashford

Speaker Bio:
Alison Bashford is Scientia Professor in History and Director of the Laureate Centre for History & Population at UNSW Sydney. She also directs the New Earth Histories Research Program. Her work connects the history of science, global history, and environmental history into new assessments of the modern world, from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. Her most recent book is An Intimate History of Evolution: The Story of the Huxley Family (Random House, 2022), winner of the Nib Literary Prize, an Economist Best Book of 2022, and shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize, 2023. Before taking up her Research Chair at UNSW, Alison Bashford was the Vere Harmsworth Professor of Imperial and Naval History at the University of Cambridge, Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. She is Fellow of the British Academy and of the Australian Academy of Humanities. Secrets Disclosed: The Hand from Chiromancy to Genetics is her next book (Chicago, 2025).

Featured image credits
Richard Saunders, Palmistry, the secrets thereof disclosed…
(London, 1663).
Plate prepared for L.S. Penrose, “Finger-prints, palms and chromosomes,” Nature (1963)

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Vale Dr Natalie Köhle

We are sad to announce that Dr Natalie Köhle passed away on Monday morning. Natalie was a historian of Chinese medicine, interested in the transcultural history of bodily fluids and in the history of Chinese materia medica. Her co-authored book Fluid Matter(s): Flow and Transformation in the History of the Body was published by ANU Press in 2020. She received a MA and PhD degrees from Harvard University and a BA Hons. degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University. She was located at the University of Sydney within the School of History and Philosophy of Science for a relatively short time but is remembered as a generous, kind and deeply scholarly colleague. In 2023 AAHPSSS welcomed Natalie to present one of our plenary sessions at the AAHPSSS Conference.

We send our deepest condolences to her family, friends and close colleagues at this difficult time. 

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Public Lecture – Somatic Affinities: Medicine and Portraiture

Members in Melbourne may be interested in this upcoming seminar presented by Visiting Professor Ludmilla Jordanova, Emeritus Professor of History and Visual Culture at Durham University, UK, and hosted by the University of Melbourne.

When? Tuesday, June 11, 6PM

Abstract: The popularity of portraiture, especially in the English-speaking world, is well known. That medical practitioners were keen on portraits is also a familiar claim.

In this talk Professor Ludmilla Jordanova will explore the affinities between medicine and portraiture by reflecting on the notion of ‘somatic affinity’ and on the ways in which health care professionals necessarily have to make careful visual appraisals all the time.

Since ‘portrait’ is a powerful metaphor, we might say they are in the business of generating portraits. We might also plausibly claim that those who produce portraits in the literal sense are doing something that is quasi-medical. There’s a wealth of contemporary material that can be put to use here, but there is also a golden opportunity for historical research capable of making a useful contribution to the medical humanities.

For more information and tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/somatic-affinities-medicine-and-portraiture-tickets-902061318687

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PhD Scholarship – Medical Humanities Research Lab (University of Melbourne)

The Medical Humanities Research Lab invites prospective applicants with an interest in projects aligned with our research focus to submit an Expression of Interest for a PhD.

Project proposals are invited from prospective students with a background in the humanities and social sciences in areas that align with the following: histories of mental illness, psychiatry, psychology, and therapies (late 19th to 21st centuries), or the history and social implications of the use of technologies in mental health.

The successful applicant will be embedded within the Initiative in the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Faculty of Arts. All applicants will be automatically considered for a Melbourne Research Scholarship.

More info: https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/opportunity/1301-phd-position-for-the-medical-humanities-research-lab