Sophia Project

INTERNATIONAL SUMMER COURSE:

CULTURAL ASTRONOMIES IN MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN EUROPE

An overview of the topic since its emergence with a discussion of its definition and implications

Polish Academy of Sciences (Warsaw) in association with the Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia (Lisbon) and the Sophia Centre, University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

Co-funded by the European Union

17-21 July 2023

The course will focus on Medieval and Early Modern Europe and its cultural forms of understanding, theorizing, and practicing astronomy between the 13th and 17th centuries. We will explore what 'cultural' means in the astronomy practiced by astronomers in Europe during these periods. We will reflect on and discuss critical research questions about cultures and astronomy.

For instance:
a) What aspects of astronomical knowledge and practice can be considered cultural.
b) Whether there is an overlapping between the fields of the History of Astronomy and Cultural Astronomy.
c) Why the History of Astronomy is more well-represented than Cultural Astronomy in current research and publications.
d) How astronomy relates to society and aspects of culture, such as the arts, religion, literature, and the built environment.
e) How the study of astronomy and culture helps us understand the History of Astronomy and the history and nature of science.

We are interested in exploring all forms of Cultural Astronomy in Europe: astrological, religious, kabbalistic, political, philosophical, heretic, etc. By the end of this course, students will be familiar with an exciting new and genuinely interdisciplinary field. They will be able to identify and describe different manifestations of Cultural Astronomy in Europe between the 13th and 17th centuries and detect the various forms in which astronomical practice, knowledge, and beliefs relate to the attitudes and values of a period and area.

Registration

Deadline: 20 June 2023
Contact: Registration is now closed
There is no registration fee, but prior registration is needed.

Venue

This course is both online and onsite
The onsite venue is
L. & A. Birkenmajer Institute for the History of Science
Polish Academy of Science
Warsaw, Poland
The Polish Academy of Sciences is housed in the Staszic Place.

Speakers

Dr. Alberto Bardi (Department of the History of Science, Tsinghua University)

Dr. Barbara Bienias (L. & A. Birkenmajer Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences)

Assoc. Prof. Nicholas Campion (University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Lampeter)

Prof. Anne-Laurence Caudano (Department of History, University of Winnipeg)

Dr. Seb Falk (Independent scholar, historian, and broadcaster)

Dr. Maciej Jasiński (L. & A. Birkenmajer Institute for the History of Science, Polish Academy of Sciences)

Prof. Stephen Johnston (History of Science Museum, University of Oxford)

Prof. Sylwia Konarska-Zimnicka (Institute of History, Jan Kochanowski University)

Prof. Richard Kremer (Professor Emeritus, Department of History, Dartmouth College)

Prof. Tzvi Langermann (Professor Emeritus, Bar Ilan University)

Dr. Tayra Lanuza (Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage, Ca' Foscari University of Venice)

Prof. Reimund Leicht (Department of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Prof. Henrique Leitão (Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, University of Lisbon)

Prof. Sacha Stern (Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College of London)

Dr. Ilana Wartenberg (The Lester and Sally Entin Faculty of Humanities, Tel Aviv University)