The Emergence of a Scientific Culture

Code: RPAS2010NOV07
If you wish to be considered for funding under this research theme, please ensure that you quote this code on your application form under 'Intended Source of Funding' (if using the downloadable form) or 'Name of Proposed Supervisor' (if applying online).

The Emergence of a Scientific Culture project offers the opportunity for research and taught postgraduate students to study science as a cultural phenomenon, examining its relation to broader cultural formations in order to illuminate the nature of science itself. The University of Aberdeen is now one of the UK's leading, and largest, centres in this interdisciplinary area of study, which is at the heart of the research culture of the CASS-funded Centre for the History of Science, Technology & Medicine (established 2010). These studentships, linked to the research interests of individual staff, will enhance the Centre's work by bringing together a cluster of scholars from disciplines including Anthropology, Divinity, English, History, Philosophy and Special Collections. The Centre hosted the extremely successful annual conference of the British Society for History of Science in 2010. It has staff at all levels including Catherine Wilson, Stephen Gaukroger, Ben Marsden (Director of the Centre), Guido Bacciagaluppi, Ralph O'Connor, Ulrich Stegmann and many others. The Centre and associated departments have already been successful in attracting funding from major grant givers, including Leverhulme, Wellcome and the Carnegie Trust. Staff connected with the Centre have specialisms including, but not restricted to, literature and science, the history of technology, the history and philosophy of physics, early modern natural philosophy, the history of medicine from the early modern to the present day – and many more.

We are now pleased to be able to offer a number of PhD and Postgraduate Masters Studentships in connection with the research project The Emergence of a Scientific Culture, specifically under two targeted areas: 'Technology in culture'; and 'Mechanism, metaphysics and the culture of modern science', and, to include (but not restricted to) the areas listed below.

Available studentships

2012-13

2 x Home Fees Masters Studentships
2 x Home Fees PhD Studentships
1 x Overseas Fees PhD Studentship

In addition, the committee awarding studentships for the project may be able to allocate some funds towards maintenance.

Closing date: Friday 6 April 2012. Please note that all supporting documentation, e.g. transcripts, references, research proposals, etc., must have been submitted to the Admissions Office by the closing date. The University cannot guarantee that an incomplete application will be considered.

Possible Research Titles and Topics

Principal Investigator: Dr Ralph O'Connor
Applicants are strongly advised to contact the principal investigator or a member of the supervisory team before submitting their application form and research proposal.

While these are not exhaustive of the thesis topics the project may consider supporting, they do give a fairly clear idea of the types of projects which the supervisory team would be keen to see investigated. 

• Imaginative literature and technical innovation
• Literary engineers: engineers and scientific practitioners as readers and authors from the eighteenth century
• The adoption of the language of energy in engineering practice
• A historiographic analysis of the undeveloped field of 'technology and religion'
• An ethical analysis of developing medical technologies
• Railways and/or naval architecture in Scotland
• The first full-scale study of the unique institutional Natural Philosophy Collection currently in Marischal Museum
• The intersection between physics and metaphysics in the Enlightenment
• Mechanisms and their significance with respect to scientific explanation and reduction
• The scientific study of vision and its philosophical significance
• Evolutionary ethics
• The concept of 'the Organism' in the history of the life sciences
• Religion and the development of 'mechanical philosophy' in the 17^th century