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Centre for Cultural History Seminar

2009-10

FIRST HALF SESSION

• 21 September, Business Meeting: 5.00 PM Room 101 Crombie Annexe
• 6 October Sylvia Grace Borda, University of Stirling, 'Recollecting -Learning how to Animate Cultural Histories for Exhibition' chair: Jenny Brown, Aberdeen Maritime Museum. For an abstract click here. This meeting will be held jointly with the Centre for Medical Humanities For Syliva's website go to http://www.sylviagraceborda.com/. For details of the 'Re-collecting' exhibition go to http://www.naughtongallery.org/naughtongallery.php?page=58&exhibition=61
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• 13 October, Stuart Leadstone, CPD development, physics department, University of Aberdeen, ‘The Aberdeen meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1859’. Chair: Ben Marsden
• 20 October, Nick Fisher, University of Aberdeen, 'Tidings of Comfort and Joy: God's Plans for Victorian Britain'. Chair: Ralph O'Connor
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• 23 October FRIDAY Andrew Pickering, University of Exeter,

  'Sketches of Another Future: Cybernetics in Britain,1940-2000' (joint seminar with the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine and Centre for Modern Thought) Chair: Tim Ingold

 

• 27 October Margaret Bolton, University of Aberdeen, 'Refining silver and keeping Indians in their place in 17th century Bolivia'. Chair: Darrin Russell

• 3 November: Thomas Weber, University of Aberdeen, 'The 'privileged' children of the Lodz Ghetto' Chair: Elizabeth Macknight

• 10 November Cecil Chabot, University of Ottawa, 'Cross-cultural conflict historiography: the depiction of the 1832 Hannah Bay 'massacre' in Orcadian and Cree oral traditions and other sources' chair: Darrin RussellNB this seminar will start at 4.00pm

• 17 November John Reid, University of Aberdeen, '400 years of the telescope'. Chair: Ben Marsden (joint seminar with the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine)

• 24 November Jenny Brown, Maritime Museum, ' "Davidson's Red Water Cure": a short biography of a local veterinary remedy and the business of promoting a pharmaceutical product locally, nationally and internationally at the turn of the last century' (joint seminar with the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine). For details the museum's pharamceutical collection click here, and for the Museum more generally, here and here.

• 8 December Anna Crozier, University of Exeter, 'The fluidity of British Racial Hierarchies: Struggles over the Zanzibar Maternity Association, 1918-47 ' (joint seminar with the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine) Chair: Andrew Mackillop
  
• 15 December Pat Ballantyne, University of Aberdeen, 'Francis Peacock's 'Sketches': making historical connections between highland dance and percussive step dance', chair: Dr Tom McKean

followed by Cultural History Christmas party

 

SECOND HALF SESSION

2 Feb: Nicola Mills, freelance archivist and independent scholar, 'A Decent Coat and a Life of Drudgery: the training and career of a doctor in Georgian Aberdeen': for an abstract click here (joint seminar with the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine) Chair: Fiona Watson

• 9 Feb: Centre for Cultural History Business Meeting
• 16 Feb: Fiona Watson, Northern Health Services Archive, 'Sideline, Strategy and Serendipity - Researching Orkney's Medical History' (joint seminar with the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine)
• 23 Feb A Centre for Medical Humanities Event: 'Whither Medical Humanities?' A mini workshop, featuring contributions by Dr Jane MacNaughton, Co-Director of the Centre for Medical Humanities, Durham,  Andrew Hull, Coordinator, Medical Humanities programme, University of Swansea, Andrew McKie, Robert Gordon's University, and others, followed, at 5.00 pm by networking and brainstorming over a buffet until 6.15 pm. If you are intending to attend the buffet please inform David Smith d.f.smith@abdn.ac.uk. NB The powerpoints, handouts, and a sjort report are now available on the Centre for Medical Humanities website.

• 2 Mar Amy Bryzgel, University of Aberdeen, 'The Bronze Man and the Homeless Man: Performance Art in Latvia Then and Now'. Chair: David Galbreath
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• 9 Mar: Antony Valentini, Imperial College, London, 'Quantum Mechanics and Reality: the Schism in Physics'. Chair: Guido Bacciagaluppi (joint seminar with the Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine).

Abstract: After 81 years, there is still no consensus as to what our most fundamental physical theory (quantum mechanics) tells us about the world. If anything, the puzzlement and diversity of views continues to increase. For much of the twentieth century, it was claimed that quantum mechanics had abolished the traditional idea of an objective reality independent of human observation. Yet, some physicists continue to attempt to delineate what quantum reality might be like:
leading contenders include (1) a currently 'hidden' deeper level full of 'spooky' connections across space, and (2) a universe that is continually splitting into parallel alternatives. Other physicists continue to assert that the very notion of 'reality' is simply naive and irrelevant. The current 'Schism' between 'realists' and 'anti-realists' originates from the 1920s (with de Broglie, Einstein, and Schroedinger in the former camp, and Heisenberg, Bohr, Born and Pauli in the latter). We reconsider the early history of quantum physics, and address some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding it. We show that 'realism' is still very much alive today, though deeply controversial.

Followed by a booklaunch for

Quantum Theory at the Crossroads
Reconsidering the 1927 Solvay Conference
Guido Bacciagaluppi
University of Aberdeen
Antony Valentini
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London

with wine and nibbles.

To ensure we order sufficient refreshments please email Guido Bacciagaluppi if you intend to attend: g.bacciagaluppi@abdn.ac.uk

http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521814218

• 16 Mar 3.30 pm (NB not 4.00 as previously advertised): Catherine Jones, University of Aberdeen, 'Romantic Opera in Translation: Washington Irving and Carl Maria von Weber' Chair: Karin Friedrich
  

• 23 Mar Christopher Langley '“Ruinous by shots of caunon and musket”: Worship and the church fabric in occupied Scotland, 1650-1658' Chair: Sandra Hynes. For an abstract click hereThis meeting will be in the Edward Wright Annexe, Room G04
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• 20 April Edward Wright Building 3.30: John Wilkins, University of Exeter, 'Galen's advice to us on maintaining good health' (Joint seminar with the Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine and Centre for Medical Humanities). Chair Jane Stevenson

• Thursday 22 April: A Centre for Medical Humanities Event:

  Jordan Baseman's 'Nature's Great Experiment': A Screening of three short films followed by discussion.

  To register click here 

  Thursday 22 April, 6.30 pm, Suttie Building Auditorium, Medical School, Foresterhill. For further details see: http://www.naturesgreatexperiment.com/

Commentaries will follow the screening by

Dr Jennifer Melville, Keeper (Fine Art), Aberdeen Art Gallery,

Dr Geraldine McNeil and others (to be announced)

Jordan Baseman will be present to introduce the films, join in the discussion, and answer questions

Chair: Professor Peter Helms

The event will be followed by wine and nibbles.

Sponsored  by the Wellcome Trust

 

• 27 April: Edward Wright Building, NB 4.00 pm: Allan Beveridge, Queen Margaret Hospital, Dunfermline: 'Should psychiatrists read literature?' For some papers by Allan click here and here and here. (Joint seminar with the Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine and Centre for Medical Humanities). Chair: Catherine Jones
• 4 May Edward Wright Buidling, 3.30: Iain Hutchison, University of Stirling: ''Disability History from the bottom up: narratives of disabled people in the 19th and 20thcenturies'. (Joint seminar with the Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine and Centre for Medical Humanities) Chair: Dee Hoole
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• 11 May: Special Seminar for Student papers , Edward Wright Building F61, 3.30:
  • Mary Wilson: 'Ladies of letters: visions or picturesque Scotland in the long eighteenth century'
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  • Sam Robinson: "Representations of 'Scientists' in the Nineteenth Century Satirical Press"
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  • Kier Mulholland: 'Phamacy and the 1911 National Insurance Act'

  

Followed by the Annual Cultural History BBQ, Crombie Annexe Garden. Bring something to grill, drink and share (separate vegetarian grill available)

 

• Wednesday 12 May: Edward Wright Building F61, 5-7 pm: Affette McCaw-Binns, Professor of Reproductive Health and Epidemiology, University of the West Indies, James C Petrie Visiting Fellow, University of Aberdeen: 'From Slavery to Self-Determination – the Development of Maternal Health Care in Jamaica' . This presentation traces the relationship between the abolition of the slave trade and the development of maternal and child health services to improve the survival of plantation mothers and their offspring given the inability to import slave labour into the colonies in the Caribbean and the subsequent evolution of health services for the population in Jamaica. A seminar organised with the collaboration of the Department of History, Immpact, Centre for Sustainable International Development, Centre for Cultural History, Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine, and Centre for Medical Humanities. Chair: Greg Smithers.

• Saturday 15 May: An Aberdeen Medico-Chirurgical Society event: Aminatta Forna will speak at an ecvvent which takes part as part of the Word Festival. She is author of The Devil that Danced on the Water, a memoir of Sierra Leone and the story of her father, a doctor turned political leader, and a graduate of the Aberdeen medical school:. 3.30 PM, MedChi Hall, Polwarth Building, Foresterhill. BOOK NOW

• Saturday 19 June 2010: ‘Self, Society and History’: A Cultural History Workshop: for details see http://www.abdn.ac.uk/ch/workshops/self-society.shtml