Geert Somsen
Biographic Data
| ID | 1117108 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Geert Somsen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Geert |
| FAMILY NAME | Somsen |
| SIGNATURE | SOMSEN G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Maastricht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7146-5559 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 33 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
The art of gathering
Hundreds of thousands of conferences have taken place since their first appearance in the late eighteenth century, yet the history of science has often treated them as stages for scientific practice, not as the play itself. Drawing on recent work in the history of science and of international relations, the introduction to this special issue suggests avenues for exploring the phenomenon of the international scientific conference, broadly construe…
The goddess that we serve’
The emergence of conferences in the late nineteenth century significantly changed the ways in which the international scientific community functioned and experienced itself. In the early modern Republic of Letters, savants mainly related through print and correspondence, and apart from at local and later national levels, scholars rarely met. International conferences, by contrast, brought scientists together regularly, in the flesh and in great n…
Afterword
This Afterword to the special section on Science Popularization in Francoist Spain draws general conclusions from its case studies. Most overarchingly, the different contributions show that popularization existed under this dictatorial regime, and hence does not require a Habermasian liberal-democratic public sphere. Four more specific lessons are also drawn, each shedding new light on either science popularization or dictatorial regimes. (1) Pop…
The princess at the conference
Historians are showing increasing interest in scientific internationalism, the notion that science transcends national differences and hence advances peace and cooperation. This notion became particularly popular in the decades around 1900, the heyday of the universal expositions and the so-called first era of globalization. In this article I argue that in order to properly historicize scientific internationalism, it is imperative to understand h…
Forum
In Forum
The History of Knowledge and the Future of Knowledge Societies
The new field of the history of knowledge is often presented as a mere expansion of the history of science. We argue that it has a greater ambition. The re‐definition of the historiographical domain of the history of knowledge urges us to ask new questions about the boundaries, hierarchies, and mutual constitution of different types of knowledge as well as the role and assessment of failure and ignorance in making knowledge. These issues have per…
Science, Fascism, and Foreign Policy
This essay analyzes the exhibition “Scienza Universale,” which was to be a central part of the 1942 world’s fair in Rome. Although in the end World War II kept the fair from happening, the plans for the exhibit were finished, and they allow for an in-depth analysis of the propagandistic uses of science in fascist Italy. The essay investigates what the regime sought to accomplish with a public display of science, why it chose to stress science’s u…
A Tale of Two World Capitals
In the years around 1910, two plans for establishing a World Capital were simultaneously promoted from Belgium and the Netherlands. From the sea resort of Scheveningen, the Dutch physician Pieter Eijkman (1862-1914) and his assistant Paul Horrix campaigned to build such a city on the outskirts of The Hague. Designed by the rising young architect Karel de Bazel, their "Intellectual World Centre", or "Athens of the Future" as the press also called …
Value-Laden Science
A History of Universalism
That science is fundamentally universal has been proclaimed innumerable times. But the precise geographical meaning of this universality has changed historically. This article examines conceptions of scientific internationalism from the Enlightenment to the Cold War, and their varying relations to cosmopolitanism, nationalism, socialism, and ‘the West’. These views are confronted with recent tendencies to cast science as a uniquely European produ…
A History of Universalism
That science is fundamentally universal has been proclaimed innumerable times. But the precise geographical meaning of this universality has changed historically. This article examines conceptions of scientific internationalism from the Enlightenment to the Cold War, and their varying relations to cosmopolitanism, nationalism, socialism, and ‘the West’. These views are confronted with recent tendencies to cast science as a uniquely European produ…
Science, Fascism, and Foreign Policy
This essay analyzes the exhibition “Scienza Universale,” which was to be a central part of the 1942 world’s fair in Rome. Although in the end World War II kept the fair from happening, the plans for the exhibit were finished, and they allow for an in-depth analysis of the propagandistic uses of science in fascist Italy. The essay investigates what the regime sought to accomplish with a public display of science, why it chose to stress science’s u…
The princess at the conference
Historians are showing increasing interest in scientific internationalism, the notion that science transcends national differences and hence advances peace and cooperation. This notion became particularly popular in the decades around 1900, the heyday of the universal expositions and the so-called first era of globalization. In this article I argue that in order to properly historicize scientific internationalism, it is imperative to understand h…
The History of Knowledge and the Future of Knowledge Societies
The new field of the history of knowledge is often presented as a mere expansion of the history of science. We argue that it has a greater ambition. The re‐definition of the historiographical domain of the history of knowledge urges us to ask new questions about the boundaries, hierarchies, and mutual constitution of different types of knowledge as well as the role and assessment of failure and ignorance in making knowledge. These issues have per…
A Tale of Two World Capitals
In the years around 1910, two plans for establishing a World Capital were simultaneously promoted from Belgium and the Netherlands. From the sea resort of Scheveningen, the Dutch physician Pieter Eijkman (1862-1914) and his assistant Paul Horrix campaigned to build such a city on the outskirts of The Hague. Designed by the rising young architect Karel de Bazel, their "Intellectual World Centre", or "Athens of the Future" as the press also called …
Value-Laden Science
Value-Laden Science
A History of Universalism
That science is fundamentally universal has been proclaimed innumerable times. But the precise geographical meaning of this universality has changed historically. This article examines conceptions of scientific internationalism from the Enlightenment to the Cold War, and their varying relations to cosmopolitanism, nationalism, socialism, and ‘the West’. These views are confronted with recent tendencies to cast science as a uniquely European produ…
A Tale of Two World Capitals
In the years around 1910, two plans for establishing a World Capital were simultaneously promoted from Belgium and the Netherlands. From the sea resort of Scheveningen, the Dutch physician Pieter Eijkman (1862-1914) and his assistant Paul Horrix campaigned to build such a city on the outskirts of The Hague. Designed by the rising young architect Karel de Bazel, their "Intellectual World Centre", or "Athens of the Future" as the press also called …
Science, Fascism, and Foreign Policy
This essay analyzes the exhibition “Scienza Universale,” which was to be a central part of the 1942 world’s fair in Rome. Although in the end World War II kept the fair from happening, the plans for the exhibit were finished, and they allow for an in-depth analysis of the propagandistic uses of science in fascist Italy. The essay investigates what the regime sought to accomplish with a public display of science, why it chose to stress science’s u…
The History of Knowledge and the Future of Knowledge Societies
The new field of the history of knowledge is often presented as a mere expansion of the history of science. We argue that it has a greater ambition. The re‐definition of the historiographical domain of the history of knowledge urges us to ask new questions about the boundaries, hierarchies, and mutual constitution of different types of knowledge as well as the role and assessment of failure and ignorance in making knowledge. These issues have per…
Forum
In Forum
The princess at the conference
Historians are showing increasing interest in scientific internationalism, the notion that science transcends national differences and hence advances peace and cooperation. This notion became particularly popular in the decades around 1900, the heyday of the universal expositions and the so-called first era of globalization. In this article I argue that in order to properly historicize scientific internationalism, it is imperative to understand h…
Afterword
This Afterword to the special section on Science Popularization in Francoist Spain draws general conclusions from its case studies. Most overarchingly, the different contributions show that popularization existed under this dictatorial regime, and hence does not require a Habermasian liberal-democratic public sphere. Four more specific lessons are also drawn, each shedding new light on either science popularization or dictatorial regimes. (1) Pop…
The art of gathering
Hundreds of thousands of conferences have taken place since their first appearance in the late eighteenth century, yet the history of science has often treated them as stages for scientific practice, not as the play itself. Drawing on recent work in the history of science and of international relations, the introduction to this special issue suggests avenues for exploring the phenomenon of the international scientific conference, broadly construe…
The goddess that we serve’
The emergence of conferences in the late nineteenth century significantly changed the ways in which the international scientific community functioned and experienced itself. In the early modern Republic of Letters, savants mainly related through print and correspondence, and apart from at local and later national levels, scholars rarely met. International conferences, by contrast, brought scientists together regularly, in the flesh and in great n…
Law (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Politics (7 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · History of Science and Natural History (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Social science (5 works)