HoST ANNUAL WORKSHOP 2008

For an updated programme go to the official web site:

	An International Journal for the History of Science and Technology

The aim of the present workshop is to discuss the role of scientific practices in the building of the Portuguese Empire. By bringing together historians of science and technology and general historians of empire we intend to explore the possible contributions of the history of science and technology for a renewed understanding of Portuguese imperial experience at large. Taking into consideration the multiple faces assumed by the Portuguese Empire across disparate geographies from the XVth to the XXth century, we don't expect to understand the activities undertaken by naturalists, cartographers or engineers under one single framework, but we do think it is important to place such actors, and their instruments, at the center of any major narrative of Portugal's imperial past. Also, the very same dimensions of the imperial effort forces historians of Portuguese science to question whether it's reasonable for any one interested in the country's scientific past to ignore its imperial dimensions and limit himself/herself to the metropolitan space.

Main topics

1. The centrality of the history of science and technology for the proper understanding of the Portuguese empire;
2. The place of imperial science in Portuguese history of science.
3. The relevance of the Portuguese case for the general discussion about science, technology and empires.

Tuesday, December 16th

• 9.30 - 9.45 - Coffee Reception at ICS hall
• 9.45 - 10.00 - Tiago Saraiva (Institute of Social Sciences - University of Lisbon): Opening remarks
• 10.00 - 11.15 - Chair: Maria de Fátima Nunes (University of Évora)
  • Maria Paula Diogo (CHFCT/DCSA, Faculty of Sciences and Technology - New University of Lisbon), Um olhar introspectivo: a Revista de Obras Públicas e Minas e a engenharia colonial.
  • Silvia Figueirôa (UNICAMP) and E. M. Pataca (USP), Military engineers, cartography, and natural history surveying in Portugal and its colonies (18th-19th century transition).
• 11.15 - 11.30 - Coffee Break at ICS hall
• 11.30 - 12.45 - Chair: María Emília Madeira Santos (Instituto de Investigação Científica e Tropical)
  • Ana Paula Silva (CHFCT/DCSA, Faculty of Sciences and Technology - New University of Lisbon), Portugal, a Grã-bretanha e os cabos submarinos - a nova "ferramenta do império" e a "velha aliança"
  • Cristiana Bastos (Institute of Social Sciences - University of Lisbon), Corpos ao Planalto: a intransponível Serra da Chela e a domesticação da força do inimigo.
• 12.45 - 14.00 - Lunch at the ICS Panoramic room (5th floor)
  
• 14.00 - 16.00 - Chair: Ana Cardoso de Matos (CIDEHUS, University of Évora)
  • Teresa Carvalho (CHCUL, Faculty of Sciences - University of Lisbon), Observações sobre a "Enformação… " de Simão Alvares
  • Ângela Barreto Xavier (Institute of Social Sciences - University of Lisbon), "Huns homens bailadores que bailavam nove dias" Orientalismo, ciência e administração no império português.
• 16.00 - 16.15 - Coffee Break at ICS hall
• 16.15 - 18.15 - Chair: Palmira Costa (CHFCT/DCSA, Faculty of Sciences and Technology - New University of Lisbon)
  • Rui Manuel Loureiro (Centro de História de Além-Mar, UNL), Práticas editoriais no século XVII: as apostilhas de João Baptista Lavanha à Quarta Década da Ásia de João de Barros;
  • Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra (University of Texas), Iberian Chivalric Epistemologies in the Dutch and British Imaginations 1550-1650.

Wednesday, December 17th

• 9.45 - 10.00 - Coffee at ICS hall
• 10.00 - 11.15 - Chair: Isabel Amaral (CHFCT/DCSA, Faculty of Sciences and Technology - New University of Lisbon)
  • Francisco Roque de Oliveira (Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa), Geografia, astronomia e cosmologia chinesas na História da Igreja do Japão de João Rodrigues Tçuzu (c. 1627)
  • Henrique Leitão (CHCUL, Faculty of Sciences - University of Lisbon); Inquisição e livros científicos em Portugal no século XVI. Primeiros elementos para uma questão antiga.
• 11.15 - 11.30 - Coffee Break at ICS hall
• 11.30 - 12.45 - Chair: Ricardo Roque (Institute of Social Sciences - University of Lisbon).
  • José Luís Cardoso (Institute of Social Sciences - University of Lisbon), Ciência e império nos finais do século XVIII: o papel da Academia das Ciências de Lisboa;
  • Ângela Domingues (Instituto de Investigação Científica e Tropical), "What an absurd secrecy they hide from the world all information respecting that country": mecanismos de circulação e renovação de informação sobre a colónia brasileira na Inglaterra (século XVIII).
• 12.45 - Closing of the Workshop