Thread by @JamesBSumner

LAST CHANCE TO SEE (for now): talks and events from the @BSHSNews History of Science Festival #HistSciFest are online for the rest of today at bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog….

Here is a slightly random thread of things I attended and enjoyed...

(The intention – to be confirmed – is to make all the videos available again long-term on a different platform, if participants agree... but we need to take them off the current system now, as it's costing the Society a lot and mainly designed for live events) #HistSciFest

I'll start with the session which generated the biggest buzz from attendees: FUTURE DIRECTIONS
bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog…, featuring five PhD students on their experiences and plans, with a particular focus on the opportunities and challenges of decolonising academia. #HistSciFest

#HistSciFest had four keynotes, and they were all key.

@ManCHSTM's own @PratikChakrab asked "DO WE NEED A GLOBAL HISTORY OF SCIENCE?" Or does the category just serve to marginalise ideas that should be fundamental?
bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #HistSciFest

This was nicely complemented by Sabine Clarke @archivemole asking "WHAT IS 'IMPERIAL HISTORY', AND DO HISTORIANS OF SCIENCE NEED IT?"
bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #HistSciFest

James Delbourgo spoke on THE KNOWING WORLD: A NEW GLOBAL HISTORY OF SCIENCE (and drew compliments from the global audience for his excellent pronunciation in a variety of languages!)
bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #HistSciFest

And @jaivirdi made stunning use of visuals in SYNCHROMIST SENSIBILITIES, her study of the twentieth-century artist Dorothy Eugiené Brett and her relationship to hearing prostheses
bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #HistSciFest

You know the physical-conference thing where you wander into a session from a field you don't study and find it absolutely fascinating?

@AstroSibs Sibusiso Biyela's talk on defining a term for "dinosaur" in isiZulu did this for me.
bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog…
#HistSciFest

Given that most of #HistSciFest was built around replies to the call for proposals, there was a gratifyingly deliberate-looking volume of "How to" sessions.

@ExplorationBlog of @eatthedogs fame, for instance, on how, when and whether to start a podcast bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog…

And A TALE OF FOUR EDITORS was an invaluable first-hand account of a group of grad students taking first but fast steps in seeing a book through the press. bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #HistSciFest

Some sessions showcased particular (online, of course) resources, such as the Wiley Digital Archives bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… platform. The example of writings promoting and opposing vaccination in the C18-19 had interesting resonances for popular discourse today... #HistSciFest

GEORGE AIRY AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY SCIENCE demonstrates what's possible with @artukdotorg's Curations platform (artuk.org/discover/stori…), a straightforward 3D virtual exhibit tool to present artworks with interpretation text.
bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #HistSciFest

Most of the sessions used (perhap wisely) the traditional talking-over-slideshow approach. One that played interestingly with the form was @Public_Hist_TMB's TEXTFILM, incorporating and responding to his BSHS predecessor Frank Sherwood Taylor #HistSciFest

bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog…

There was also some unapologetical Fun Stuff. I still can't quite believe we had *two* panel games...

@curatorconnelly's CURATORIAL CALL MY BLUFF captured the spirit of the original with objects replacing words...
bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #HistSciFest

...while the #histsci specific take on the UNBELIEVABLE TRUTH format, chaired by @scifemmefans and masterminded by @KentCHOTS, captured in many ways the central question of our field, namely "What are the rules again?" bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #HistSciFest

(Another illustration here of the glories of @OBSProject: my truth-detection graphic, though basic, is not bad considering I knocked it up ten minutes before showtime after finally finding out what I was supposed to be doing. Note also the collapsing green screen.) #HistSciFest

This bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… was an interesting collision of case study (F Miescher's 1869 isolation of DNA) and analytical topic (new translations of sources as a historiographic positioning tool). You could come for the case and stay for the analysis, or vice versa #HistSciFest

There were several book talks (have to keep reminding myself that "were" doesn't mean "you missed this": take a look now!) including @ange_cass on Britain's peculiar (in global context) British love for the badger: bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #CharismaticMegafauna #HistSciFest

I just want to mention the Oliver Lodge session bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog…, which I had to miss because I was at (indeed, was running tech for) the Wiley session. Except... I *didn't* have to miss it. Online conferencing has its compensations if you do it right. #HistSciFest

The Darwin Correspondence Project session crowdcast.io/e/darwin-corre… was fascinating more for Project than for Darwin reasons, charting the data's decades-long journey from paper and fiche to text-based data systems, to the early Web, to the now-Web. #HistSciFest

...which brings me neatly to my own Guided Tour of the Internet: perhaps neither the most entertaining nor the most thought-provoking item, but certainly the only event in the "fun" strand to mention the imperialist agency of character sets.

bshsfestival.org.uk/index.php/prog… #HistSciFest

(Plus: TOM BAKER IN A CUMMERBUND! Come on, people.)

Source: vimeo.com/72501076 #HistSciFest

Looking for more online events in a similar vein? Check the Virtual #histSTM series run by folk including @skidwayy, who led the programme planning for #HistSciFest. @IveBeenKelceyG, who was also on the Festival committee, is presenting this week: