Call for papers: “Astronomy and astronautics under dictatorial regimes”




ASTRONOMY AND ASTRONAUTICS UNDER DICTATORIAL REGIMES
24–25 September 2015
Instituto de Historia de la Medicina y de la Ciencia López Piñero University of Valencia, Valencia (Spain)

Submissions are invited for the conference/workshop “Astronomy and astronautics under dictatorial regimes” on topics related to the development of astronomy, astrophysics and astronautics during twentieth-century dictatorships and totalitarian regimes. During the last decades, historians have shown an increasing interest in the study of the relations between science, politics and power under such regimes. While the cases of physics and life sciences have been thoroughly investigated, the science of the universe has so far received little attention. In this sense, the workshop aims at exploring to what extent astronomy and astronautics have contributed to shape and define twentieth-century dictatorships and totalitarian regimes. Submissions are invited on (but not limited
to) the following topics:
- International collaboration: problems and opportunities.
- Observatories, institutions and the shaping of regimes.
- Amateur astronomy: sociability and popularization.
- Imperialism and colonialism: expeditions and discourses.
- Aeronautics, astronautics and the conquest of space.

The workshop language is English. Paper presentations will be 30 min.

Please send abstract proposals of no more than 200 words to the email address below before 15 July 2015. Include a short biography highlighting main research interests (max. 50 words).

For proposals and inquiries, please contact:
Pedro Ruiz-Castell, pedro.ruiz-castell@uv.es 

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Pedro Ruiz-Castell
Institut d'Història de la Medicina i de la Ciència López Piñero Universitat de València Plaça Cisneros, 4
46003 València (Spain)
Tel. (+34)963926236