Listing of Sessions and Abstracts of Papers - History of Science ...

This involved a sweeping indictment of modern scientific culture and of the cultural organs which had
facilitated the spread of scientific materialism.
Lindsay, Debra
E-mail Address: dlindsay@unbsj.ca
Paleontology: "Canadian" Fossils / American science
Paleontology is one of the most popular sciences among hobbyists-- fossils are frequently the focus
of how-to books, discovery books, and field-guides. This popularity is long-standing and my paper
takes a case study approach to show how the relationship between scientist and collector contributed to
the growth of paleontology in the United States. More specifically, I focus on the transnational context
of science by examining the collaboration between Canadians and C.D. Walcott, Director of the
U.S.G.S. (1894-1907) and Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution (1907-27). Walcott cultivated friendships
with G.F. Matthew (Saint John, NB), J.W. Dawson, A.R.C. Selwyn, Robert Bell, Joseph
Whiteaves, Henri Ami, Elkanah Billins and others. Collaborators were essential to Walcott's career;
their contributions were significant in building his reputation as an invertebrate paleontologist and in the
emergence of the Smithsonian as a center of paleontological research. Similarly, attempts to advance
"Canadian" science required peers and publishers beyond national boundaries. Local, national and
international recognition were imperative and, over time, Canadians increasingly collaborated with the
U.S. scientific community rather than with the U.K. Paleontological investigations were a part of this
realignment. The fact that so much of Walcott's research took place in Canadian fossil fields and in
association with Canadians, provides an example of how transnationalism shaped one North American
science. My study focuses on the reciprocal benefits of a dynamic which masked appropriation and
nationalism with claims of disinterestedness and universalism.
Lozovsky, Natalia
E-mail Address: lozovsky@ucsu.colorado.edu
Geography in Early Medieval Europe: Decline or Development?
Early medieval Latin geographical writings puzzle the modern mind. Medieval scholars and teachers,
ignoring contemporary realities, persistently reproduced the image of the world, essentially inherited
from Antiquity and updated information drawn from the Bible. Does this mean that geography in the
early Middle Ages was suffering permanent decline, as many historians claim? Or did people in the
Middle Ages pursue an entirely different form of knowledge, obeying rules and norms foreign to modern
geography? If the latter is true, then how should we approach the study of these rules and norms? My
paper will focus on several contexts which help us understand the purpose and character of early medieval
geographical studies: biblical commentaries, school practice, and philosophical ideas. The picture
of theoretical geographical knowledge which emerges out of the study of these contexts presents a type
of knowledge which possessed specifically medieval characteristics: it provided material for contemplation
and education rather than serving the practical needs of everyday life. Far from being in decline,
this branch of knowledge, just like other medieval sciences, demonstrated its own rhythms of development.
Thus the study of the main characteristics and evolution of medieval geography allows us to
understand this specific phenomenon and at the same time brings us closer to interpreting pre-modern
sciences in general.
Lustig, Abigail
E-mail Address: lustig@mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de
Erich Wasmann's Catholic Evolutionism
In this talk, I will discuss how the German Jesuit evolutionist entomologist Erich Wasmann’s (1859-