Working Groups

The Consortium invites scholars to join our topical working groups for challenging and collegial discussion of interesting publications in their fields and of each others’ works-in-progress.

Each group meets monthly. All interested scholars are welcome to participate via online video conferencing.

To join a working group, you must have an account on the Consortium website first.

  1. Log in, or create an account
  2. Click on a group below
  3. Click on the "Request Membership" link
Submit a discussion paper for one of the working groups.

Upcoming Meetings

Please set your timezone.

Thursday, November 5, 2026, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST

Dr. Brad Scott, Researcher at Queen Mary University of London, and Scientific Associate at the Natural History Museum, London

Privateers, Wrecks and Curiosity: The collections of George Handisyd, surgeon, 1686-92

Thursday, November 5, 2026, 2:00 - 3:30 pm EST

Mikhail Moosa, "The Making of Racial Ecology: Sanitation, Segregation, and Housing in Johannesburg, 1900-1920"

Friday, November 6, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST

Erin McLeary and Myles Chang Matunis, Mütter Museum and Historical Medical Library

"Drawing From the Archive: Exploring the Legacy of a Queer Medical Illustrator and her Art"

Tuesday, November 10, 2026, 3:00 - 4:30 am EST

NOTE SPECIAL TIME

Kathryn Tanaka (University of Hyogo) The Fruit of Illness: Politics, Patient Labor and Poetry in Twentieth Century Japanese Leprosaria

Wednesday, November 11, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST

Francesca Tancini (PiCoBoo Project, Newcastle University, University of Bologna) on 'Walter Crane and Edmund Evans: the two faces of colour-printing for all'

Thursday, November 12, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST

Joint Session with the Technology Working Group

Danielle Wallner presents a chapter from her dissertation Computing at the Periphery: Novosibirsk and the Development of Computer Science, 1960–1991

Documents to be circulated shortly.

Friday, November 13, 2026, 12:30 - 2:00 pm EST

Hamza Diman (Bundeswehr Universität Munich), "From Firewood to Charcoal: Socio-Technical Energy Transitions in Domestic Cooking Practices in Lomé, Togo"

Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 2:00 - 3:30 pm EST

Magdalena Grüner, University of Southern California, paper title TBA

Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 am EST

North-South knowledge exchange: critical thinking and new perspectives.

This session will explore the processes, as well as the tensions, of knowledge exchange between the Global North and Global South

 

Michael Barany (Edinburgh): Michael Barany is Senior Lecturer in History of Science at the University of Edinburgh and researches and teaches the history and culture of modern science and mathematics. https://mbarany.com.

Wednesday, November 18, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST

Theriac: Beyond the Recipe (Roundtable)

Speakers: Danuta Raj, Barbara Splendore, and Katarzyna Pękacka-Falkowska

Description: TBA

 

Thursday, November 19, 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 am EST

Forests and/as Infrastructure

Thursday, November 19, 2026, 2:00 - 3:30 pm EST

William Deringer (MIT), TBA.

Wednesday, November 25, 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 am EST

Andrés Salas

Wednesday, November 25, 2026, 12:00 - 1:30 pm EST

Katharine Whitman presents The History, Identification and Preservation of Photographs on Glass 

Katharine is a photograph conservator at the Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, Canada is writing a Getty Conservation Institute book! 

Friday, November 27, 2026, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm EST

Meeting to be rescheduled due to holiday

Tuesday, December 1, 2026, 8:00 - 9:30 am EST

Dilip K Das, "Narrating Spaces of Contagion."

Tuesday, December 1, 2026, 10:00 - 11:30 am EST

Topic: History of Astronomy and Exobiology as a guide for understanding scientific discovery (and disappointments)

 

 

Wednesday, December 2, 2026, 8:00 - 9:30 am EST

Closing ceremony and final reflections.

 

Conveners of the group.

Wednesday, December 2, 2026, 10:30 am - 12:00 pm EST

Cristián Simonetti, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, paper title TBA

Thursday, December 3, 2026, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST

Teaching Methods Using Collections and Their Ecologies

(more info soon)

Image
Ptarmigans

Ptarmigans, from John James Audubon’s Birds of America, the elephant folio, 1827-1838.

Past Groups and Seminars