On April 20th the History of Knowledge seminar will be visited by Nele Wynants and Eva Andersen (University of Antwerpen), who will talk about the research programme Science at the Fair: Performing Knowledge and Technology in Western Europe, 1850-1914, funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. 

During the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th, travelling fairgrounds played a crucial role in informing people about all the latest scientific developments. The EU-funded SciFair project will perform pioneering research on the role itinerant show people played in the dissemination of information about scientific and technological advances at fairs in western Europe between 1850 and 1914. The project is based on the hypothesis that fairs during this period were not only local folk events but also centres of international exchange. For instance, travelling show people helped disseminate science. SciFair will engage a multilingual and multidisciplinary team to analyse practices of science performance across national frontiers and map transnational networks of western European travelling scientific performances.

 The seminar will be begin 13.15 CET on zoom. For a link, contact johan.ostling@newhistoryofknowledge

Photo by Valentin Petkov on Unsplash