Science, Place and Victorian Culture

Wedi cwblhau'r modiwl dylai'r myfyrwyr fedru:

1. Identify and critically analyse the primary historical sources relevant to the role of geographical location in the making of Victorian science.
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the relevant historiography, its evolution and the key problems currently addressed by historians in this field.
3. Discuss the interpretative problems and prospects associated with this topic.
4. Illustrate, analyse and evaluate both primary sources and the associated historiography in an extended written discussion.

Historians are generally agreed that the practices we now recognize as science emerged out of natural philosophy during the nineteenth century. New disciplines appeared, new institutions were established and men of science were increasingly recognized as forming a distinct profession with their own particular concerns and interests. Victorian Britain was an important locus for these developments. This module examines the emergence of Victorian science as a highly localized and context dependent process. There was no homogenous consolidation of a new profession. Rather, different individuals and groups of individuals in a range of places battled to carve out institutional spaces for themselves and their practices. What counted as Victorian science was therefore deeply contested. This module invites students to investigate the importance of place ? geographical location ? in establishing scientific authority. They will need to become familiar with Victorian debates about just who should practice science and where they should do it, as well as recent historiography concerning the local nature of scientific knowledge. Victorian science has been the focus of increasing historical scrutiny over the past two decades and there is as a result a wealth of relevant literature as well as a range of increasingly accessible research resources. By focussing on the importance of science in its place, the module will also introduce students to contemporary concerns surrounding the identity of the knowledge-maker, in terms of class, gender and ethnicity.

The module will introduce students to current historiographical concerns in the history of Victorian science and to contemporary debates concerning the importance of geographical place in the construction of scientific knowledge. Students will be introduced to a range of primary sources as well as to relevant secondary literature.

1) Science on Show.
2) Factories and Observatories.
3) Labs and Lecture Theatres.
4) Out in the Field.
5) Making the Cosmos.
6) The Colonial Laboratory

Mae'r modiwl hwn yn cydymffurfio a FfCChC Lefel 7