“SCIENCE ON TELEVISION”

Maó (Menorca), 16-18 May 2013

Institut Menorquí d’Estudis (IME)
Societat Catalana d’Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica (SCHCT)
Centre d’Història de la Ciència (CEHIC – UAB)
Institut d’Història de la Medicina i de la Ciència López Piñero (IHMC – UV/CSIC)
Institució Milà i Fontanals (CSIC)
European Society for the History of Science (ESHS) (CSIC)

Scientific Committe
Carlos Tabernero, Centre d’Història de la Ciència (CEHIC-UAB)
Oliver Hochadel, Institució Milà i Fontanals (CSIC)
Clara Forensa, Centre d’Història de la Ciència (CEHIC-UAB)

CALL FOR REGISTRATIONIncludes full programme and information aboutregistration, discounts, and grants

Which roles do Television and Science play in our daily lives?
Do they shape our perceptions, values, concerns and expectations?
It is time to take a closer look at them…
…from  a historical point of view!  

645px-Family_watching_television_1958

Mass media and science play a key role in the construction of contemporary societies. Their discourses and practices are best understood as forms of everyday interaction between people, collectives and institutions. They are also crucial forms of representation and interpretation of values, concerns and expectations of human communities.

The 7th European Spring School of History of Science andPopularization: Science on Television

aims to contribute to the analysis of television as a particular space where the complex relationship between science and its publics unfolds. It is an invitation to explore and experience television as a major constituent of the social and cultural processes of production, circulation and appropriation of scientific, medial and technological knowledge.

At the Spring School a host of interrelated questions will be addressed: In which ways do information, advertising, entertainment and even criticism or social commentary influence the portrayals of science, medicine and technology on television? Which are the relations between these representations and people’s everyday patterns of appropriation of television? To what extend can communication practices related to television and science be understood as learning activities and spaces? What do science depictions in news programs, documentaries and/or fiction pieces have to do with people’s ways of communicating, consuming, working, studying, collaborating and solving problems?

This Spring School is open for scholars, researchers, professionals and students. Its main goal is to encourage debate and interaction among all the participants. It will be structured in three thematic sessions that attempt to cover a host of analytical perspectives through the contribution of scholars as well as television professionals. Each session will have two parts: ‘workshop/lecture’ (speakers’ papers will be pre-circulated) and ‘film forum’ (including projections), where the views of scholars and television professionals will be contrasted and discussed. Furthermore, participants will be asked to respond to the circulated papers for the three thematic sessions and/or to submit a short video for the closing session (see details below).  In short, theory meets practice.

PROGRAM

Thursday 16 May 2013

Morning
11:00 Reception
12:00 to 13:00 Tribute to Josep Miquel Vidal
Afternoon
15:45 to 16:00 Welcoming remarks
Session 1: From news to fiction: television formats featuring science, medicine and technology
16:00 to 17:30 Josep M. Comelles (Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Tarragona, Spain)Ethnography and media representations of medial professionals in TV shows
17:30 to 18:00 Coffee break
18:00-20:00 Film forum: David Dugan (Windfallfilms, UK)The secrets of science story-telling in TV documentaries

Friday 17 May 2013

Morning
Session 2: Science documentaries: history and evolution of a genre
9:30 to 11:00 Tim Boon (Science Museum, London, UK)The stabilisation and meanings of science on British Television, 1960-1979
11:00-11:30 Coffee break
11:30-13:30 Film forum: Joan Úbeda (Mediapro, Spain)Creative strategies for scientific documentaries
Afternoon
Session 3: Science as home entertainment: commercial approaches and their impact on contemporary society
16:00 to 17:30 Markus Lehmkuhl (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany)Understanding the Economics of Science in TV: A Look on Science Audiences
16:00 to 17:30 Coffee break
18: 00 to 20:00 Film forum: Ana Montserrat (Televisión Española, Spain)Science television is just television

Saturday 18 May 2013

Morning
Closing session
10:00 to 12:00 Presentation and discussion of videos submitted by participants. General discussion
12:00-13:30 Break
12:30-13:00 Concluding Remarks, by the scientific committee. School closure.

All sessions will be conducted in English.

When and were: 16-18 May 2013 at Institute for Minorcan Studies (Institut Menorquí d’Estudis/IME), Camí des Castell, 28, Mahon (Minorca).

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

Participants are encouraged to sign up:

  • to answer (first in writing then by participating in the corresponding session) at least one of the questions put forward by the workshop speakers in their pre-circulated papers (applicants may sign up by sending an email to schct@iec.cat before May 3, 2013), or

  • to submit a video (see below).

VIDEO SUBMISSIONS

Theory meets practice, practice meets theory.

The 2013 Spring School features a small video festival. Participants may submit short videos (max.: 5 minutes; ‘jpg’ or ‘avi’ formats) about science and/or history of science (the subject within these fields of interest is open). The purpose is to explore and experience firsthand the possibilities and difficulties to portray science, medicine and/or technology through the audiovisual medium. Submitted pieces will be shown and discussed with speakers and participants in the Closing Session of the School. For details regarding submissions (url, username, keyword), please contact directly Carlos Tabernero, from the organizing committee (carlos.tabernero@uab.cat).

GRANTS

A limited number of grants will be provided in order to cover school fees, accommodation and/or travel expenses.

Applicants may apply by sending a CV and a letter, together with the completed registration form toschct@iec.cat before February 28, 2013.

The letter should include a statement of interest and a financial statement. It should also state if you are member of the SCHCT, the ESHS or any other history of science, medicine, technology society, and if you are a student or lecturer at any of the universities of the Joan Lluís Vives network. And importantly, the letter must include a commitment to participate in the School.

This commitment implies that grant applicants MUST sign up either to answer at least one of the questions put forward by the workshop speakers in their pre-circulated papers or to submit a video. The commitment to participate is compulsory to be eligible for a grant, but does not guarantee it as number of grants will be limited.

Credit card information (number and expiration date) will be requested to awarded participants in order to guaranteeing their attendance.

 

DEADLINES

February 28, 2013: Deadline for grants application
March 29, 2013: Deadline for registration with discount
April  26, 2013: Deadline for registration
May 3, 2013: Deadline for submitting a short video (optional) and to register to answer the questions put forward by the workshop speakers in their pre-circulated papers

REGISTRATION

Registration pack: 300 € (includes conference fees and 2 nights lodging in individual room)

Registration pack 2: 200 € (includes conference fees and 2 nights lodging in shared room)

Registration pack 3: 100 € (includes conference fees)

 

DISCOUNT

Early registrants(up to March 29, 2013) will receive a 50 € discount.


PAYMENT PROCEDURES

Wire transfer (with the indication of your SURNAME, please) to:
2100 0963 67 0200031280 (IBAN: ES30 2100 0963 6702 0003 1280)
Caixa d’Estalvis i Pensions de Barcelona, BIC: CAIXES-BBXXX
Branch: Carrer del Carme, 44, 08001 Barcelona, Spain
Holder: IEC Societat Catalana d’Història de la Ciència i de la Tècnica

FURTHER INFORMATION:

springschool@iec.cat

Organizing committee:
Carlos Tabernero, Centre for the History of Science (CEHIC): carlos.tabernero@uab.cat
Oliver Hochadel, Institució Milà i Fontanals (CSIC): oliver.hochadel@imf.csic.es
Clara Florensa, Centre for the History of Science (CEHIC): clara.florensa@uab.cat
Josep M. Vidal, Institut Menorquí d’Estudis (IME): info.ime@cime.es

 

Image credits:
Description: Family watching television, c. 1958
Source: National Archives and Records Administration.http://web.archive.org/web/20071226081329/teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail427.html
Author: Evert F. Baumgardner
Permission: Images of American Political History. Posting online by Dr. William J. Ball. All images are believed to be public domain.

PREVIOUS SCHOOLS

I. Museums (May 17-19, 2001)
II. Journalism (April 3-5, 2003)
III. Cinema (April 14-16, 2005)
IV. Publicity and Propaganda (May 17-19, 2007)
V. Radioactivity in the Public Sphere (May 21-23, 2009)
VI. Visual Representations in Science (May 19-21, 2011)

Former lecturers

Benet, Vicente (Universitat Jaume I, Castelló)
Bennett, Jim (University of Oxford, England)
Bergeron, Andrée (Palais de la Découverte, Paris)
Bleichmar, Daniela (University of South California)
Brenni, Paolo (Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Firenze, Italy)
Cantor, Geoffrey (University of Leeds, England)
Jurdant, Baudouin (Université de Paris VII, France)
Hentschel, Klaus (Universität Stuttgart)
Hopwood, Nick (University of Cambridge)
Martinet, Alexis (Institut de Cinématographie Scientifique, Meudon, France)
Menéndez-Navarro, Alfredo (Departamento de A. P. e Historia de la Ciencia, Universidad de Granada)
Olmi, Giuseppe (Università di Bologna, Italy)
Pickstone, John (University of Manchester, England)
Rasmussen, Anne (Université de Strasbourg, France)
Smith, Melissa (Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine, University of Manchester)
Soubiran, Sébastien (Institut de Recherches Interdisciplinaires sur les Sciences et la Technologie, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg)
Tansey, Tilli (Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine, London)
Walker, Mark (Union College, Schenectady NY)
Weinants, Thomas (Visual Media, Belgium)
Weingart, Peter (Bielefeld Universität, Germany)

Organized by:

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Sponsored by:

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Patronage by:
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