Alexander von Humboldt Symposium

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From: Mark Stoll <marks@ADMIN.STEDWARDS.EDU>
Subject: Ankuendigung: Alexander von Humboldt Symposium
Date: Thursday, February 20, 1997 11:20:37 MET

New Perspectives on Alexander von Humboldt

An international symposium to be held at the Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen

29 - 31 May 1997

Venue:

Humboldtallee 36,

D-37073 Goettingen

Thursday, 29 May

18.00-18.15 Welcome by the Dean of the Humanities Faculty

18.15-19.00 Nicolaas Rupke (Goettingen) The many Humboldts of the biographical literature

19.00-20.00 Opening of the Conference Exhibition

Friday, 30 May

Towards a Geography of Humboldt's Fame
Chair: Anthony Pagden (Cambridge / Johns Hopkins)

09.00-09.30 Michael Dettelbach (Smith College / MPI fuer Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin)
Surveying the landscape: Alexander von Humboldt as critic of the sciences
09.30-10.00 Andreas Daum (German Historical Institute, Washington, DC)
A hero invented: Alexander von Humboldt in the 19th-century American public sphere
10.00-10.30 Roderick Home (Melbourne)
Humboldtian imagery and 'the Humboldt of Australia'
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00-11.30 Wolfgang Boeker and Rainer Broemer (Goettingen)
The German biographical construction of Alexander von Humboldt, between the Revolution of 1848 and the Franco-Prussian War
11.30-12.00 Ingo Schwarz (Alexander-von-Humboldt- Forschungsstelle, Berlin)
Alexander von Humboldt: socio-political views ofc the Americas
12.00-12.30 Commentary by Charles Withers (Edinburgh)
and general discussion
12.30-14.00 Lunch break

Humboldtian Visualizations
Chair: Martin Kemp (Oxford)

14.00-14.30 Renate Loeschner (Ibero-American Institute, Berlin):
Paintings of South American scenes by Humboldtian artists
14.30-15.00 Reimer Eck (Goettingen)
Images of North American natives in European travel reports of the 18th and early-19th centuries
15.00-15.30 Karen Wonders (Goettingen)
Visual representations of Humboldt's 'Ansichten'
15.30-16.00 Tea break
16.00-16.30 Anne Godlevska (Queen's University, Kingston)
Alexander von Humboldt's visual language
16.30-17.00 Sybilla Nikolow (Cambridge)
Rendering the strength of the state visible: August Crome's statistical maps around 1800
17.00-17.30 Commentary by Barbara Stafford (Chicago)
and general discussion
18.00-22.00 Dinner in the 12th-century 'Burg Plesse'

Saturday, 31 May

Body, Gender and Self-Experimentation
Chair: Peter Alter (Duisburg)

09.00-09.30 Zeno Swijtink (Sonoma State University)
The experimental life of Alexander von Humboldt
09.30-10.00 Michael Shortland (Sydney)
Eros and Kosmos: making knowledge with Alexander von Humboldt
10.00-10.30 Stuart Strickland (Northwestern, Evanston / MPI für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin) Self-experimentation and Alexander von Humboldt
10.30-11.00 Coffee break
11.00-11.30 Nigel Leask (Cambridge)
Helen Maria Williams, Alexander von Humboldt and the discourse of Romantic travel
11.30-12.00 Commentary by Barbara Duden (Hanover)
and general discussion
12.00-12.15 Closing remarks by Robert Fox (Oxford)

Exhibition

Karen Wonders (Goettingen): Humboldtian Scenes and Scenery

The secondary literature on Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) has grown to colossal proportions: the Alexander-von- Humboldt-Forschungsstelle in Berlin has a record of some 10.000 Humboldt references. The growth curve of the "Humboldt industry" shows a particularly vigorous phase for the period following World War II, when in both East and West Germany partly separate and competitive interpretations of Humboldt were put forward. With the reunification of Germany, the study of Humboldt has received new stimulus and purpose. There now exists the pressing need for a stocktaking and critical analysis of this huge and varied body of Humboldt literature and of Humboldt's own works from the perspectives of recently developed historiographical approaches.

To this end an international and interdisciplinary meeting is being organised by the Goettingen Institutes for the History of Science and the History of Medicine, bringing together historians of science, of medicine and of art, as well as political historians and geographers. They will present and discuss recent Humboldt research, organized in three different sessions, each of these entering new territory of Humboldt scholarship.

In the first, the "Humboldt phenomenon" - his extraordinary international renown - will be considered by looking at the historical geography of his reputation, addressing the question: "Why did Humboldt become famous to the extent he did at particular periods and in particular countries, and what purposes did venerating him serve?" In the second session, the novel interest in non-verbal representation in the sciences will be brought to bear on Humboldt by discussing his relevance to nineteenth-century scientific visualization. In the third session, another recent theme of the historiography of science will be connected with Humboldt by venturing into the hitherto largely taboo domain of Humboldt's sexual proclivities, additionally exploring such issues as self-experimentation, and asking the question: "To what extent do body and gender matter?"

Contact:

Prof. Nicolaas Rupke

Humboldtallee 36, D-37073 Goettingen

Phone: + 49-[0]551-39-9006/-9467

Fax: + 49-[0]551-39-9554/-9748

E-mail: nrupke@gwdg.de