BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Metropole of the mind: phrenology and the making of a global scien
 ce\, 1815-1923 - James Poskett\, Department of History and Philosophy of S
 cience.
DTSTART:20150428T121000Z
DTEND:20150428T130000Z
UID:TALK58823@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Duncan Needham
DESCRIPTION:Phrenology had global aspirations. This novel mental science\,
  which maintained that the brain was the organ of the mind\, started life 
 in late eighteenth-century Vienna. Throughout the Napoleonic Wars\, the Ge
 rman physician Franz Joseph Gall travelled across Continental Europe\, pre
 senting his craniological principles to audiences in Berlin\, Copenhagen a
 nd Amsterdam. In 1828\, Gall died in Paris – his “doctrine of the skul
 l” had not travelled far. But by the end of the nineteenth century\, phr
 enology had emerged as a global science. Skulls were collected in Egypt an
 d Ceylon\, societies exchanged letters between India and the United States
 \, and phrenological bestsellers were sold in Shanghai and Tokyo. Despite 
 this wealth of interaction\, existing accounts treat phrenology within nea
 t national and urban settings. In contrast\, this paper argues that phreno
 logy must be reassessed in terms of global history. In doing so\, it advan
 ces three core claims. First\, phrenology traversed national\, regional an
 d imperial borders. It is only by recognising connections across the Briti
 sh\, French and American imperial worlds that we can fully account for the
  emergence of science as a global form of knowledge. Second\, conducting s
 cience on a global scale was an activity grounded in material culture. Wit
 h this in mind\, it becomes clear that the history of science needs to con
 front the limits and difficulties that this material world of capital impo
 sed. Third\, historians of science must address the global as an actors’
  category. Phrenologists were not only aware of the world in which they li
 ved\, it also mattered to them.
LOCATION:The Richard King Room\, Darwin College
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR