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Report on the 12th International Conference of ISHEASTM
Posted: Sep. 18, 2008 Event Date: July 14-18, 2008
TRIBUTE TO A GENERATION
The 12th International Conference on the History of Science in East Asia (12th ICHSEA)
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Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
JULY 14‐18, Monday‐Friday, 2008
International Society for the History of East Asian
Science, Technology, and Medicine (ISHEASTM)
“Tribute to a Generation and Inspire the Next”
The International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine (ISHEASTM) held its Twelfth International Conference at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, July 14‐18, 2008. The central theme was a “Tribute to a Generation” in which we honored our intellectual predecessors, our own mentoring responsibilities, and the core mentor-advisee relationship that is necessary and currently thriving for the new generation of young scholars in our field. Among the “High Ancestors” of our organization most members would include Joseph Needham, Yabuuti Kiyosi, Zhu Kezhen, Li Yan, and Qian Baocong. In addition to providing a forum for the latest scholarship in the history of science, technology, and medicine in East Asia, at our 2008 conference we also honored our field’s “Second Generation”: Professors Li Di, Pan Jixing, and Xi Zezong in mainland China, Nakayama Shigeru, Yamada Keiji, and Miyasita Saburo in Japan, Jeon Sang‐Woon in Korea, Ho Peng‐Yoke from Malaysia but residing in Australia, and Nathan Sivin and Charlotte Furth in the United States. Each one of these scholars laid the foundations in scholarship, publications, infrastructure, institutional commitment, and training during the second half of the 20th century for the global ISHEASTM community at work today.
Participants:
While it is important to celebrate the contributions of our intellectual predecessors, we also looked forward by including over 40 graduate students in addition to about 200 senior and junior scholars in the field. There were 43 panels, 58 separate sessions, and a total of 180 academic papers covering new research in the history of the exact sciences, mathematics, astronomy, technology, geology, medicine, public health, and the life sciences in East Asia. About 250 scholars participated in this conference from the following 18 different countries and regions in addition to those who came from the US: Australia, Austria, Canada, China, England, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Corporate and University Sponsors:
The Chemical Heritage Foundation, The Hitachi Foundation, The International Society for the History of East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University—Dean’s Office, Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts & Sciences, Department of History, Department of the History of Medicine, Department of the History of Science and Technology, and the East Asian Studies Program—Princeton University, Program in East Asian Studies and Program in the History of Science—The University of Pennsylvania, School of Arts & Sciences and Department of the History and Sociology of Science.
Local Organizing Committee:
Co‐chairs:
Marta Hanson, Department of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
Morris Low, Director of Asian Studies, Univ. of Queensland, Australia
Local Organizing Committee Members:
Carol Benedict, Department of History, Georgetown University
Rachel Core, Department of Sociology, Johns Hopkins University
Akiko Ito, University of Minnesota Medical School
Sharon Kingsland, Chair, Department of the History of Science & Technology, Johns Hopkins University
Randall Packard, Chair, Department of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins
Christine Ruggere, Associate Director, Department of the History of Medicine, Johns
Hopkins University
Pierce Salguero, Department of the History of Medicine, Johns Hopkins
Min Suh Son, Department of the History of Science and Technology, Johns Hopkins
Michele Thompson, Department of History, Southern Connecticut State University
Yuan Yuan Zeng, Department of Anthropology, The Catholic University of America
Public Lectures, Symposium, and Plenary Sessions:
There were two public lectures—Simon Winchester talked about his new book on Dr. Joseph Needham The Man Who Loved China July 14th the first night of the conference and Prof. Timothy Brook concluded the conference July 18th with a public lecture on his new book Vermeer’s Hat at the Walters Arts Museum. A public symposium on “The Archimedes Palimpsest and Archimedean Mathematics in China” was also hosted by the Walters Art Museum. Following the theme of the conference, the plenary sessions began with a Memoriam in honor of the late Professor Li Di (1927‐2006) by Prof. Guo Shirong and concluded with Prof. Nathan Sivin’s “Personal Reminiscences of a Generation.” The following eight plenary lectures addressed current debates and issues of the field: Prof. Tian Miao, “The State of the Field of the History of Mathematics in China,” Prof. James Bartholomew, “East Asian Scientists and Nobel Prizes,” Prof. Gregory Clancey, “The Asian Turn Toward Science Technology Studies (STS),” Prof. Paul U. Unschuld, “When Health was Freed from Fate‐Some Thoughts on the Liberating Potential of Early Chinese Medicine,” Prof. Ellis Tinios, “Representing the Body in Edo Japan,” Prof. Charlotte Furth, “Becoming Alternative: Chinese Medicine in the Modern World,” Dr. Volker Scheid, “From Hierarchies to Processes: Integrating Chinese Medicine into Modern Health Care Systems,” and Dr. Dagmar Schåfer, “Proprietary Issues in 17th‐Century China: Technology, Culture, and Beyond.” See Conference website for details. http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/histmed/news/eastm.index.html Several of these plenary lectures will be published in the society’s journal East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine. Copies of the Book of Abstracts and the Conference Poster are still available and may be obtained by contacting Prof. Marta E. Hanson.
Official Business of the Society
The triennial conferences not only serve as an academic opportunity for our members; these conferences are also the venue at which we conduct the organizational business of the Society.
(1) Zhu Kezhen Awards
During the Baltimore conference, the Society presented the Second Zhu Kezhen Award and the Zhu Kezhen Junior Awards. The awards were established in 2002 through the generosity of the Institute of the History of Natural Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and they represent the highest honors awarded by the ISHEASTM for essays of original scholarship in the history of East Asian science, technology and medicine. Professor Paul U. Unschuld, Chair of the Award Committee, presented the second Zhu Kezhen Award and the Zhu Kezhen Junior Awards to the following scholars:
Zhu Kezhen Award
Chang Che-chia (Academia Sinica), "The Myth of Rhubarb: The Strategic Rationale and Cultural Implications of China's Prohibitions on the Export of Rhubarb to Britain and Russia in the Qing Period,” Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 47 (March 2005): 43-100. "
Zhu Kezhen Junior Awards:
Carla Nappi (Montana State University), "On Yeti and Being Just: Carving the Borders of Humanity in Early Modern China," In Anne Vallely and Aaron Gross, eds. Animal Others and the Human Imagination (Forthcoming).
Wu Yu-chuan (Wellcome Trust Center for the History of Medicine, University College London), "Disappearing Anger: The Psychological Experiment on Anger among Formosan Aborigines Conducted by Fujisawa Shigeru in Late Colonial Taiwan," Xin shixue 18 (2) (2007): 103-155.
(2) Inauguration of the New Board of the Society
Our new Board members were elected in the winter of 2008 and they took office at the General Assembly Meeting in Baltimore. They are as follows:
President: Paul U. UNSCHULD
Vice-President: MEI Jianjun
Secretary: LIM Jongtae
Treasurer: Christopher CULLEN
(3) The General Assembly Meeting
The Society’s General Assembly was held at The Glass Pavilion, Johns Hopkins University, July 18, 2008.
* The Outgoing president, Prof. Christopher Cullen, reported on the whole range of the Society’s business during the years of 2005-2008. He prefaced his report by warmly congratulating Marta Hanson, Morris Low, and all their colleagues and assistants at Johns Hopkins for having organised such a large and successful conference for the Society. It was clear that all those who attended were having a most enjoyable and intellectually valuable experience. The Society owed the organisers a considerable debt of gratitude for all that they had done. His report included: (1) the current state of the Society’s membership and the recent decision to reduce the membership fee to young scholars, (2) the efforts to maximize the use of electronic technology in conducting Society’s business, for instance, setting up a new Website that has many features and useful functions and establishing a Google Group for the mutual communication among the members and the Board, (3) the Society’s official Journal, EASTM, and the financial administration of the Society (He emphasized the need to keep a solid bank balance in case the Society did not succeed this time around to get a new grant from the DFG), (4) the Zhu Kezhen Awards, (5) the efforts of the Society and the Local Organizing Committee to prepare for the 12th ICHSEA, (6) the Society’s plans to participate in the 13th International Congress of History of Science and Technology, which would be held in Budapest 2009, with five proposed panels. Prof. Cullen concluded his report expressing his compliments to the other Board members by calling attention to the fact that the excellent results in every respect of the Society’s activity would not have been possible without the strenuous efforts of the other officers of the Society.
* Treasurer Dr. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann reported on the financial situation of the Society. She outlined the balance of the Society’s account, which had become much more stable during the previous three years. It was due to the increase of income including institutional subscription to the Journal as well as the decrease of administrative costs of the Society. She mentioned the introduction of new means to accept subscriptions and other payment, PayPal, and its positive effects on the Society’s financial situation. She also reported about the problems caused by the fact that Society’s financial base was located in Paris.
* Secretary Dr. Fa-ti Fan’s report focused on his efforts to enhance communication among the members of the society. He put special emphasis on the Society’s new website and other means of electronic communication including Google Group. He also reported a number of activities he had performed as the secretary – editing and circulating the Newsletters, application for grants to the International Union of History and Philosophy of Science, and communications between the Society and other institutions of related fields.
* Report by the Editor of the Society’s official Journal, Professor Hans Ulrich Vogel focused on the financial status of the journal. He called attention to the fact that the financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) was about to end in the year 2008 and that he was currently applying for a new grant from the same foundation. If the new application is granted, the journal may receive support for another 3 plus 3 years. Moreover, the grant will enable the journal to provide an online version for the subscribers, in which additional material can be published. A system of electronic storage would be established as well as a restricted degree of open-access policy followed. He announced that two other scholars will join him as editor, one of them being Mark Elvin (St. Anthony’s College, Oxford). He also explained the current state of other sources of funds, individual and institutional subscriptions, which had considerably increased during the past three years. Eventually he thanked the editorial committee of the journal, his collaborators in Tüebingen and Cambridge (J.C. Moffett) and all the other ISHEASTM members for the constant support of the journal.
* President Prof. Cullen presented the amendment proposed from the Board to the Society’s By-laws, Article 4 (a). The proposed amendment would change the periodicity of the Society’s plenary meeting from three years to four years. This change would take place after the holding of the plenary conference due in 2011.
Prof. Cullen called attention to the fact that in accordance with Article 8 of the Society’s By-laws, the proposed amendment had been addressed to the Secretary more than six months before and had been communicated by the Secretary to all members at least three months before this triennial meeting. Prof. Cullen emphasized a number of benefits that the proposed amendment would bring to the Society. First, the difficult task of finding a location for the plenary meeting would be less frequent. Second, it would not be necessary to find new officers for the Board as frequently as now. Third, the society would nevertheless organize more frequent activities, every two years rather than every three; this would be possible by organizing a smaller activity half way between plenary meetings at the International Congresses for the History of Science (ICHS), which also has four year intervals, starting in 2013. In the following discussion, Dr. Vera Dorofeeva-Lichtmann expressed her concern that the proposed change, which meant less frequent plenary meetings, would reduce the vitality of the Society.
The amendment passed: 40 for, 1 against.
* In his inaugural speech, the new president of the Society, Paul U. Unschuld recalled the long line of his illustrious predecessors beginning with Nathan Sivin whose founding of the Society and assistance to many junior colleagues is gratefully remembered. He expressed his thanks to the outgoing board members for their good services to the Society. He emphasized the importance of the Society in providing visibility to the expanding field of the history of East Asian science, technology, and medicine, and in representing its members in larger bodies such as the Division of History of Science and Technology of the IUHPS. Prof. Unschuld also pointed out the importance of the regular ICHSEA conferences as opportunities to meet colleagues and get to know them personally rather than only read their books and papers. Finally, the new president promised to do his best to contribute to the flourishing of the Society.
* Dr. Shi Yunli introduced the venue for the 13th ICHSEA, which will be held at the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, Anhui Province, China. He emphasized a number of attractive features of the venue and its vicinities: the growing academic vitality of UCST, the scenic beauty of Huangshan “Yellow Mountains”, and the historical legacies of Fang Yizhi, Mei Wending, and Dai Zhen all of whom were from Anhui province.
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