Early Sciences Working Group

I am a co-coordinator of Harvard’s Early Sciences Working Group (ESWG), which brings graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty together to discuss current work in the fields of ancient, medieval and early modern science and medicine. Our primary goal is to provide a forum for scholars to present and receive comments on their current research. Presenters at the working group share drafts of articles, dissertation chapters, and research from books-in-progress or independent projects.

This year, as part of the existing Early Sciences Working Group format of pre-circulated papers, we are excited to introduce a new workshop focused on the interpretation of primary sources. Primary source engagement is at the heart of our scholarly practice, yet it often happens in isolation. This new group seeks to create a more communal space for encountering and interpreting sources together. We also hope to expand our sense of what kinds of materials can count as sources in the history of science, and how we approach them. Primary sources may include traditional textual materials—recipes, letters, treatises, marginalia, case notes, petitions, legal records, travelogues, or manuals—as well as visual and material sources such as maps, diagrams, anatomical drawings, botanical illustrations, medical images, instruments, artifacts, and so on.