Report end of term II(March) 2013

I last reported on my work in December 2012. In 2013 I will be working 80% on the Warwick project and 20% on the Swedish project.

Teaching:

  • Term 2 is when I do most of my teaching. I am giving 6 lectures and 4 seminar for the World of Consumption. I reorganised the seminars this year but otherwise I have recycled the lectures from last year so not much work preparing for this.
  • I gave my lecture for the Enlightenment course, and I am also giving one lecture for the Galleons and Caravan course in the beginning of term 3 (which needs to be rewritten to match changes to the curriculum)
  • The PCAPP course; I have taken part in one workshop and signed up for another seven up until the end of this academic year.

Research Presentations (conferences, workshops, seminars)

Since last report

  • 11-13 Jan 2013: The European market for teas and the Swedish East India Company, c. 1730-1760 Hanna Hodacs & Leos Müller, Goods from the East Conference, Venice,
  • 22 Feb 2013, RCA London: “Eight Shades of Blue – 18th Century Chinese Silk on the European market”, Colour Symposium at the RCA (invitation)

Forthcoming

  • 15-16 of April 2013, Workshop on Collection building early modern and 19th century, Copenhagen (invited by Brita Brenna)
  • 3-5 of May, 2014, Political economy and Company Conference in Yale
  • 22-28 July 2013,"Understanding tea from China in 18th century Europe", Panel with Alexandra Cook, Hong Kong, Betina Dietz, Hong Kong, & Hjalmar Fors, Uppsala, ‘Putting Chinese natural knowledge to work in the long eighteenth century’, 24th International Congress History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
  • Abstract:What can tea tell us about how knowledge of the natural world moved between China and Europe in the 18th century? Two contradictory stories seem to exist. One is about naturalists failing to orchestrate planned transfers of the tea bush. This species was only successfully re-located in the early 19th century (and initially only within Asia), in spite of multiple attempts to bring seeds and seedlings to Europe and the Atlantic world. Meanwhile, however, there is another story about the exponential growth in knowledge about different varieties and qualities of tea as a consumer good in Europe, in response to the growing imports of Chinese tea by the European East India Companies. In my paper I will analyse the overlapping stories of how knowledge about the tea plants, its cultivation and the different qualities of the finished product moved between Asia and Europe in the 18th century.
  • 5-7 Sept 2013: “Knowledge Generation, Education and Careers – the Role of Travelling in Linnaean Natural History”, Symposium, "Travel, Agency, and the Circulation of Knowledge", Rostock (invited by Gesa Mackenthun)
  • Abstract: Carolus Linnaeus’ (1707-1778) taxonomic work was central to the modernisation of natural history in the eighteenth century. His most significant claim to fame was the invention of the binominal nomenclature. Launched internationally in 1753 with the publication of Species Plantarum, Linnaeus’ global flora, it soon became a standard way for naming species. Following the growing dominance of Europe globally Linnaean taxonomy became a tool for travellers exploring and writing about the none European world. We are familiar with many aspects of this history. Told like above, underlining the growing power of Europe as the backdrop for understanding how Linnaean taxonomy became a standard, many of the original intentions and thoughts regarding the role of travelling and knowledge generation is lost. In this paper I will point at some of these, focusing particularly on the role of local informants and local knowledge within a Swedish context, and travelling as a form of education, creating embodied forms of knowledge, with which help junior naturalists could be promoted. I will also argue that a focus on locally generated knowledge, education, and promotion will help us understand the application of Linnaean taxonomy globally, in the late eighteenth century and onwards. The paper is based on a reading of Linnaeus’ own travel writing, and as well as on some of his texts on travelling and education. I will also draw on a selection travel accounts produced by Linnaeus’ students.
  • Spring 2014: Learning collection building, at Re:production of knowledge, Symposium: Dept. for History of Science and Ideas, Uppsala University (moved forward)
  • Spring 2014: Second workshop on Global Linnaean Science, Florence (in the process of organizing this event together with Stéphane Van Damme and Kenneth Nyberg)
  • May 2014: Workshop on Scandinavian East India Companies, Gothenburg

Archive visits past

  • 10-15 of February Visit to Uppsala University Library to look at material relating to colour and silk.

Archive visits forthcoming

  • 17-18 of April 2014, Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen
  • One more visit to Copenhagen in the late spring, early summer of 2013

Current work

  • In the process of writing sample chapter to go with book proposal for Tea and Silk in the North
  • In the process of writing short papers for Yale conference
  • In the process of writing book proposal for edited volume, A global History of Linnaean science
  • In the process of writing part of the book proposal for Goods from the East
  • In the process of organising second workshop on Linnaean global history
  • In the process of organising workshop on Scandinavian East India trade
  • Agreed to be external examiner for PhD thesis in Sweden (5 of June)

Forgot to mentioned this in my last report December 2012:

  • Wrote book reviews for Historisk TIdskrift and Lychnos
  • Refereed articles for Journal of Global History and Yearbook for Nordic Eighteenth Century Studies