Shortlist Gewina-Descartes-Huygens Scriptieprijs voor Wetenschaps- en Universiteitsgeschiedenis 2019
On June 21, 2019, the Gewina-Descartes-Huygens Thesis Award for the History of Science and Universities will be handed over for the third time at the Gewina Woudschoten Conference. Over the last couple of months, a four-headed jury has worked assiduously to evaluate no less than eighteen submissions received from Belgian and Dutch master students. The following titles have been shortlisted:
LEA BEIERMANN, "MICROSCOPICAL SCIENCE": BUILDING AN INSTRUMENTAL COMMUNITY IN LONDON’S PERIODICAL PRESS, 1860-1880
In the mid-nineteenth century, numerous microscopy societies and journals were launched, catering to a diverse community of amateur and professional scientists, physicians, and engineers. In her thesis, Beiermann studies the formation of a microscopy community in the pages of London’s periodical press and shows that subgroups within the community aligned with various epistemic systems – ways of knowing and making – that either lost or gained importance. Science professionalization is thus conceptualized as a change in prominent epistemic programs. As present-day citizen science projects again destabilize categories of amateurism and professionalism, this thesis allows us to contrast current developments with earlier configurations of the amateur/professional dichotomy.
Beiermann wrote her thesis to complete the Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology program (RMSc) at Maastricht University. She graduated in Juni 2017.
WOUTER EGELMEERS, REFRAMING SEXUALITY: MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD’S EXPOSITION OF ‘UNIVERSAL’ FETISHISM IN HIS 1930 BILDERTEIL ZUR GESCHLECHTSKUNDE
The German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld (1868-1935) was one of the first and most influential theorizers in the field of sexual “deviance” who advocated the public acceptance of sexual variety. This thesis engages with the intriguing kaleidoscopic visual exposition of Hirschfeld’s sexological worldview in the 1930 visual part or Bilderteil of his magnum opus Geschlechtskunde. On the basis of an analysis of its visual discourse and accompanying “biographical” descriptions of images, Egelmeers examines how Hirschfeld collected images and ordered them for his visual argument. By comparing images of Europeans and non-Westerners, Hirschfeld intended to prove the universality, and thus normality, of fetishistic desires. Yet his methodology also reinforced stereotypes about the culture and sexuality of both groups.
Egelmeers wrote his thesis to complete the History program (RMA) at Radboud University. He graduated in April 2016.
VIRGILE ROYEN, LES UNIVERSITAIRES LIÉGEOIS FACE À LA FLAMANDISATION DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DE GAND (1918-1930)
The ‘dutchification’ of the State University of Ghent is often seen as a milestone in the linguistic clashes in Belgium. Royen, however, successfully argues for a different interpretation. In his thesis, he studies the role of the professors and students from the University of Liège between 1918 and 1930 in their fight against dutchification. He shows that the esprit de corps likewise shaped the academic protest movement. Through the analysis of their initiatives and discourses, Royen provides a new understanding of the social position of this ‘estate’ and reveals the relationship between the nationalistic and professional aspects of the ‘Gand-Français’-movement.
Royen wrote his thesis to complete the History program (RMA) at the University of Liège. He graduated in August 2017.
