How the World Turns: Scientific Revolutions and Colonization (NeMLA 2025) (NeMLA)
Philadelphia, PA
Organization: NeMLA
Event: NeMLA
In his famous depiction of London’s 1851 Great Exhibition, George Cruikshank positions the Crystal Palace on top of the globe with people from all nations clamoring to see the wondrous scientific and artistic innovations contained within its sparkling glass walls. The event was revolutionary in that it marked a shift towards global exhibitions that, much like the widespread circulation of literary magazines and other print materials, gave the public access to scientific and cultural knowledge previously available only to explorers bold enough to venture beyond Europe. Yet, while the World Exhibitions were wildly popular, attracting visitors from Charles Darwin and Franz Boas to Charles Dickens and Mark Twain, they also raised concerns about the intersections between national progress and colonial violence.
This panel invites papers that investigate the complex relationships between scientific revolutions, interdisciplinary knowledge, and colonial projects in all forms, from oceanic expeditions and World Exhibitions to “tropical medicine” and museum collections. The appeal of the Crystal Palace to visitors with diverse intellectual interests captures the generative potential of exhibitions and publications that do not insist on hard disciplinary boundaries. In fact, the purpose of these events was ostensibly to benefit all humanity through an unprecedented interchange of ideas and knowledge. But does this conceptual and disciplinary fluidity elide the trespass and violence of the colonial projects that gave rise to the influx of knowledge proposed to visitors and readers? How does this tension inform the ways medical, technological, and scientific productions are (or are not) legible to contemporary scholars? And how can current theoretical models and modes of inquiry like interdisciplinary studies and decolonization illuminate hidden aspects of the advances celebrated by these earlier explorers and observers?
Papers may consider cultural, historical, or literary narratives of these revolutions, the emergence of different modes of display, exhibition, and spectatorship to disseminate information, or the legacies of these revolutions in contemporary society. Please submit a 250-300 word abstract through the NeMLA portal for consideration. Contact Kristie Schlauraff and Kate Kasten-Mutkus with questions at kschlauraff@gc.cuny.edu.
Abstract Submission Link: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21299
Kristie Schlauraff