About:

Some of the earliest mathematical rumination concerns mapping and modelling the periodicities of celestial phenomena. One particularly striking recurring astronomical event is the dramatic celestial occurrence of a lunar or solar eclipse. These events inspired early thinkers to develop and refine techniques and procedures to predict these phenomena and account for their features. Yet, despite the widespread continuity of the endeavour of eclipse reckoning and the mathematical practices that underpin it, typical narratives of its technical history nonetheless tend to be very geographically confined and dominated by sources and voices carrying the interests of specific regions subject to the influence of particular contemporary forces. Existing scholarship invites further work that can encompass a unity of approach alongside distinctiveness. This enterprise requires a wide range of mathematical, technical, cultural, and historical expertise to uncover commonalities and circulation in all directions. 

The objective of this 5-day workshop is to bring scholars from distinct cultures of inquiry together to share the specific ways in which people in different times and places developed mathematics to model eclipse phenomena, with a chronological focus on the period 1650-1922, and to trace the circulation and development of these technical insights and practices globally. The workshop will include academic papers from a range of both established and early-career researchers alongside workshops designed to connect participants with eclipse-related methods and physical processes of mathematical knowledge-making, as well as to consider different forms of research output related to eclipse research and how this changed over the period under investigation and continues to develop. The aim is to bring together a cross-cultural cohort of scholars with the vision of generating a broader, coherent sense of shared ownership of the mathematical tradition of eclipse reckoning.

Participation:

Details regarding participation at this workshop will appear here in due course.