Biennial History of Astronomy Workshop - ND XII June 24–28, 2015
Program
Notes:
- The printed schedule you receive when you arrive on campus will be the definitive schedule.
- All talks will take place in the main auditorium of McKenna Hall; the book display area will be in rooms 100–104.
- Refreshments during breaks will be available in these rooms.
| Wednesday, June 24 | Workshop Opens |
| 7:00 pm | Public lecture, Auditorium of Hesburgh Center for International Studies (map) Speaker: Michio Yano, Professor Emeritus at Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan Title: Use of Geometry in Indian Astronomy (abstract) (event poster) |
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| Welcome reception to follow in the Grand Hall of Hesburgh Center for International Studies |
| Thursday, June 25 | McKenna Hall |
| 8:30 - 8:45 am | Welcome and opening statements |
| Poster Paper, displayed in rooms 100–104 “Saving Plato’s Soul,” George Beke Latura, Independent Scholar (abstract) |
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| 8:45 - 10:45 am | Panel: “Studies in the History of the Extraterrestrial Life Debate” (abstract) Moderator: Matthew F. Dowd “Milton’s Paradise Lost and Early Modern ET,” Dennis Danielson, University of British Columbia (abstract) “The Place of Sir John Herschel (1792-1871) in the Extraterrestrial Life Debate,” Michael J. Crowe, University of Notre Dame (abstract) “The Extraterrestrial Life Debate as Applied History of Astronomy,” Steven J. Dick, 2014 Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology (abstract) |
| 10:45 - 11:15 am | Break |
| 11:15 am - 12:45 pm | Paper Session Chair: Dana A. Freiburger, University of Wisconsin “From Bruno to Galileo: The Heresy of Many Worlds,” Alberto A. Martínez, University of Texas at Austin (abstract) “Georg Johann Locher’s Disquistiones Mathematicae,” Christopher M. Graney, Jefferson Community & Technical College (abstract) “The View from the Moon: Kepler’s Exercise in the Power of Alternate Perspectives,” Sarah Reynolds, Indiana University (abstract) |
| 12:45 - 1:00 pm | Group photo outside McKenna Hall |
| 1:00 - 2:15 pm | Lunch |
| 2:15 - 3:45 pm | Paper Session Chair: Thomas Hockey, University of Northern Iowa “‘Winged and Luminous Analysis’: The Voice of Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel,” Craig B. Waff (posthumous) and Trudy E. Bell, Independent Scholar (abstract) “The Words of Discovery: Digital Imagery of the High-Z Supernova Team’s Communications Surrounding the Nobel Prize Winning Discovery of Dark Energy,” Keith W. Davis, University of Notre Dame (abstract) “‘Our Only Chance is to Fight’: Optical and Radio Astronomers and the Environmental Protection of Outer Space, 1957–1963,” Lisa Ruth Rand, University of Pennsylvania (abstract) |
| 3:45 - 4:15 pm | Break |
| 4:15 - 6:15 pm | Panel: “Aspects of Indian Astronomy” (abstract) Moderator: Michio Yano, Kyoto Sangyo University “The Concept of ‘Gola’ in Sanskrit Sources,” Sho Hirose, Université Paris Diderot (abstract) “The Astronomical Knowledge of the Buddha, Sages and Foreigners: The Question of Authority in Buddhist Astral Science in South and East Asia,” Bill Mak, Kyoto University (abstract) “The ‘Canonicity’ of Table Texts in Sanskrit Astronomy,” Kim Plofker, Union College (abstract) |
| 8:00 pm | Reception at the home of Matt & Amy Dowd, 17890 Drury Lane Ct., Granger, IN 46530 |
| Friday, June 26 | Field trip to the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago |
| 8:45 am (EDT) | Bus boarding begins at McKenna Hall |
| 9:00 am | Bus departs from McKenna Hall for Adler Planetarium |
| 10:00 am (CDT) | Arrival in Chicago at the Adler Planetarium |
| 10:00 - 10:15 am | Welcoming remarks from Pedro M. P. Raposo, Curator, Adler Planetarium Location: we gather in the Samuel C. Johnson Family Star Theater |
| 10:15 - 11:45 am | Panel: “Time and Astronomy’s Authority” (abstract) Presenter: Sara J. Schechner, David P. Wheatland Curator, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University |
| 11:45 am - 12:30 pm | Visit to the Doane Observatory (weather permitting), or free time in the museum |
| 12:30 - 1:15 pm | Lunch at Café Galileo's |
| 1:15 - 1:30 pm | Group photo on front steps of the Adler Planetarium (weather permitting) |
| 1:30 - 4:00 pm | Panel: “Recovering the ‘Weirdness’ of Nineteenth-Century Astronomy” (abstract) Moderator: Joseph P. Bassi, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University/Worldwide “‘Land-marks of the Universe’: John Herschel against Positional Astronomy,” Stephen Case, Olivet Nazarene University (abstract) “On Dropping the Ball: Punctuality and Greenwich Mean Time in Victorian Britain,” Ken Corbett, University of British Columbia (abstract) “‘Solar Spot Mania’: The Origins of Solar Research at Kew Observatory, 1852–1860,” Lee MacDonald, University of Leeds (abstract) “The Perils of Presentism: The Case of British Astronomy in the Long Nineteenth Century,” Robert Smith, University of Alberta (abstract) |
| 4:00 - 5:30 pm | Free time in the museum |
| 5:30 - 6:45 pm | Dinner in the Executive Lobby |
| 7:00 pm | Bus departs from Adler Planetarium |
| 10:00 pm (EDT) | Arrival at Notre Dame / McKenna Hall |
| Saturday, June 27 | McKenna Hall |
| 9:00 - 10:00 am | Paper Session Chair: Marc Rothenberg, National Science Foundation “Astronomy, Meteorology, or ?: Disciplinary Questions of Authority in ‘Sun-Weather Connection’ Research,” Joseph P. Bassi, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University/Worldwide (abstract) “‘Horrid Quasar’: Scientific Controversy and the Boundaries of Acceptable Research,” Barbara J. Becker, University of California-Irvine (abstract) |
| 10:00 - 10:30 am | Break |
| 10:30 am - 12:30 pm | Paper Session Chair: R. Jay Malone, History of Science Society “The Spurious Moons of Uranus: How the Authority of William Herschel Caused Astronomers and the Public to Be Misled for a Century,” Clifford J. Cunningham, National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) (abstract) “Condensing from a Fluid Haze: John Pringle Nichol, the Nebular Hypothesis, and Nineteenth-Century Cosmogony,” Howard Carlton, University of Birmingham (abstract) “The Expert Apprentice: Ángel Anguiano’s Astronomical Career,” Mónica de la Guardia, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (abstract) “Authority through Performance: The Total Solar Eclipse of 1923,” Susana Biro, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (abstract) |
| 12:30 - 2:00 pm | Lunch |
| 2:00 - 4:00 pm | Panel: “Epistemology and Authority in Cosmology” (abstract) Moderator: Monica Solomon, University of Notre Dame “Lost in the Multiverse: Self-Locating Beliefs, Observation Bias, and Typicality Assumption,” Yann Benétreau-Dupin, University of Western Ontario (abstract) “The Birth of the Universe, Chalked up to Dust,” Nora Mills Boyd, University of Pittsburgh (abstract) “Epistemic Authority of Cosmological Simulations,” Emre Keskin, University of South Florida (abstract) |
| 4:00 - 4:15 pm | Break |
| 4:15 - 5:45 pm | Paper Session Chair: Jacqueline Feke, University of Waterloo “Teaching Astronomy in Medieval Western Europe: Dragmaticon vs De Sphaera,” James Brannon, University of Wisconsin, Madison (abstract) “For the Count’s Prestige: Astronomy as Tool for the Fashioning of a Ruler’s Authority; The Case of Dutch Colonial Brazil (1638–1644),” Huib J. Zuidervaart, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (abstract) “From Creative Invention to Symbol of Authority: The Expanding Role of Telescopic Sights in the Seventeenth Century,” Voula Saridakis, Lake Forest College (abstract) |
| 5:45 - 7:00 pm | Free Time |
| 7:00 pm | Banquet in Lower Level Dining Hall, McKenna Hall |
| 8:00 pm | Invited Speaker Lecture Speaker: Michio Yano, Professor Emeritus at Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan “Sidereal vs. Tropical Coordinates in Indian Astronomy and Astrology” (abstract) McKenna Hall Auditorium |
| Evening | Observing session at Notre Dame Observatory (weather permitting) |
| Sunday, June 28 | McKenna Hall |
| 8:30 - 9:30 am | Paper Session Chair: Stephen Case, Olivet Nazarene University “‘Let them serve as signs’: The Celestial Lights in the Literature of the Early Church Fathers,” Erik C. Young, Olivet Nazarene University (abstract) “Astronomical Authority and Astrological Knowledge: Aristotle and Ptolemy in John Lydus’s On Celestial Signs,” Zoë Misiewicz, New York University (abstract) |
| 9:30 - 10:00 am | Break |
| 10:00 - 11:30 | Paper Session Chair: Susana Biro, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México “Zodiacal Light: Lost to the West for 1200 Years,” George Beke Latura, Independent Researcher, and Reza Assasi (abstract) “Techniques in Counting Xiu Fate,” Li Hui, Shanghai Institute for Science of Science (abstract) “From Power to Education: Astronomical Knowledge around the Gregorian Calendar in México,” Durruty Jesús de Alba Martínez, Universidad de Guadalajara (abstract) |
| 11:30 - Noon | Workshop Business Meeting |
Generous support for the conference is provided by the Graduate Program in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame, the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA) in the College of Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, along with the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum.