Written by Pradipto Roy (awarded an SSHM international bursary to attend the event)
This summer, I had the privilege of attending the 2026 European Society for the History of Science (ESHS) and History of Science Society (HSS) Joint Meeting (the first of its kind, with local arrangements made by the British Society for the History of Science), that took place against the serene landscape and profound historic-social-cultural background of the much celebrated Scottish capital in Edinburgh, between 12 to 16 July, 2026. With more than a thousand participants across the globe, this four day grand event witnessed the enthusiasm of the researchers across the world, who came together in person to engage in rich scholarly debates. I, an independent scholar from India, was able to join this important meeting, due to the generous funding received from the SSHM, and some partial support was also received from the HSS towards attending this conference. I remain deeply indebted to both the SSHM and the HSS for facilitating my journey to Edinburgh from far away Kolkata in India.
The meeting started with the ESHS early career lectures on Sunday, the 12th of July afternoon, followed by four full days with up to 30 parallel sessions. The early career lectures varied in their content and scope, ranging from debating the historiography of alchemy in German orientalism, to reimagining the end of eugenics throughout the later decades of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. In sum, these early career lectures laid the foundation for the next four days rich discourses on history of science, centred around the theme of ‘Shifting Perspectives: Plural Worlds, Contested Sciences’. Three key themes that came out of this important meeting could be charted as, ‘decolonising the STM and plural knowledge systems’, ‘integrating material cultures with environmental to contextualise better history of science’, and critical discussions around ‘digital humanities and archival accessibilities’. In conclusion, the meeting has emerged as a unified global forum for contemporary history of science scholarship, with key recommendations such as inclusion of specific modules on non-Western scientific traditions and global knowledge networks into the introductory history of scientific thought, emphasis on cross disciplinary collaborations and building inclusive digital humanities infrastructure. With so many presenters and themes, the large gathering was spread across multiple major locations in the city, including the University of Edinburgh, the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC), the Edinburgh Futures Institute, and the National Museum of Scotland.
The joint opening plenary titled Thinking across time: History is now on Monday, 13th July evening, complicated those two intersecting conversation central to the history of science. The ESHS Presidential lecture on Tuesday evening, Seeking common ground: Histories of the sciences in divisive times, by Kärin Nickelsen (LMU Munich), tried to chart the common grounds for doing history of science while still prioritising on working around the diverse and specific areas. The HSS Prize Ceremony and Sarton Medalist Address followed, and finally the common grand reception and Cèilidh at the National Museum of Scotland, which I must say was exceptionally beautiful, vibrant and heart-warming.
The HSS Distinguished Lecture, The transatlantic slave trade and the making of science and medicine by Pablo F. Gómez on Wednesday evening caught the audience spellbound. Probing the early archives of slavery, it aimed at critical reimagining of the geographies, chronologies, categories and sources through which historians of science have often conceptualised the history of science and medicine.
In the other masterful plenary lecture that followed (namely the ESHS Neuenschwander Prize Lecture, titled, From the Margins: Rethinking power and perspective in history of science), Professor Ana Simões, offered a powerful critique of how the global history of science handles geographic and cultural hierarchies. By creatively drawing on J.S. Bach’s The Art of the Fugue, Prof. Simões argued that marginalised regions in the history of science do not just passively receive ideas from a centre; instead, they act like voices in a fugue – taking a global scientific concept, transforming it through local context, and playing it back to create a much richer, complex global narrative. This concluding plenary thus served as a call to look from the margins to build a more complex, interconnected yet nuanced, non-Eurocentric history of science.
My own paper titled, Local actors and global sciences: Contextualizing the making of modern mind sciences in late-colonial India– in the panel on ‘Contested Theories of Body and Mind’ on Tuesday, analysed how the Indian intelligentsia, professionals and institutions appropriated, reappropriated, braided, subverted, moulded and shaped building of the modern mind sciences from similar perspective.
An interesting panel that I had the privilege to chair (especially from the vantage point of being both a clinician and a health social science researcher from the Global South), titled, ‘Medical Professionalization and Its Histories’, on Monday 13th July, included two interesting presentations deeply aligned with the overarching theme of the event, viz., Nia Goc’s work probing Dr T. R. Allinson’s tenuous relation with the UK General Medical Council in late nineteenth century, from the perspective of medical heterodoxy, and Mariko Ogawa’s work complicating women’s participation and vivisection debates towards consolidating international medical congresses throughout successive decades.
Various round-tables concerning archives and on exploring diverse sources and methodologies, could be referred to as the most interesting sessions of the five day long event involving sociologists, historians, practitioners and researchers from different backgrounds. Last but not the least, there were provisions of different educational tours and guided excursions, such as, the original ‘Curious Edinburgh’ history of science walk- led by the kind Professor Emeritus John Henry, exploring some actual sources for the history of alchemy and chemistry, Holyrood Park Geology Tour, a very richly illustrated guided tour of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh Museums and Archives, tour of the university anatomical museum, Anne Hardy exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh printmakers and rich science of musical instrument preservation, the historic Crawford Collection at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh (an active observatory), evening talks and tour at James Clerk Maxwell’s birthplace at 14 India Street, Edinburgh, guided visit to the National Museums Collections Centre and so on, – which altogether made this history of science joint meeting unique, highly vibrant, and enormous in scope. Participants across the globe did manage to make a few new friends (some over the warmth of the lively Celidh!) and a number of enthusiastic colleagues, with whom new threads in the interconnected history of science research could be weaved in the future, if not more! I cannot thank the SSHM enough for allowing me the kind opportunity to plunge in this majestic meeting in Edinburgh.