Monday 22 - Sunday 28 July 2013

The International Congress of History of Science, Technology and Medicine is the largest event in the field, and takes place every four years. Recent meetings have been held in Mexico City (2001), Beijing (2005) and Budapest (2009).

In 2013, the Congress will take place in Manchester, the chief city of Northwest England, and the original "shock city" of the Industrial Revolution. Congress facilities will be provided by The University of Manchester, with tours and displays on local scientific, technological and medical heritage co-ordinated by members of the University's Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. Suggestions of things to see and do in and around Manchester are available here.

The Call for Symposia is now open. There will be a separate call for individual paper proposals in May 2012. On behalf of the organising committees, we very much hope that you will be able to join us in Manchester!

Congress theme is Knowledge at Work

Call for submissions

The Congress will consider two forms of submission: Symposia and Individual Papers. A Symposium is an organised thematic panel consisting of several papers addressing a specific topic. The call for Individual Papers will be managed separately, and will open in May 2012 (see key dates). The call for Symposia is now open.

A printable version of the information below (pdf) is available.

How to submit

You can download a submission form in Microsoft Word (.docx) format or Rich Text Format. Please email the completed form to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We expect to replace this form by an online submission form with equivalent content soon.

General guidelines

The Congress requires that each Symposium is organised by two or more individuals from different countries. Organisers may be representatives of institutions, or act together as individuals. We encourage organisers to ensure that the composition of their panels reflects a range of different national backgrounds and perspectives.

The theme of the 24th Congress is ‘Knowledge at Work.’ All proposals must indicate how the Symposium fits into this theme, broadly considered.

Each Commission of the Division of the History of Science and Technology of the International Union for the History and Philosophy of Science is expected to organise at least one Symposium in its area.

The Congress has no funds to support Symposia, excepting the probable availability of student bursaries (to be announced at a later date). However, any sponsorship (academic or commercial) that a Symposium may obtain will be fully acknowledged at the Congress and in its publications.

Programme structure

The expected timetabling is as follows: each day of the Congress will be divided into two half-day slots, and each slot into two 90-minute sessions (giving four sessions per day). A Symposium may occupy from one to eight half-day slots in the programme.

Within this session structure, Symposium organisers are free to propose any arrangement of speakers. For instance, a session may contain eight 10-minute papers or three 30-minute papers, with or without commentators.

There is no limit to the total number of papers in a Symposium proposal, provided they can be accommodated in the slots requested.

All proposals must be accompanied by five keywords reflecting the theme of the Symposium. To minimise clashes in a programme which will include many parallel sessions, the choice of these keywords is vital, as they will be used to determine the first draft of the programme. Keywords may be short phrases, and might include a geographical region, a chronological period, a theme, a named individual, etc. For example: ‘nineteenth century’ ‘institutions’ ‘chemistry’ ‘England’ ‘Humphry Davy’.

The Programme Committee will try to arrange for Symposia requiring more than one slot to run sequentially, but this cannot be guaranteed.

To minimise clashes, the Programme Committee also reserves the right to add papers from elsewhere to a Symposium.

Language

Papers may be presented in any of the following languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Arabic. Descriptions of Symposia may be submitted in any of these languages, but must be followed by a French or English translation.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide facilities for translation at the Congress.

Completing the submission form

Symposium organisers are required to complete all the spaces on the form.

Your ‘Description of the Symposium’ should explain how the Symposium addresses the theme of ‘Knowledge at Work’, and indicate as far as possible who will be speaking (the Programme Committee appreciates that you may only be able to give provisional details at this stage).

The form will be taken down at midnight (British Summer Time) on Monday 30 April 2012. No proposals can be considered after this point.

The Programme Committee will send confirmations of all accepted proposals to the named organisers, via the contact details given, by Saturday 30 June 2012. It will then be the responsibility of the Symposium organisers to ensure that their speakers submit their individual abstracts via the individual paper submission system.

Organisers should note that no speaker will appear on the programme who has not registered by 1 July 2013. It is the organiser’s responsibility to make sure that all potential speakers are aware of this.