FASoS alumna Lea Beiermann shortlisted for Thesis Award
Lea Beiermann is one of the three remaining candidates for the 2019 Gewina-Descartes-Huygens Thesis Award. This prize is given triannually to the best MA thesis in the History of Science and Universities written in the Netherlands and Belgium. A four-member jury made the selection out of 18 submissions. The award will be handed to the winner on 21 June at the Gewina Woudschoten Conference.
In the mid-nineteenth century, numerous microscopy societies and journals were launched, catering to a diverse community of amateur and professional scientists, physicians, and engineers. In her thesis, Beiermann studies the formation of a microscopy community in the pages of London’s periodical press and shows that subgroups within the community aligned with various epistemic systems – ways of knowing and making – that either lost or gained importance. Science professionalisation is thus conceptualised as a change in prominent epistemic programs. As present-day citizen science projects again destabilise categories of amateurism and professionalism, this thesis allows us to contrast current developments with earlier configurations of the amateur/professional dichotomy.
Beiermann wrote her thesis, entitled: ‘Microscopical Science”: Building an Instrumental Community in London’s Periodical Press, 1860-1880’ to complete the Cultures of Arts, Science and Technology programme (RMSc) at Maastricht University. She graduated in Juni 2017.
Also read
-
In the upcoming months, we’ll share tips on Instagram for our students on how to live a healthier life. Not just a random collection, but tips based on actual research happening at our faculty. The brains behind this idea are Lieve Vonken and Gido Metz, PhD candidates at CAPHRI, the Care and Public...