Séminaire – Centre pour une Histoire de la Philosophie et des Sciences vue d’Asie, d’Afrique, etc (CHPSAA)

Science in Latin America, Latin American Science : Recent Historical and Historiographical Perspectives, organized by Thomas Haddad (University of Sao Paulo, Brazil)
Programme :

14:30 — 15:45
Martha Cecilia Bustamante (SPHERE)
Reflections on the end of eurocentrism in Latin American history of science : from the 16th International Congress of the History of Science and « Bucharest Declaration » (1981) to the Science and Empires Colloquium (1990)
Résumé :
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was a notable increase in the
history of sciences in Latin America. A small community of scholars, feeling isolated and lacking a professional framework, sought to « professionalize their field » and disseminate the studies they had carried out as widely as possible. The story begins with the « Bucharest Declaration » in 1981 and ends with the Paris Colloquium Science and Empires in 1990.

15:45 — 16:00
Pause

16:00 — 17:30
Matheus Alves Duarte da Silva (University of St Andrews, UK)
When plague connected the world : Production and circulation of microbiological knowledge between Brazil, India, and Western Europe (1890-1920)
Résumé
From 1894 to 1920, plague swept across the world, in what became known as the Third Plague Pandemic. The disease killed more than 12 million people, causing havoc in maritime hubs, and changing the way humans interact with rats. The first three decades of the pandemic were the first time microbiological sera and vaccines were invented and widely applied to treat and immunize against the disease. Brazil, India, and Western Europe became important sites for the production and study of these objects, thanks to an intense circulation of experts, sera, vaccines, and scientific data. Rather than following a North-South dynamic, these exchanges were principally marked by South-South and South-North interactions. India emerged as the world’s main producer of anti-plague vaccines, and the place where the efficacy of sera manufactured in Brazil and Europe was put to the test. Brazil, on the other hand, played a central role in the invention of new vaccines and of techniques of immunization. The South American nation also became the country where anti-plague serotherapy was most widely employed. Relying on rich and largely overlooked documents held in archives in Brazil, Portugal, the UK, France, Italy, and Israel/Palestine, this presentation will examine the trajectories of several anti-plague sera and vaccines. It will discuss the agency of actors based in Brazil and India to produce knowledge on plague treatment and prevention, and to (re)shape global scientific dynamics, challenging established ideas about the globalization of microbiology and the role of Latin American science in the process.

lieu : salle 569 (5è étage) bâtiment Olympe de Gouges