Dear BSHS member,
It’s my great pleasure to write to you after the first BSHS council meeting of 2022.
Happy birthday to us! BSHS turns 75 this year, and we are looking forward to an in-person conference to celebrate the anniversary. Taking place from 20th to 23rd July at Queen’s University Belfast, the meeting will include a special and timely strand on the Public History of Science and Technology. There is still (just!) time to submit a panel or a paper proposal. Meanwhile, our postgraduates are planning a conference to take place online in April.
In further honour of our anniversary, BSHS will be offering up to ten prize awards for the making of short YouTube videos on the history of science, and organising some mass-editing events for history of science articles on Wikipedia. We also hope to hold an afternoon and evening celebration event on our actual birthday, 5th May, at the Science Museum, London. Please watch out for details on all these schemes and events. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow us @BSHSNews.
Many of you have recently renewed your membership, with a good number switching to paperless receipt of our publications. We have been working on ways to make sure that these people receive proper alerts when things are published digitally, so that no-one misses out on that doormat moment when exciting things arrive. A special thank you to the substantial number of you who have moved onto the ‘supporter’ rate, which gives extra money to enable the Society in all its work.
On this note, the Outreach and Engagement Committee has updated one of its key awards to become the BSHS Exhibiting Excellence prize. Its next project grant application deadline is 18th February. Successful candidates from the 2021 Engagement Fellowship awards are currently in place at the Old Operating Theatre, London, and at UK Antarctic Heritage. Watch out for this year’s call for Fellowships, coming soon. One other competition is currently open – the BSHS Singer prize for best journal article by an early career researcher.
At out meeting, we thanked Rebekah Higgitt for her excellent work as Society treasurer, and welcomed Pratik Chakrabarti who has kindly agreed to take on the role. We also discussed the question of how to continue to gather new members at the postgraduate stage, and agreed a simple message for circulation. If you teach postgraduate students, whether at Masters or Doctoral level, please consider copying the text below into an email to them.
With all good wishes,
Charlotte Sleigh (BSHS President)