The Scientia special issue seeks to engage with central themes in current social science and humanities research on the circumpolar world. For instance, the circumpolar world has long provided field laboratories for international scientific research. As field laboratories, circumpolar environments and their scientific study are mutually constitutive. Research findings and the material practices of science have local and regional effects. In turn, circumpolar environments and the people who call them home, influence scientific interpretations. The meeting of indigenous and scientific knowledge and narratives across the circumpolar world is an important area of study. We encourage submissions that address any of these various areas of research.

Historical research has further shown the significance of circumpolar field studies to the creation and elaboration of scientific networks. Such networks are key to the history of particular disciplines and also to the political histories of the circumpolar world. Scientists have played important roles in international disputes regarding sovereignty over circumpolar lands and waters. These too are themes that proposals could address.

More generally, circumpolar environments have encouraged technological innovation for transportation, communication, resource exploitation, and defense; they pose challenges to the provision of institutional medical care and as a result many circumpolar regions have health histories and geographies that are distinct from those that characterize other broad regional environments. Research that considers the history of technology and the history of medicine, from local, indigenous, or outside perspectives is welcome.

We will consider proposals from a science studies perspective that address the broader social and philosophical as well as historical contexts of circumpolar science, technology, and medicine.

Abstracts of 250-500 words should be submitted over email by 1 May 2009 to guest editor, Liza Piper. Full manuscripts are due 1 December 2009. Final papers should be between 7500 and 10, 000 words, notes included and the special issue is scheduled to appear in print Fall 2010.

For more information please contact Liza Piper at the following address:

Department of History & Classics
University of Alberta
Edmonton, AB, T6G 2H4, Canada
tel: 780-492-0855
fax: 780-492-9125

Or you can contact the journal.