Research Group: History of Science, Technology, and Environment

Coordination: Maria de Fátima Nunes

With a research tradition in the History of Science, consolidated around the IHC facilities at the University of Évora, the group develops studies about laboratories, museums, disciplines, objects, and scientific collections, taking into account the international involvement of scientific practices since the 18th century. The group’s researchers are dedicated to the history of different processes of circulation of knowledge and techniques, analysing specificities within the different disciplinary fields, but also considering science in a general historical framework.

Moreover and within this context, given the technical development and technological applications of science in the fields of human and non-human life, the group is currently an important meeting point between Studies on Science and Technology and Environmental History. Research projects on the history of forests and forestry policies, as well as on the history of seeds, plagues and famines, or even on the history of the great fires, are an expression of this junction. The group has also contributed to the development and renewal of imperial history, both in the History of Science and in Environmental History.

The group brings together historians with a background in history, but also in natural sciences. It promotes and supports the publication of HoST – Journal of History of Science and Technology. Aiming to promote scientific and environmental culture and the relations between research and advanced training, it coordinates the doctoral programme in History and Philosophy of Science – Museology at the University of Évora; and it maintains strategic relations with partners such as the National Museum of Natural History and Science (Lisbon), the National Museum of Archaeology (Lisbon), the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra or the Santos Rocha Municipal Museum (Figueira da Foz).