Dear readers,
We are very happy to introduce ourselves as the new editorial team of Shells and Pebbles! With great enthusiasm we will be taking over from Jeroen, Iris, Jorrit and Sjang. First of all, we would like to thank the outgoing editors. We appreciate their work enormously and hope to carry on their legacy successfully.
Let us start with the big news: we will be relaunching Shells and Pebbles this September! The blog may have been a little quiet recently, but that ship has not yet sunk. The tide is turning, and the new editorial crew are again on the lookout for the many little shells and pebbles brought by the waves to the shores of the history of science and the humanities. From September, we intend to bring you regular posts again! In this message, we want to give you a glimpse into our plans and briefly introduce ourselves as the new editors.
We see Shells and Pebbles as a home for the community of historians of science and the humanities. Whether you have been working in the field for years or are just starting out as a student, we hope the blog has something for you. Our aim is to share hidden gems and remarkable stories that may not feature in full-length research articles, but deserve the spotlight nonetheless. Moreover, we value the blog as a place for reflection. We hope to share interviews and discussion pieces that offer surprising perspectives and deeper insights into the developments in the field. We also hope to keep abreast of current debates by publishing book reviews and reports on events within the community.
The new editorial team is positioned in the History and Philosophy of Science group at Utrecht University, which is the perfect home base for a blog like Shells and Pebbles (and, in fact, where it has its roots). We have close connections to the Research Master’s programme in History and Philosophy of Science, as well as strong links with the Dutch network of historians of science and the humanities. Although we’re based in Utrecht, we are a globally represented editorial group. Moreover, we each bring our own research perspective and expertise, and of course, we all share a fascination with the history of science and the humanities. Together, we are committed to ensuring that Shells and Pebbles continues to thrive.
Now it’s time to introduce ourselves:
Maura Burke
Maura Cassidy Burke is a PhD Candidate in the Freudenthal Institute of Utrecht University where she studies the philosophy of science and the foundations of open science. As the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Trial and Error and an Executive at the Center of Trial and Error, Maura has long been passionate about the communication of academic information. She looks forward to helping the editors and authors continue to grow and develop Shells and Pebbles in the coming years.
Luca Forgiarini
Luca Forgiarini is a PhD Candidate in the history and philosophy of science at Utrecht University. His research focusses on the history of international scientific cooperation in Europe in the second half of the twentieth century. He is particularly interested in how scientific organisations like CERN and ESA relate to the political context of European integration, and the wider pro-European sentiment of the time. As an editor of Shells and Pebbles, Luca is excited to help foster a lively platform for the history of science and the humanities community both at home and abroad.
Marieke Gelderblom
Marieke Gelderblom is working on a PhD in the history of statistical graphics at the Freudenthal Institute at Utrecht University. She is investigating why graphics were so widely embraced and how they became so deeply embedded in nineteenth-century Dutch society. Prior to her PhD, Marieke studied History and Philosophy of Science at Utrecht University, with a specialisation in Science Communication at Leiden University. Her background is in Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics. By combining these fields, she hopes to find out why numbers and mathematical structures are so helpful for understanding our world. She enjoys thinking, talking and teaching about the history of science and sees Shells and Pebbles as a platform to collect and share these fascinating stories.
David Skogerboe
David Skogerboe is a PhD Candidate at Utrecht University who specializes in the history of the twentieth-century ‘Space Age’ in its cultural and social contexts. As a researcher within the Freudenthal Institute, David focuses on the intersection of space history and science communication as it relates to imagining the future, and the impact such imaginings have on the development, implementation, and utilization of sociotechnical space technologies. He is eager to help ensure Shells and Pebbles serves as a mechanism for growing and uniting the history of science and humanities community.
Lisa Vanderheyden
As a PhD Candidate, Lisa Vanderheyden partakes in provenance research about an anatomical and cultural historical collection of foetuses originating from the museum Vrolik in Amsterdam. There is little known about the origin of the collected foetuses (how they came to be in the collection and via which channels they were collected). These material sources, originating from the nineteenth and early twentieth century, are the starting point of her research, which aims to create a broad picture of the way these practices were perceived in the Dutch society and medical market of that time. Lisa is excited to be on the editing staff of Shells and Pebbles, and to make the history of medicine an integral part of the history of science community.
Elske de Waal
Elske de Waal is a PhD Candidate in history and philosophy of science at Utrecht University. Her project explores the history of science and mathematics education research at the Freudenthal Institute. Taking inspiration from the history of science, history of education, and history of knowledge, she investigates the relationship between academia, educational practice, and public knowledge. She also has an interest in the interconnections between the politics, policy, and science of weather prediction in nineteenth-century Britain. In the role of editor of Shells and Pebbles she hopes to provide a space where historians can nurse such special interests by reading and writing about them.
Call for contributions!
As we gear up for the relaunch of Shells and Pebbles in September, we would like to put out an open invitation for contributions. We are aiming to resume a regular publication schedule and invite you to join! Please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you have any ideas, suggestions or just want to chat about the blog. Our contact details can be found here. We would love to hear from you!
Mark your calendars and see you in September!
The editors – Maura, Luca, Marieke, David, Lisa, and Elske