istorians of science have long criticized the 19th-century concept of the scientist as a solitary (male) genius. Recent scholarship has been particularly fruitful in tracing labor that was made invisible by the genius paradigm, and the forms of science pursued within academic institutions have come to be understood as just one form of knowledge that interacts or vies with other forms of knowledge, including indigenous knowledge practices. Focusing on knowledge production broadly construed has made unacknowledged or appropriated labor easier to identify. Caroline Herschel, while assisting her brother’s astronomical observations, identified several new comets in her own right. Ferdinand von Mueller employed female collectors to assist his surveys of Australian flora, and in the United States, the Harvard College Observatory employed a group of female “computers” to process its data. Mary Seacole drew on the traditional Creole healing practices of her mother — an “admirable doctress” — as the foundation for her own medical knowledge. Mary Somerville expertly synthesized the current state of scientific knowledge, while Ada Lovelace made major contributions to computer science through her commentary on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine. Anna Atkins pioneered the use of photography for botanical illustration in her Photographs of British Algae, and Beatrix Potter contributed to the study of mycology through her illustrations of fungi.
This special issue seeks to leverage this scholarly moment to take stock of the relationship between gender and scientific labor, as seen within a wide spectrum of knowledge production, display, and circulation: illustrating, translating, calculating, observing, collecting, engineering, synthesizing. We are interested in accounts of scientific friendships and mentoring, collective and individual work, literary representations, and experiences across the British empire. In recognition of the diverse forms of knowledge production that this issue seeks to highlight, we are also interested in articles addressing pedagogy, archival work, museum curation, and public-facing work.
Possible topics include:
- Education: The autodidact; women’s colleges and public lectures; examinations and rankings; teaching and lecturing; access to education for working-class women; participation in or exclusion from learned societies (including the Linnean Society, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Geological Society, and the British Association for the Advancement of Science).
- Genres of Scientific Publication: Translation, interpretation, and synthesis; pedagogical scientific literature for children; popular science writing for, or by, women; science fiction, and science in literature; scientific content and mathematical puzzles in women’s magazines.
- Personal and Professional Identities: The assistant, amanuensis, biographer, computer, calculator, teacher, botanizer, collector, and scientific illustrator; professional, amateur, and citizen scientists; marriage as both an obstacle and an opportunity; men (husbands, brothers, sons, friends) who served as intermediaries for women’s access to science; scientific activism and the anti-vivisection movement.
- Empire and Global Networks: South Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, Canada; science in America and on the Continent; international networks, collaborations and correspondence; specimen collecting and circulation; travel as a means of accessing education, accreditation, and teaching opportunities not available in one’s home country.
- Narratives and Gendered Knowledge: The gendering of science, mathematics, and the imagination; the role of nineteenth-century science in constructing and reinforcing the gender binary; narratives of female scientists and mathematicians, past and present; Eureka moments that sparked an interest, passion, or a longing for further knowledge; 21st century recognition of women’s historical achievements in mathematics, science, and engineering.
Submission Instructions:
Articles should be between 5000-8000 words. Complete articles will be due on 1 November, 2025; we are requesting a title and short (200-word) abstract by April 30 2025, to be sent to longingtoknow.ncgs@gmail.com.
Issue editors: Imogen Forbes-Macphail and Anna Henchman
For more information about the journal click here
Created 27 March 2025