Science and Knowledge-Making across Early Modern Eurasia, 1400

Call for Papers

How did “early modernity” look and feel at the eastern edge of Eurasia? What counted as “science,” and how did knowledge travel, settle, and transform across languages, media, and environments? Focusing on a long early modern period (c. 1400–1800), this conference brings together scholars from interdisciplinary fields to explore early modern knowledge-making across Eurasia, with particular attention to East and Southeast Asia and their global entanglements. We invite papers that speak across regions, languages, and epistemic traditions, and that foreground practices—translation, reading, travelling, crafting, observing, and other ways of engaging with sociomaterial settings. Taken together, we hope to rethink early modernity and globality as products of connection, made through situated practices and transregional interactions.

We are delighted to announce that the conference program is expected to feature keynote lectures by Jongtae Lim (Seoul National University) and Stuart M. McManus (The Chinese University of Hong Kong).

Possible Topics

We welcome papers engaging with (but not limited to) the following topics:

Translation and multilingualism, e.g.,

Translation practice and scientific terminology
Sino–Western encounters

Spatiality and mobility of knowledge and its actors, e.g.,

Travelling science and scientific travellers
Western naturalists in East and Southeast Asia
Gardens and the spatiality of natural knowledge

Technology, crafts, and artisanal knowledge, e.g.,

Water management in China (institutions, expertise, and infrastructures)
Scientific objects and material culture between Europe and East Asia

Conceptual and material techniques of knowledge, e.g.,

Comparative perspectives on Chinese bowu 博物 and European eruditio
Encyclopedism and information management
“Scientific” books and their readers
Autoptic observation and evidentiary cultures

Natural, human, and more-than-human history, e.g.,

Plants, medicines, and empires in China and Central Asia
Rumphius and naturalist networks in Indonesia
Environmental and multispecies histories of knowledge

Early modern globality, e.g.,

Experiencing and making global/local natures
Knowledge flows along the Maritime Silk Road
Reflections on science and early modernity from East and Southeast Asia

Submission Guidelines

Please send a title, a 400-word abstract, and a short speaker bio (max. 150 words), all written in English, in a single document to: info@earlymodern.science

Deadline

12 June 2026

Notification

1 July 2026

A limited number of papers will be selected to foster intensive scholarly exchange.

Format and Support

The conference will be held in person at Tsinghua University, Beijing. The working language of the conference is English. We warmly welcome submissions from scholars at all career stages. To facilitate participation, a hybrid option is available upon request (please indicate in your submission). Accommodation and travel expenses are to be covered by participants; lunch and dinner will be provided by the organizers during the conference.

Please be advised that attendance at the conference is subject to a modest registration fee. Further information on the exact amount and payment method will be provided in due course.

Please feel free to circulate this CfP within your networks. We look forward to seeing you in Beijing!

Organizers

Scientiae

Department of the History of Science, Tsinghua University