070272 SE M2 Material Colloquium (History of Science) (2024W)

„Climate“ is arguably the most disputed and challenged research topic in the sciences today. The seminar traces the history of the climate sciences, and of meteorology in particular, from the 18th to the 21th century. It shows that not only climate itself, but also the denial of climate change has a long cultural history.
What did scientists mean by „climate“ and „weather“ in different periods? How did they actually study it? What kind of media and „epistemic tools“ (instruments, maps, models, etc.) did they use? When and how have climate researches begun to establish data infrastructures in order to study the climate on a global scale? And how did climate change denial play into all that? Following these question, the seminar traces the history of the climate sciences from the 18th to the 21th century. Students will engage with classical texts from the field and explore how their authors were both shaped by and shaped their changing social, cultural and political environments. Apart from the general discussions, students work in small groups and students learn to engage critically with current debates on climate changes, especially by identifying the recurring rhetorical and epistemic strategies applied by climate change deniers. The students then apply this knowledge by developing and writing their own seminar paper.