Workshop date/location: 11 July 2026, University of Leeds
Expression of interest/travel grant requests due: 1 June 2026
The Centre for History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds will be hosting a workshop on “Alternative Historical Paths for the Biological Sciences” on 11 July 2026. Funding for travel grants of up to 500 US$ for graduate students and early-career researchers has been generously provided by the International Society for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), which is sponsoring the event as one of its Off-Year Workshops.
The workshop
This workshop offers an opportunity for scholars from the range of disciplines served by ISHPSSB to reflect critically, constructively, and collectively on three questions about alternative historical paths for the biological sciences: (1) what they might have been; (2) how we can know about them (if at all); and (3) whether inquiry into the might-have-been or “counterfactual” scientific past should be regarded as part of the ordinary business of historians of biology, as it is for the biologists they study.
Workshop participants are invited to contribute in any way that suits them, from giving a talk to leading a discussion of a suggested reading to simply joining in the conversation. The only requirement is an interest in thinking with others about some or all of the workshop questions and the discipline-spanning subjects they touch upon, including the upshots for historical and philosophical methodology. Especially welcome are contributions which
- encourage intellectual cross-traffic between the well-developed literature on contingency and inevitability in the history of life and the much less well-developed literature on contingency and inevitability in the historical development of the life sciences (and the sciences generally)
- engage with counterfactual history as an increasingly important part of the toolkit for scholars from the Global South and indigenous communities in challenging historiographic received wisdom and the traditional power asymmetries that standard histories often reflect and reinforce
The date of the workshop has been chosen to maximize convenience and minimize travel for anyone already planning to attend one or more of several nearby conferences, including the Lisbon IHPST conference (6–10 July), the Edinburgh HSS/ESHS conference (12–16 July), the Cambridge SPSP conference (15–18 July) and the Leeds BSPS conference (21–23 July). Even so, the option of hybrid participation will also be made available.
Eligibility and criteria for the travel grant
Applicants for the travel grant should be PhD students or postdocs who did not defend more than three years before the time of application, and who are currently members of ISHPSSB.
Submission of expressions of interest/travel grant requests
If you’d like to participate, please send a brief expression of interest (describing how and why you’d like to contribute) and —if eligible— travel grant request (outlining your eligibility and anticipated travel costs) to Greg Radick at