Prof. Dr. phil. Staffan Müller-Wille

Knowledge in Transit: Linnaeus in Lapland (1732)

In the summer months of 1732, the Swedish medical student Carl von Linnaeus (1707-1778) traveled through the northern provinces of the Swedish kingdom. The diary sketches, published after Linnaeus's death under the title "Laplandic Journey" (Iter Lapponicum), are considered a pioneering work of ecological and ethnographic field research. Our project proposes to read this early document of scientific travel literature against the grain. The knowledge Linné gathered during his travels was created "on the road" (in transit), i.e., in the passage through intersections of different cultures that could be marked by hospitality, but also by hostility.

Our vision is to create a critical online edition of the travel work, while retracing the journey itself and collaborating with local experts. Translation and re-enactment of the journey will serve as a catalyst for creative and experimental discussions of contemporary problems, which may range from sustainability and prosperity to climate change and the relationship between state sovereignty and indigeneity. By transferring Linnaeus's own methodology to contemporary times, we hope to open up new views of the historical record that allow us to question the origins and authority of scientific knowledge.

Full details on the basic ideas and current status of the project can be found here.
 

Ischia Summer School on the History of the Life Sciences

The Ischia Summer School on the History of the Life Sciences provides advanced training in a lively international field that offers a long-term perspective on some of the most significant ideas, practices and institutions in the world today. The school, which has a tradition of association with the Naples Zoological Station, was revived in 2005 after a break of two decades and has run every other year since then. It is held in Villa Dohrn, the current Laboratory of Benthic Ecology and former summer house of the founder of the Naples Station, Anton Dohrn, situated above the port of the island of Ischia and overlooking the Gulf. Every two years, the event attracts twenty-six graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and nine expert international faculty. The past two schools were dedicated to the themes "Cycles of Life" (24 June to 1 July 2017) and "Life and Death" (23 to 30 June 2019).

For news and general information, as well as detailed information on past schools, visit the website of the Ischia Summer School.