Abstract
ISR begins 2024 with the edited proceedings of the third workshop in the series Science in the Forest, Science in the Past (SFSP). Following the seven papers of SFSP III, bracketed by an Introduction and Afterword, are Philip Ball's éloge for Evelyn Fox Keller (1936–2023) and Lorraine Daston's review of the literally wonderful Of Jaguars and Butterflies: Metalogues on Issues in Anthropology and Philosophy by Geoffrey Lloyd and Aparecida Vilaça.
The proceedings of SFSP III were originally delivered as papers at the workshop, held 9–11 June 2022 at the Needham Research Institute, Cambridge University. Those unfamiliar with SFSP will find its history briefly recounted in ISR 46.3 (2021). The context and aims of SFSP III are described in the Introduction to the proceedings.
The workshop was organised by G.E.R. Lloyd, Aparecida Vilaça and myself. We are most grateful to Mei Jianjun, Director of the Needham, and his staff, especially to Susan Bennett, who helped in truly innumerable ways. The workshop received generous financial support from the Needham and from the Cambridge Faculty of Classics and the Departments of History and Philosophy of Science and Social Anthropology, to whom deepest appreciation is due. The organisers would also like to thank the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Department of Digital Humanities, King's College London, for their support.
As in the past, participants were asked to share their drafts with readers from whom they would most like to hear. We are thus indebted to Bill Benzon, Nic Bidwell (Melbourne), Heather Browning (Southampton), Matei Candea (Cambridge), Sophia Connell (Birkbeck), Françoise Barbira-Freedman (Cambridge), Caroline Humphrey (Cambridge), Brad Inwood (Yale), Sian Lazar (Cambridge), Jerome McGann (Virginia), Patrick McGowan (Toronto), Chloe Nahum-Claudel (Manchester), Vitor Pordeus (People's University of Art and Science, Rio de Janeiro), Francesca Rochberg (Berkeley), Tim Smithers and Rupert Stasch (Cambridge). Participants and attendees also served as commentators.
Comments and questions from attendees were invaluable. Hence our great thanks go to Adam Yuet Chau (Cambridge), Matei Candea (Cambridge), Sophia Connell (Birkbeck), Christopher Cullen (Needham), Renaud Gagné (Cambridge), Arthur Harris (Needham), Caroline Humphrey (Cambridge), Nicholas Humphrey (London School of Economics), João Kelmer Caldeira De Anada (Cambridge), Tanya Luhrmann (Stanford), Reviel Netz (Stanford), Avital Rom (Needham), Dagmar Schäfer (Max Planck Institute, Berlin), Lena Springer (King's College London), Anna Strob (Tübingen), Liba Taub (Cambridge), Anne-Christine Taylor (CNRS, Paris), Raphael Uchoa (Darwin College), Tim Whitmarsh (Cambridge) and Piers Vitebsky (Cambridge). We would like to thank Jenny Jingyi Zhao and Arthur Harris for recording the sessions so that presenters could take greatest advantage of questions and comments otherwise all too easily forgotten.
At the time of writing, plans and preparations for SFSP IV, on the theme of ‘regeneration’, are well underway. Momentum and increasing enthusiasm for its project are evident. As noted in the Afterword to this issue, it is clear that SFSP has borne intellectual fruit beyond all expectations. Among other things, it has shown what genuine interdisciplinary research can do when it is taken seriously. The proceedings of SFSP have conferred enormous benefit on the journal, for which on its behalf I express my profound gratitude.
Finally, with this issue Interdisciplinary Science Reviews begins its association with SAGE Publishing and parts company with Taylor & Francis (T&F). Thanks to T&F are due for the efficient and timely production of the journal and especially to T&F editors Paul Naish and Justin Robinson for their collaborative support. Readers will see little change other than the new homepage, authors a new submission site.