Joris Vandendriessche: "Gender Relations in Astronomy: Scientific Associations and the Making of Codes of Conduct (1920-2000)"

Beskrivning:

In this paper, I will discuss how women scientists navigated, contested, and sought to reform scholarly codes of conduct within scientific associations during the twentieth century, focusing on the case of astronomical societies—specifically the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the American Astronomical Society (AAS). I will draw on archival research, including correspondence and meeting records, and research into institutional publications, that I have conducted together with Anna Cabanel as part of the GLOBAL ACADEMIES-project at the University of Leuven. I will first go into the concept of “scholarly codes of conduct” and its potential to enrich the historiography of science and knowledge. Next, I will use this concept as a lens to look at the evolution of women's participation in astronomical organizations. Through this lens, I will argue, it becomes clear that this participation transformed from adherence to implicit gendered norms (1920–1970), through active contestation and demands for reform (1970s–1980s), to the formal codification of inclusive standards of conduct (1990s). I will end with some reflections on acts of transgression (such as Margaret Burbidge’s 1971 refusal of the Annie Jump Cannon Prize for women astronomers), which reveal and disrupt otherwise hidden codes of conduct, offering crucial entry points for historical analysis.

Joris Vandendriessche is an assistant (research) professor in Cultural History at the University of Leuven (Belgium). His research interests cover the history of scholarly sociability and publishing, and medical heritage, education and patient care in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is currently PI of the ERC-funded project (Starting Grant) GLOBAL ACADEMIES, which studies the gatekeeping role of scientific societies towards different minority groups in a time of globalization (1930-1990). At the University of Leuven, he acts head of the Cultural History since 1750 Research Group and director of the Leuven Centre of Health Humanities.