Continuing a tradition established at the 2016 Prague conference, the European Society for the History of Science (ESHS) will renew the Early-Career Plenary Lecturers starting with the 2026 Edinburgh conference. Three plenary lectures will showcase original research by early-career scholars (up to eight years after the PhD), emphasizing novel approaches to the history of science broadly conceived within current historiographical discussions.
The lectures will last 30 minutes and will be followed by a 15-minute discussion. They are expected to appeal not only to specialists in the respective topics or sub-disciplines but to the broader community of historians of science, technology and medicine. The lectures will be published in Centaurus, the official journal of the ESHS after peer review.
The Procedure of selection of the Early Career Plenary Lecturers
- Approximately 18 months before the ESHS conference, ESHS Members will be invited to nominate early-career colleagues (up to eight years post-PhD) whose research demonstrates innovation in approach and significant impact on historiographical discussions.
- Nominations will be sent to the ESHS Secretary and should include:
- The nominee’s name and a one-page résumé;
- A statement highlighting the nominee’s innovative research especially in terms of historiographical impact (max one page);
- An abstract (800 words max) of the proposed lecture.
- The ESHS Scientific Board will appoint an independent commission of four ESHS members to assess the submissions. The ESHS President will nominate one of them as commission chair.The commission, chosen for its diversity in every respect, will select three proposals, paying due attention to a balance in geographic, topical, and gender diversity.
- The suggestions by the independent commission will be submitted to the Scientific Board with a complementary list of topics and names. After the ESHS in-between meeting, the Scientific Board ratifies the results and the Secretary will contact the lecturers to invite them to the conference to be held one year later.
- The early-career scholars will start preparing their lectures and a draft will be submitted to the Centaurus Editor-in-Chief at least two months before the conference. The manuscript should be between 4000 and 5000 words in length.
- The topics and lecturers for the next ESHS meeting will be announced to all members and made public on the ESHS website. The speakers’ conference fees will be waived and travel expenses (economy) and three nights accommodation will be covered.
- After peer-review, the lectures will be published in a special Focus section of Centaurus after the conference.