Max Planck Institute for the History of Science

The project “China’s Science Silk Road & the New Geopolitics of Knowledge Production” has launched.

This VolkswagenStiftung-funded project examines how China’s expanding international cooperation in science, technology, & innovation is reshaping knowledge production. 🌐

🔗 sciencesilkroad.org

How can we rethink humanity’s relationship with nature? And how can we foster resilient knowledge practices to support planetary futures?

Scienmag reports on the recent launch of the Max Planck–NTU Singapore Centre for Biocultural Worlding (CBCW).

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NTU Singapore and Max Planck Society Launch Southeast Asia’s First Max Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore has embarked on a pioneering scientific journey by establishing the first two Max Planck Centres in Southeast Asia. These centers—the Max P

Next up: the final lecture in our Institute's Colloquium 2025/26 series "Rethinking Time in the History of Science."
Wayan Jarrah Sastrawan on "Writing History beyond the Timeline: Traditions and Innovations" ⌛

🗓️ Jun 9, 2026 (14:00 CET)
📍 MPIWG
🔗 https://buff.ly/vMvuCiP

In his research, Postdoctoral Scholar Jean Arzoumanov discovered that Persian served as the language of colonial India's religious surveys. Adrija Roychowdhury reports for .com on his work.

🔗 tinyurl.com/3aunbcsv (paywall)

How Persian became the language of colonial India’s religious surveys Historian Jean Arzoumanov’s discovery of an 18th-century Jain text in Persian reveals a forgotten era where Hindu scholars used the ‘Islamic’ lingua franca to help British officers survey India’s faiths.

On April 20th, the Max Planck–NTU Singapore Centre for Biocultural Worlding (CBCW) was launched with an opening symposium in Singapore. The event assembled scholars and practitioners of various disciplines, engaging them in conversations on entanglements of biological diversity and cultural life.

Co-Directors Dagmar Schäfer and Ute Meta Bauer delivered welcome addresses. Afterwards they were joined by Marian Pastor Roces and Nilüfer Oral for two keynote conversations on question of knowledge ownership, addressing the rights of nature, place, and culture.

Their conversation was followed by another interdisciplinary roundtable. Chaired by Co-Deputy Director Lisa Onaga, it brought together Novi Asti Lalasati, Firdaus Sani, Veronica Renner, and Michael Stanley-Baker for an exchange on "Biocultural Methods for Future Pasts."

For the final roundtable, Co-Deputy Director Saidul Islam was joined by Laura Miotto, Jonathan Galka, Ahmad Syarifuddin, and Debbie Ding to discuss "Grounding the Biocultural: Place, Landscape, and Living Knowledge."

The CBCW is a joint research initiative between the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and NTU Centre for Contemporary Art in Singapore, running from 2026 to 2031.

For more information, please see 👉 tinyurl.com/525utnuc

Theatre soirée: "Tanz den Sozialismus"
Predoctoral Scholar Christopher Klauke in a panel discussion by the Berlin Center for Cold War Studies on early music research in the GDR.

🎞️ https://buff.ly/tzoH0bC (GER)

Tanz den Sozialismus: Musik und Politik im Kalten Krieg | Theater-Soirée (21. März 2026) Anlässlich der Dernière des vom Berliner Kolleg Kalter Krieg des In...

Researcher Jacob Schmidt-Madsen in conversation with Praveen Shankara for Prana Stories. They talk about his personal and academic engagement with South Asian board games and their Indic origins.

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The Forgotten Ancient Indian Origins of Snakes & Ladders, Ludo & Chess | Jacob Schmidt-Madsen Join this channel to get access to LSN Course:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMNf97lYs51YZOR0BYKE0bQ/joinJacob Schmidt-Madsen is a historian of board games...

Next in our Institute's Colloquium series 2025/26 "Rethinking Time in the History of Science": Franziska Neumann on "Wear and Tear: Time, Materiality, and Waste in the Early Modern Period" ⏳

🗓️ May 12, 2026 (14:00 CET)
📍 MPIWG

🔗 https://buff.ly/dVZKkmv

Technische Universität Braunschweig

"Where China's universities get ahead:" Lise Meitner Research Group Leader Anna Lisa Ahlers interviewed for an article on FAZ.NET - Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

🔗 https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/ausland/warum-chinesische-universitaeten-globale-rankings-dominieren-accg-200676704.html (GER, Paywall)

New vacancies 🌟
As part of the EduTrack program, Dept. "Artifacts, Action, Knowledge" is hiring a PostDoc to work on "Migratory Expertise and Practices of Knowledge Transmission"

🗓️ Deadline: June 7
📍 MPIWG Berlin
🔗 tinyurl.com/mu5tend3