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Call for papers for panels on 'Ethnography, Ethnology and Science, 1400-1800' (AHA, Chicago, Jan 2012).Abstracts are invited for papers towards linked panel sessions at theAmerican Historical Association Annual Meeting (Chicago, January 5-8,2012). The panels will explore the overarching theme of 'Ethnography,Ethnology and Science, 1400-1800.'The historiography of science leaves ethnography and ethnology before thenineteenth century largely unexploited. This distorts earlier knowledge-making practices, particularly in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.European observers in distant regions often integrated discussions of humansocieties, flora, fauna, climate and natural resources within an all-encompassing natural history rooted in the traditions of classical antiquity.These panels will seek to contextualize European attempts to understanddistant peoples within broader investigations of natural history andcosmography. They might investigate the interconnections between, forexample, the following:* ethnological ideas and theories of climate;* animals and humans by way of monstrous peoples;* practices of empirical ethnographic observationand methods for collecting, describing, organizing and analysing new plantsand animals;* communities and networks of practitioners working on ethnology, naturalhistory, cosmography and other branches of knowledge.Also of interest are such issues as the authority of eyewitness testimony, thechanging status of different practitioners, and the part played by scientificknowledge in shaping ethnology. The overall aim of these panels will be tore-think the relation between the histories of ethnography and ethnology,and the history of science, in order to better explain European attempts tounderstand the wider world c. 1400-1800.Scholars who would like to submit an abstract to these sessions should get intouch with the organizer (Dr Surekha Davies, Birkbeck, University of London,at s.davies@bbk.ac.uk), to express their interest and to discuss possiblesubmissions, by 1 December 2010. Abstracts and short biographies in linewith the AHA submission requirements would be needed by around 10January 2011. The deadline for submitting the panels to the AHA is 15February 2011.Global Dimensions of European Knowledge, 24-5 June, 2011http://www.bbk.ac.uk/history/news/global-dimensions-of-knowledgeDr Surekha DaviesLeverhulme Early Career Fellow (2009-2012)Department of History, Classics and ArchaeologyBirkbeck, University of LondonMalet StreetLondon WC1E 7HXUnited KingdomWeb-page:http://www.bbk.ac.uk/hca/staff/surekhadaviesSociety, Culture and Belief, 1500-1800 seminar:http://www.history.ac.uk/events/seminars/147