Research

Completed projects

•Tittle: MaILHoC: Museums and Industry: Long Histories of Collaboration
Principal Investigator: Carlos Tabernero.
Funding Agency: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.
Period: 2022- 2025.

MaILHoC examines the processes of deindustrialization, concern about the impact of human activity on the environment, and the influence of ideas such as degrowth have made this relationship a source of controversy. Why does it seem that this long history has begun to be considered unethical?

By examining this phenomenon, MaILHoC directly responds to the challenge of exploring the relationship between cultural heritage, democratic values and politics from a historical perspective. MaILHoC explores how and by whom cultural heritage narratives are produced, used and communicated in different contexts. MaILHoC addresses this question by examining case studies in France, Spain and the United Kingdom.

The objectives of MaILHoC are to (i) describe historical attitudes towards industrial sponsorship; (ii) explore the actual or likely consequences of new approaches; (iii) examine the implicit normativity of existing practices; and (iv) analyze the institutionalization of ethics in STM heritage.

•Small science: Análisi històrica de la investigació contemporània a petita escala
Lead researcher: Xavier Roqué
Funding entity: MINECO
Effective start/end date: 2020- 2023

SMALLSCIENCE [PID2019-105131GB-I00] is a new research project of the "Programa Estatal de Generación de Conocimiento” (2020-2022). The project seeks to provide a better understanding of contemporary science through the historical analysis of the work of small groups of researchers who produce outstanding research with simple, modest means.

We contend that small science is still an essential part of contemporary research practices. Combining expertise in physics, astronomy, history and engineering, and with members from five universities, the research team will survey the origin and uses of the term ‘small science’ and related terms; describe contemporary small-scale research practices through well-defined case studies in materials science, theoretical physics, astronomy and space sciences; and study the boundaries between small and Big Science and consider their relevance to science policy, science communication and science education.

•Museos, aulas y política: cultura científica y tecnológica en la Transición española
Lead researchers: Jaume Sastre Juan (UAB-IHC) & Josep Simon (UV)
Funding entity: MINECO
Effective start/end date: 2020-2023
https://musaupol.hypotheses.org/

Projecte_Museus_Sastre

The project, with Jaume Sastre-Juan (IHC) and Josep Simon (Universitat de València) as the lead researchers, is based at the Institut Interuniversitari López Piñero and encompasses a team of 17 researchers from 9 national and international institutions.

MUSAUPOL deals with the cultural politics of science and technology in Spain during the Spanish Transition by focusing on two spaces: the classroom and the museum. It does so through a broad range of case studies that analyse the pedagogical practices in the experimental sciences as well as the display of science and technology, always in relation to the political changes that were taking place in that period. The project aims to look at a period that has an extensive yet still relatively new body of literature from a new angle, using the lens of the history and science and approaching it with methodologies that include traditional printed and manuscript sources as well as the analysis of exhibition objects and spaces, and oral history.

•Narrativas urbanas sobre la naturaleza. La construcción contemporánea de conocimiento sobre historia natural (España y Gran Bretaña, 1950-1980)
Lead researcher: Carlos Tabernero (UAB-IHC)
Funding entity: MINECO
Effective start/end date: 2020-2023

This project, directed by Carlos Tabernero in conjunction with seven researchers from seven different academic institutions in Spain and Great Britain, will focus on the construction and circulation of natural history knowledge in Spain and Great Britain between the 1950s and the 1980s. It aims to generate specific knowledge concerning the prominent role that actors, spaces, discourses and practices located in urban contexts played in the production and management of narratives about nature, that is, the ways nature was represented according to strategically situated interests and criteria, which were often ideologically appropriated through the definition and management of the natural heritage, in that it involves decisive aspects concerning the use and administration of natural resources.

•Invisible knowledge: The politics of censorship, and science popularitzation (1940-1990)
Lead researcher: Agustí Nieto-Galan
Funding entity: MINECO
Effective start/end date: 2020- 2023

Invisible knowledge: The politics of censorship, and science popularitzation (1940-1990)”. Within the coordinated project "AGNOTOLOGY: INVISIBLE SCIENCE IN 20th-CENTURY SPAIN", and in collaboration between the CEHIC (UAB) and the Institute of History of Medicine and Science (IHMC) of the University of Valencia (UV)[PID2019-106743GB-C22]

Directed by Agustí Nieto-Galan, the subproject aims to explore various mechanisms and historical processes that made science (and knowledge, in a broad sense) invisible in 20th century Spain. We focus on case studies that focus mainly on the Franco dictatorship (1940-1975) and also on the period of the Transition to Democracy (1975-1990). The mechanisms for censorship of books and scientific articles, scientific articles in periodical publications and the daily press, and the political burden that the censorship entailed in terms of social control and propaganda to the dictatorship are studied. The subproject also approaches several cases of science dissemination, the dictatorship and democracy, which served particular interests and prioritized certain research topics to the detriment of others that remained invisible to the general public.

•Natural-artificial: residuos industriales, expertos y respuestas sociales en la España del siglo XX
Lead researcher: Agustí Nieto-Galan
Funding entity: Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO)
Effective start/end date: 2016- 2020
Funding: 33,154.00€
Investigators: Jesús María Galech Amillano, Judit Gil Ferrero, Marta Pujadas, Maria Pilar Punter Chiva, Joaquim Sales, Fernando Vidal.
Collaborators: Clara Florensa Rodriguez, Arturo Hortas Fraile, Francesc Xavier Solaz.

•Marcando diferencias humanas:psicometría y eugensia en España (1900-1950)
Lead researchers: Jorge Molero & Annette Mülberguer
Funding entity: Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO)
Effective start/end date: 2015-2018
Funding: €35,090.00
Investigators: Ramón Castejón, Isabel Jiménez-Lucena.
Collaborators: Mónica Alcalá, Mònica Balltondre, Mauricio Becerra, Celia García Díaz, Andrea Graus Ferrer, Ana Macaya Andrés, Sara Navarro Rendón, Génesis Núñez-Araya, Mariagrazia Proietto, Violeta Ruiz Cuenca, Michael M. Sokal, Carlos Tabernero, Marcelo Valenzuela.

•La física en la construcción de Europa
Lead researcher: Xavier Roqué
Funding entity: Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO)
Effective start/end date: 2015-2018
Funding: €31,460.00
Investigators: Marià Baig Aleu, Clara Florensa, Francisco Manuel Saez De Arana.
Collaborators: Carlos Acosta, Lino Camprubí Bueno, Silvia De Bianchi, Gonzalo Gimeno Valentín-Gamazo, Néstor Herran Corbacho, Luis Romero Miranda, Pedro Ruiz Castell, Jaume Valentines Alvarfez, Abril Vazquez de los Reyes, Mercedes Xipell.

•Order / Chaos: genealogy of two concepts in the culture of European Mathematical Physics
Lead researcher: Agustí Nieto-Galan
Funding entity: Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO)
Effective start/end date: 2013- 2016
Funding: €26,325.00
Investigators: Clara Florensa, Reis Fontanals, Oliver Hochadel, Joaquim Sales, Francesc Xavier Vall Solaz.
Researcher on contract: Carlos Tabernero.
Collaborators: Ignasi Meda, Eduard Aibar, Gonzalo Gimeno.

•Salud, enfermedad y orden social en España. Las dinámicas de inclusión-exclusión social entorno a la clase y la profesión a través de los discursos y prácticas médicas en el siglo XX
Lead researcher: Jorge Molero
Funding entity: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Effective start/end date: 2010-2013
Funding: €27,830.01
Investigators: Isabel Jiménez-Lucena, Ricardo José Campos Marín, Carlos Tabernero, Tania AlejandraTrigo Salas.
Collaborators: José Manuel Gutiérrez García, Sara Lugo.

•Entre el centro y la periferia científica: El periodismo médico en Cataluña (1898-1938)
Lead researchers: Annette Mülberguer & Àlvar Martínez Vidal
Funding entity: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Effective start/end date: 2010-2013
Funding: €24,200.00
Investigators: Mònica Balltondre, Sara Fajula Colom, María Teresa Leal Cavalcante, Alfons Zarzoso Orellana.
Collaborators: Antoni Vicent Adam Donat, Carlos Hervás Puya, Yoko Tochigi.

•The Earth Under Surveillance. Climate Change, Geophysics and the Cold War Legacy
Lead researcher: Xavier Roqué
Funding entity: European Commission
Effective start/end date: 2009-2014
Funding: €1,367,750.00
Investigators: Beatriz Cantero, María Elena, Marina Castells, Regina Civil, Lluïsa Herrera, Laia Torres, Ainoa Marzábal, María Carolina Pipitone Vela, Lizette Ramos Robles, Roser Nebot, Montserrat Torremilans.
Collaborators: Joan Aliberas, Celsa Cortijo, Enric Custodio, Josep Lluís Estanya, Roser Franco, Adrianna Gómez, Julià Hinojosa, Rosa M. Martínez, Begonya Oliveras, Vilma Paz, Carme Perseguer, Núria Ribas, Marta Simon, Núria Solsona, Antònia Vià.

La ciència en la Península Ibèrica. Un estudi històric comparatiu entre Espanya i Portugal, sgs XVIII-XX
Lead researcher: Agustí Nieto-Galan
Funding entity: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia
Effective start/end date: 2006-2007
Funding: 7,000.00€
Investigators: Antonio García Belmar, Ana Isabel Da Silva Araújo Simoes, José Ramón Bertomeu-Sánchez.

Description: The objectives are: 1) to complete the compilation of relevant bibliographic information written in both Spain and Portugal about the problems related to the transmission of science on the Iberian Peninsula; 2) to share Spanish and Portuguese historiography, which have often developed parallel to each other, with the studies conducted by other European groups and the most recent international trends in this area of the history of science; 3) to plan and carry out case studies that enable comparative analyses between Spain and Portugal to be performed, particularly ones related to the aforementioned topics: scientific journeys, textbooks and teaching practices and the dissemination of science in Spain and Portugal; 4) to study the possibility of creating joint databases and other working tools that will lay the groundwork for comparative research projects in the future.

La divulgació de la ciència, la tecnologia i la medicina a la Barcelona industrial (1815- 1929)
Lead researcher: Agustí Nieto-Galan
Funding entity: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia
Effective start/end date: 2006-2009
Funding: €30,250.00
Investigators: José Ramón Bertomeu, Reis Fontanals, Teresa Huguet, Àlvar Martínez Vidal, Jaume Sastre Juan, Francesc Xavier Vall Solaz.

La medicina i els seus públics en la medicina d'entreguerres: el Sindicat de Metges de Catalunya
Funding entity: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia
Effective start/end date: 2006-2009

Medicina i regulació social a l'Espanya del segle XX: pensament subaltern i colonialitat del saber científic entorn de l'ètnia i la classe
Lead researcher: Jorge Molero
Funding entity: Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia
Effective start/end date: 2006-2009

Bases per a una història de la física a Espanya
Lead researcher: Xavier Roqué
Funding entity: Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación
Effective start/end date: 2005-2008

Creació d'un servei d'arxius de ciència
Lead researcher: Xavier Roqué
Funding entity: Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología
Effective start/end date: 2004-2005

Intercanvis tecnocientífics entre Espanya i Hispanoamèrica
Lead researcher: Xavier Roqué
Funding entity: Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología
Effective start/end date: 2003

Grup de Recerca Consolidad. Francesc Salvà, d'història de la ciència, de la tècnica i de la medicina a la Catalunya contemporània (segles XVIII-XX)
Lead researcher: Agustí Nieto-Galan
Funding entity: Generalitat de Catalunya
Effective start/end date: 2002-2005

Tècnica, ciència i industrialització a la Catalunya contemporània
Lead researcher: Agustí Nieto-Galan
Funding entity: Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología
Effective start/end date: 2002-2005

La divulgació científica a la Barcelona industrial (1805-1929)
Lead researcher: Agustí Nieto-Galan
Funding entity: Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología
Effective start/end date: 2002-2005
Funding: €10,304.00

Tecnologies mèdiques en context: escenaris populars i agendes professionals al protectorat espanyol al Marroc
Lead researcher: Jorge Molero
Funding entity: Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología
Effective start/end date: 2002-2004
Funding: €23,047.55
Investigator: Esteban Rodríguez Ocaña
Collaborator: Francisco Javier Martínez.
Researcher on contract: Isabel Jiménez-Lucena.

Descripción: This project focuses on the relationships between health professionals and laypeople around certain changes connected with technological innovations in the sphere of medical care and prevention within occupational medicine, paediatrics, dermatology and syphilography and colonial medicine, with an emphasis on the rhetorical analysis of popularisation processes. One aim of the project is to study the way new technologies, according to gender categories, contributed to constructing the historical identities of workers, disabled people or the inhabitants of diverse colonial settings as different as Morocco and Equatorial Guinea, in which race played a prominent role. A further aim is to study the professional/layperson relationship as a way knowledge is produced in several medical domains. Classical archival and literary sources as well as less common sources such as poster collections and radio broadcasting will be used. The issue of "the audiences" of technologies will be a core concern in this study. Relations among science, technology, medicine and their audiences are expected to contribute to explaining the key features in the construction of our Western "culture of health".

La cultura material de la ciència: recuperació i usos historiogràfics
Lead researcher: Xavier Roqué
Funding entity: Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología
Effective start/end date: 2001-2004

Transformacions assistencials i tecnologies mèdiques en la medicina colonial nord-africana espanyola del segle XX
Lead researcher: Jorge Molero
Funding entity: Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior e Investigación Científica
Effective start/end date: 2000-2001
Funding: 2,392.03€
Investigators: Francisco Javier Martínez Antonio, Isabel Jiménez-Lucena, Esteban Rodríguez Ocaña.
Researcher on contract: Rosa Ballester Añón

Description: One of the most salient traits of the present state of medicine is the importance of technologies (considering this term in its threefold meaning as material, uses and knowledge). Technologies have clearly impacted the development of our current hospital-centred model of healthcare throughout the 20^th century, signalling a cultural change - indeed, a dramatic one - in relationships with patients. The rhetorical elements used to win the acceptance and vulgarisation of those new developments played a prime role in this change. This project sets out to study this process in Spain from both a nationwide point of view (such as the study of the hospital-building programme of the National Health Insurance, advertisements printed in medical journals in the first half of the century and propaganda films in the official newsreel NO-DO in the second half of the century) and local perspectives (researching the timing of the implementation of hospital technologies in Alicante and Granada, for instance). Studying the history of colonial medical services in Spanish Africa will also provide a better understanding of the major features in this process, as a closed example, because of the greater distance between the two cultures.

Desenvolupament Històric de la Física Subatòmica
Lead researcher: Manuel Garcia Doncel
Funding entity: Dirección General de Enseñanza Superior e Investigación Científica
Effective start/end date: 1997-2000
Funding: 7,212.15€
Investigators: Joaquim Pla Brunet, Xavier Roqué

Description: We intend to broaden our understanding of the historical development of subatomic physics. This development has brought about changes in the disciplinary structure of physics (from radioactivity to nuclear physics and high-energy physics), introduced new experimental methods (cosmic-ray detectors and accelerators) and prompted the evolution from quantum field theory to the physics of particles (leptons and quarks) and fields (electro weak and chromodynamics). The project focusses on a number of aspects in this development that have not received enough attention in the historical literature, including: the discovery of subatomic particles and the introduction of the related quantum fields; the coordination among different schools or traditions, each bringing their own theoretical and instrumental practices to subatomic physics; and the increasing interplay between science, technology and industry that has become a trademark of 20^th-century physics. Studying these issues seems particularly appropriate at this point, as we are celebrating the centennial of the discovery of the electron and the dawn of subatomic physics. Moreover, in the context of a joint project with prominent European history of science centres, we intend to relate our work to ongoing attempts to chart the integration of the science centre and its different peripheries in Europe.

Desenvolupament històric de la física de partícules i camps
Lead researcher: Manuel Garcia Doncel
Funding entity: Dirección General de Investigación Científica y Técnica (DGICYT)
Effective start/end date: 1993-1996
Funding: 14,424.29€
Investigators: Xavier Roqué

Description: We intend to investigate certain topics related to the historical development of present high-energy physics which have not received enough attention in the historical literature. These topics include the processes that culminated in the discovery of subatomic particles (from the establishment of the photon to the proposal of quarks) and the formulation of electromagnetic, weak and strong quantum fields. In its historical development, we look at high-energy physics as the heir of three preceding disciplines: radioactivity, nuclear physics and cosmic radiation. It was developed by various research schools which focused on different problems and organised their laboratories in different ways. Its progress required a constant interplay between theory and experimentation, related to the emergence of new particles and new fields. We will search for, analyse and connect primary sources.

Completed projects

MaILHoC: Museums and Industry: Long Histories of Collaboration

Small science [PID2019-105131GB-I00] (2020-2023)

Museos, aulas y política [PID2019-104897GA-I00] (2020-2023)

Narrativas urbanas sobre la naturaleza [PID2019-106208GB-I00] (2020-2023)

Invisible knowledge [PID2019-106743GB-C22] (2020-2023)

Las tecnologías género configuraciones de la biopolítica [PGC2018-098333-B-I00] (2019-2022)

Industrial Doctoral Research Component [GRIFOLS S.A] (2018-2021)

Nuclear expertise in Italy [H2020-NSCA-IF-2017 (Marie Curie)] (2019-2021)

Natural-artificial (2016-2020)

Postcolonial genealogy of intersexuality (2016-2018)

Marcando diferencias humanas (2015-2018)

La física en la construcción de Europa (2015-2018)

ORCHA [Marie Curie] (2014-2017)

Scientific authority in the public sphere in XX-Century Spain (2013-2016)

La física en la construcción de Europa (2012-2015)

Science and expertise in the public sphere: Barcelona, 1888-1992 (2010-2013)

Salud, enfermedad y orden social en España (2010-2013)

Entre el centro y la periferia científica (2010-2013)

The Earth Under Surveillance (2009-2014)

Bases para una historia de la física en España en el siglo XX (2009-2011)

Archives of accomplished projects