IHPST | University of Toronto

New IHPST Newsletter just dropped 📰
Inside:
– Digital war, AI & technology studies
– Major international book prizes
– Alumni news
– Media features
We are proud of the intellectual range of this community.
Read it here: viewstripo.email/4098f295-9c0...

#hps #historyoftechnology #AI #UofT

What is the place of colours in the natural world? Join us on Wednesday for an in-person talk by Paul Patton, who drawing on research in colour vision, will challenge both direct and indirect realism. 🔗 ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/hapsa...

March 4 -12 to 2:00 p.m.
Constance de Font-Réaulx explores how “water scarcity” in early modern Paris was constructed as a governance tool under Louis XIV and Colbert.
📖 Paper circulated in advance 📧 Email to request a copy
🔗 ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/ihpst...

Multi spectral imagining of the letetr fragment

image of the fragment of paper

Deep within #UofT’s rare book collections, even the humblest materials can hold extraordinary stories.

A scrap of 📜 from the Robertson Davies Library @masseycollege.bsky.social Library has been identified as part of a 15th-century letter from the court of King Louis XI of France

A photo of a hand scrolling through a newsfeed on their phone.

From state violence to sustainable urban planning, scholars from across #UofTArtSci are sharing their expertise on a variety of issues in the media.

This week's round-up: bit.ly/4b1Nn23

What happens when we think with the trip? From vertigo and VR to psychedelics and altered perception, Trip Out! explores technologies of altered perception and reality as mediated experience. More information and Registration 🔗 www.utm.utoronto.ca/iccit/upcomi...

Victoria Fisher and Erich Weidenhammer discuss overlooked aspects of science that often slip through written accounts. Their piece highlights the importance of small, informal artifact collections throughout Canada 🇨🇦. Discover more here: journals.library.ualberta.ca/scientia/ind...

HAPSAT Graduate Workshops - Second Winter Session - 2026 HAPSAT GRADUATE WORKSHOPS In person event | February 11 | 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. This session will feature two presenters  Against planter ingenuity: a case study of the Sapelo and Saint Simon’s…

📣 Today!
HAPSAT Graduate Workshops – Second Winter Session
🗓️ February 11 | 12:00–1:30 PM
📍 VC303, Victoria College
Featuring talks by Tola Ajao and Myriam Iuorio on knowledge, power, disability, and lived experience in African and Atlantic histories. ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/hapsa...

Miron Clay-Gilmore, William Paris, Sergio Tenenbaum and Karina Vold.

The Algorithmic Bias in Canada project, a new research initiative hosted by @uoftethics.bsky.social, hopes to shape more equitable AI-based systems through academic collaboration, public engagement, and partnerships. 

Learn more: bit.ly/4qrVv0n

Avatars numériques post mortem et deuil : un point de vue éthique - Ordre des psychologues du Québec - OPQ Le deuil, processus d’adaptation à une perte majeure, pourrait être bouleversé par l’émergence de « griefbots », avatars numériques post mortem. S’ils prolongent le lien avec une personne décédée,…

🤖🕯️ Can AI change how we grieve?
Professor @karinavold.bsky.social co-authored a new article in Psychologie Québec examining the ethical implications of AI-based post-mortem digital avatars, or “griefbots,” and their potential impact on mourning www.ordrepsy.qc.ca/-/avatars-nu...

🔧📚 Who built Canadian physics?
In a new article alumna Victoria Fisher foregrounds the often-overlooked contributions of technicians and instrument makers to the development of competitive physics research programs in Canada brill.com/view/journal...

Next Week!
Who produced agricultural knowledge on antebellum plantations?
How was disability understood beyond Western frameworks in early modern Africa?
Join the HAPSAT Graduate Workshop with Tola Ajao and Myriam Iuorio
🕛 12–1:30 PM | Victoria College | In person ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/hapsa...

What Darwin Believed—and Why It Matters Studying Darwin’s life and his philosophical influences tests our beliefs about “science” and helps us to be informed, granular, and selective about our commitments.

🧠📖 How can evolutionary biology be rethought through history and philosophy?
PhD Candidate Oubai Elkerdi has published a new article inviting readers to reflect on evolution through a critical-historical lens and beyond specialist audiences. Read it here 🖇️ renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/what...

📌 Save the Date
From plantation knowledge and enslavement to disability and healing in early modern Africa 🌍️
Join us for the next HAPSAT Graduate Workshop with Tola Ajao and Myriam Iuorio.
📅 Feb 11 | 12–1:30 PM | Victoria College
🔗 More information ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/hapsa...

🩺📚 Professor Lucia Dacome contributes a new chapter to Medicine in Early Modern Italy: Between Theory and Practice (@brepols.net 2025), examining medicine and galley slavery in early modern Livorno at the intersection of medical theory, practice, and social control. www.brepols.net/products/IS-...

🤖💼 Professor @karinavold.bsky.social is co-author of a recent article outlining a protocol for a living systematic review on how AI is reshaping employment, working conditions, and worker safety, health, and well-being across different workplaces. Check it out! link.springer.com/article/10.1...

In an open-access article, Professor Elise Burton explores the origins of aDNA linked to paleoserology—early attempts to identify ancient blood groups—and examines the intertwining of science, politics, and ancestry. Read it here: www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...

AI and the mental health crisis: Can chatbots fill the gap? - Healthy Debate Canadians are increasingly turning to AI chatbots, like ChatGPT, for mental health support. But is this type of technology truly up to the task?

What are the limits of AI in mental health care? In a @healthydebate.bsky.social article, PhD candidate Rachel Katz discusses AI chatbots' role in therapy, arguing that human connection in therapeutic relationships cannot be replaced by technology. Read more ➡️

Thanks so much! We love highlighting the work happening at IHPST, stay tuned for more!

What can horror teach us about communicating science?
Explore “monstrous metaphors,” dread, and genre-based storytelling in this HAPSAT Graduate Workshop with Olivia-Autumn Rennie.
📍 Jan 14 | 12–1:30 PM
🔗 ihpst.utoronto.ca/events/hapsa...

📬 Our Nov–Dec 2025 IHPST newsletter is out!
Featuring interviews, recent publications, conferences, news, and tributes from the history and philosophy of science & technology community.
👉 Read it here: viewstripo.email/505a41ce-7a0...

✨ Winter Holiday Closure✨ The University will be closed Dec 24, 2025 – Jan 2, 2026 (inclusive).
📚 Classes resume in January: ✔ Winter (S) courses begin ✔ Fall-Winter (Y) courses continue
☃️ Enjoy the holidays and see you in 2026! ⛄

How did medicine function on galley ships in early modern Livorno? ⚓️ In “Between Land and Sea,” Prof. Lucia Dacome's chapter traces the health practices, medical care, and conditions of galley slaves
More information: www.brepols.net/products/IS-...

ICYMI: @reneeasirbu.bsky.social PhD student at IHPST, won first place in the “Who’s Afraid of AI?” Student Forum and AI Commentary Contest Award! Her essay “Processing Grief: Computational Theory of Mind and Death in the Age of AI” earned top honours in the graduate category. 👏

Brepols - Medical Theory and Practice in Early Modern Italy Brepols is an international academic publisher of works in the humanities, with a particular focus in history, archaeology, history of the arts, language and literature, and critical editions of…

We’re excited to share that Prof. Lucia Dacome’s new chapter “Between Land and Sea: Medicine and Galley Slavery in Early Modern Livorno” has just been published in Medicine in Early Modern Italy: between Theory and Practice (2025 @Brepols.net)
🔗 www.brepols.net/products/IS-...

ICYMI: Big news! Myriam Iuorio and Tola Ajao have been selected for the 2025 18th-Century Africa Publication Fellowships 🎉 Their work brings fresh perspectives to African and diasporic histories in the 18th century.
Full story ihpst.utoronto.ca/news/myriam-...
@asecsoffice.bsky.social

Captive Healthscapes: Exploring Slavery, Medicine, and Well-being in the Early Mediterranean 📅 December 18, 2025 | 🏛 Venice & online (Hybrid) 🔴 Sign up by December 7. Make sure to calculate the time difference between Venice and Toronto. The program times listed are in Central European Time.

Newsletter IHPST Newsletter

ICYMI 👀 The IHPST Newsletter is packed with stories, research highlights, and interviews from across our community — faculty, students, and alumni alike.
Take a look to the latest issue before the year wraps up 🎓
You can check all the 2025 issues here 🔗 ihpst.utoronto.ca/newsletter

Gendered Perspective of Sensory Expertise in Early Modern Europe
📅 11–12 Dec 2025 | Liège & online (Hybrid)
Prof. Lucia Dacome will present!
Scan the QR code to save your spot
🌍 Check time difference before joining!

History as an Escape Room: Professor Elise Burton’s Innovative Approach to Learning in HPS 205 Twice per semester, a third-floor room in Victoria College transforms into a portal to the past. Students enrolled in HPS 205 (Science, Technology, and Empire) step inside for an hour to see two…

Twice a semester, a Victoria College classroom becomes a historical escape room!
Learn how Professor Elise Burton and PhD student Oubai Elkerdi designed a hands-on way to explore the history of science 🔗 Read the story: ihpst.utoronto.ca/news/history...