The Science and Civilisation in China Project as a Collaborative Endeavour

The University of Oregon hosts a discussion with Gregory Blue

Gregory Blue (Ph.D. Cambridge 1989) has taught world and comparative history at the University of Victoria since 1990. His research focuses especially on depictions of China in Western social theories from the 17th century until World War 2. His broader research interests include comparative social, economic and intellectual history, long-term relations between Europe and Asia, international politics, comparative colonialism, and various aspects of the history of science.

As Director of the Sino-British Scientific Cooperation Office during the Second World War, the biochemist Joseph Needham (1900-95) came to realize the richness of the Chinese scientific tradition. In the late 1940s, building on his scientific and organizational experience, he designed the Science and Civilization Project as a committedly inter-cultural collaborative undertaking. Originally planned as a seven-volume series, the research venture and the team of collaborators of diverse nationalities grew as he came increasingly to appreciate the extent and complexity of his research field. As someone who worked intimately with Needham on that project from 1977 until 1990, Gregory Blue will discuss how the research was structured, how the team functioned and how the organization of the project changed over time, as its reputation grew as a significant initiative in cross-cultural understanding as well as in the history of science, technology and medicine.

Presented by the UO Confucius Institute for Global China Studies and cosponsored by  Clark Honors College, Department of History, Oregon Humanities Center, Asian Studies Program and Humanities Program.