SPONSORED CONFERENCES AND SESSIONS

The conference ‘Epistemic Frontiers’ Geoscientific Knowledge, Authority, and Politics of Participation in Arctic and African Exploration sponsored by IUGS INHIGEO, took place on 22–24 April 2025 in Oslo (Norway). Organized by Johannes Mattes (Austria) and Ulrike Spring (Norway) bringing together researchers from the sciences and humanities the activities included two days of scientific presentations on a wide range of topics to explore and compare how in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the High Arctic and Africa’s ‘interior’ emerged as major poles of Western geoscientific inquiry, offering untapped resources and routes to prestige and authority. Despite their diverse ecosystems and Indigenous populations, similarities can be found in how European scholars studied, documented, and discussed these regions, both in the field and at their working desks. Once labelled as ‘white spots’ on maps, these areas were framed as ‘epistemic frontiers’.
The conference also included a tour of the collections of The Natural History Museum, and excursions related to two great Norwegian explorers giving fascinating insights into their work, collections, and history: the Fridtjof Nansen Institute, and Roald Amundsen’s home Uranienborg.

An INHIGEO sponsored session was organized in collaboration with the IUGS – Initiative on Forensic Geology, an organization dedicated to the geoscientific analysis of crime scenes, assisting law enforcement agencies worldwide, as part of the international conference to celebrate the 15th anniversary of IUGS-IFG held on May 21 to May 23, 2025 at the Spazio Europe in Rome (Italy). The session was held on May 21 st and included five presentations under the theme History of Forensic geology – see program excerpt below and the chairs of the session Martina Kölbl-Ebert and Ezio Vaccari with the speakers Laurance Donnelly, Robert Fitzpatrick and Rosa Maria Di Maggio.

The 6^th Argentinian Congress and 1^st Latin American Congress of History of Geology, sponsored by IUGS INHIGEO, took place on October 2023 in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina. The conference themes included events, personalities and institutions related to the history of the Earth sciences in Latin America, from the pre-Hispanic and colonial periods until recent times.

The aim of the meeting was to reinforce mutual knowledge and collaboration between geosciences and humanities. 27 presentations highlighted research covering a broad geographical range from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru.

A one-day conference sponsored by INHIGEO, organized by members Maddalena Napolitani (Italy) and Victor Monnin (France), was hosted by the Center for the History of the Mountains, Material Culture and Earth Sciences of the University of Insubria in Villa Toeplitz, Varese. Themes pursued two related objectives: (1) considering new interdisciplinary approaches to study the history and the images of Earth sciences and (2) reflecting on the responsibilities that come with studying the history of Earth sciences amid a global, environmental crisis. Eleven speakers representing 8 countries across Europe, Africa and North America took part in this lively and highly interesting forum for young PhD students and early career scholars interested in the history of the geological sciences with talks elaborating on aspects of visual, literary, archival and material sources.

V10 History of Volcanology and Historical Volcanology

INHIGEO members Claudia Principe (Italy) and Martina Kölbl-Ebert (Germany) organized a history of volcanology session at the 28^th IUGG on behalf of the IUGS INHIGEO. This cross-disciplinary symposium forms part of our outreach activities where we interact with scientific congresses in order to raise awareness of the history of our science.

INHIGEO members Kathleen Histon (Ireland), Susan Turner (Australia) and Toshihiro Yamada (Japan) organized a history of palaeontology symposium at the recent 6^th IPC held in Thailand as part of INHIGEO’s outreach initiative of cross – disciplinary symposia within scientific congresses. Symposium 3: “Hidden histories revealed in scientific revision of palaeontological collections” included 23 presentations on topics from history of palaeontological travels, institutions, journals, the Treatise, collections and specimens ranging from the Cambrian to Pleistocene and from across the five continents.