Alex Csiszar
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alexcsiszar.bsky.social
Alex Csiszar
@alexcsiszar.bsky.social
230 followers 170 following 12 posts
History of Science, Information, Media, Books, France, Britain
Writing: https://scholar.harvard.edu/csiszar/publications
Latest (on AI and scientific authorship): https://doi.org/10.1525/hsns.2024.54.5.611
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alexcsiszar.bsky.social
Alex Csiszar @alexcsiszar.bsky.social · Nov 24
Here's a new set of short pieces on "AI and Scholarly Journals" put together by @mbaldwin.bsky.social and Brigid Vance:
online.ucpress.edu/hsns/issue/5...
My piece, "Blurry Authorship," situates LLMs within the long history of attempts at condensing scholarly knowledge.
doi.org/10.1525/hsns...
Volume 54 Issue 5 | Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences | University of California Press
online.ucpress.edu
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
metacramer.bsky.social
Very happy to share that my monograph on the negotiation of global asymmetries of science has been recently published! bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/colonial-leg...
Colonial Legacies and Global Inequalities in the Anglo-Caribbean
Colonial Legacies and Global Inequalities in the Anglo-Caribbean - Negotiating Social Knowledge Production in Research and Career-Making; This book examines how Anglo-Caribbean scholars navigate globa...
bristoluniversitypress.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
sjangtenhagen.bsky.social
Four articles from our Special Issue "The Past and Present of Humanities Peer Review" in Minerva are available now. Two more articles, along with a general introduction, will follow shortly! link.springer.com/collections/...
The Past and Present of Humanities Peer Review
Peer review, i.e. the institutionalized evaluation of scholars and their outputs by others working in the same field, is fundamental to knowledge production ...
link.springer.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
hu-rmz.bsky.social
In next week's Jour Fixe, @alexcsiszar.bsky.social (Harvard University) will present on "Exporting publication standards: Eugene Garfield's global travels"
www.rmz.hu-berlin.de...
29.10.25, 11 CET, join us in person/ via zoom (link on website)!
@ibi-hu.bsky.social
RMZ Jour fixe/ Exporting publication standards: Eugene Garfield's global travels
Alex Csiszar (Department of the History of Science, Harvard University, USA)
www.rmz.hu-berlin.de
October 22, 2025 at 2:53 PM
alexcsiszar.bsky.social
I at last got to sit down and read “Limits of the Numerical” ed. @annaalexandrova.bsky.social, Stephen John, and @cnewf.bsky.social. This is a great book. It pushes against some of our received STS wisdom about quantification in super productive ways. Essential!
press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Limits of the Numerical
This collection examines the uses of quantification in climate science, higher education, and health.   Numbers are both controlling and fragile. They drive public policy, figuring into everything fro...
press.uchicago.edu
August 24, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
erantal.bsky.social
Onilne workshop on quantification! The Society for the Study of Measurement is delighted to host an event on the philosophy, sociology, and history of quantification across the sciences on August 9. Free with registration. #philsci #philsky #histsci #histtech #sts #sociology 🧪 tinyurl.com/5rn7p7sk
Quantification in History, Philosophy, Sociology, and Practice – The Society for the Study of Measurement
tinyurl.com
July 6, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
sarahebull.bsky.social
I've long been fascinated by the fact that wood engravings for newspaper illustrations were often based on photographs (e.g. of the Crimean War front) in the 1860s, but I hadn't really considered that photography would be used to reproduce/pirate engravings this early! #needtoreadmorearthistory
Caution to Photographers — At Bow Street, on Saturday, Sidney Powell, and a dealer in photographic prints, of Chandos Street, Covent Garden, appeared to answer a summons at the instances of Mr. Ernest Gambark, charging him first, with having copied, or caused to be copied, an engraving of the "Horse Fair" without his consent; and secondly, with exposing the same for sale. Mr. Gambitt said he gave £1,600 for the picture and copyright, and 800 guineas for the engraving. The defendant and others immediately laid hold of his engravings, photographed them, and injured his sale. He was determined to prosecute in every case. The magistrate reserved his decision on the point of law as be the construction of the set. "Caution to Photographers," Carlisle Examiner and North Western Advertiser - Tuesday 04 November 1862, 4.
March 3, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
williamthomas.bsky.social
The Democrats on the House Science Committee have set up a website to collect stories from fired federal employees, anonymously if desired democrats-science.house.gov/sciencefirings
Were you fired by President Trump? | House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
The House Committee on Science, Space and Technology
democrats-science.house.gov
February 18, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
hsnatsci.bsky.social
At the beginning of the semester, if questions of AI in academia are stressing you out, could I suggest reading through our most recent set of essays? online.ucpress.edu/hsns/issue/5...
Volume 54 Issue 5 | Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences | University of California Press
online.ucpress.edu
January 14, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
marcellaflamme.bsky.social
My first new initiative at @arlnews.bsky.social!

Book-length studies of scholarly communities can signal changes in research practice, but library leaders are often too busy to read them. This series aims to distill actionable insights in the key of epistemic diversity.

www.arl.org/blog/introdu...
A stylized image of the Earth with North America at its center, overlaid with bright colors. Two scales alongside the image relate the colors to sea surface temperature (°C) and sea ice concentration (%). Source: https://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.jsp?med_id=61163
January 15, 2025 at 3:39 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
comedoergosum.bsky.social
Shared my doubts with a @nytimes.com journalist about how much I think the FDA’s new front-of-package labels are going to improve consumers’ health, quoted in his article here, “F.D.A. Proposes New Food Labels to Detail Sugar, Fat and Salt Levels”: www.nytimes.com/2025/01/14/h....
#FromLabelToTable
F.D.A. Proposes New Food Labels to Detail Sugar, Fat and Salt Content
The agency issued designs for front-of-package lists that food companies would be required to include.
www.nytimes.com
January 15, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
mbaldwin.bsky.social
Fellow #histSTM scholars! The "Essays and Reviews" section of Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences (@hsnatsci.bsky.social) is looking for contributors to a February 2026 special section on "Historical Practices." More information in this Call for Proposals + in this thread. (1/?)
Image Text: Call for Proposals February 2026 Special Section: “Historical Practices” Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences Section Editors: Melinda Baldwin and Brigid Vance The “Essays & Reviews” editors of Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences are seeking proposals for short essays on “Historical Practices” as part of a special section to run in February 2026. We are looking for authors of recent monographs or other substantial research projects on the history of science (published/released in 2018 or later) to reflect on the historical work that led to their final product. This could include, but is not limited to: the research methods you used; languages or techniques you had to master to finish the project; how you thought about your engagement with the historiography; your approach to writing; decisions about how to present and release non-monograph works; how the project changed as you worked on it. Essays should be roughly 800-1000 words in length. Drafts of essays need to be submitted by August 1, 2025 in order to meet February publication deadlines. Short proposals can be emailed directly to the section editors, and should include: 1) The title and publication information of your book or project 2) A one-sentence articulation of the project’s central argument or contribution 3) The geographical region treated in the book/project 4) The temporal period treated in the book/project 5) The major research methods employed in the project (archival research, oral histories, engagement with physical artifacts and material culture, etc.) Send proposals or queries to Melinda Baldwin (mbaldwin@umd.edu) and Brigid Vance (brigid.e.vance@lawrence.edu). We will choose proposals with the goal of achieving broad geographical, temporal, and topical coverage. Early career scholars who have recently published a first book-length work are especially encouraged to send proposals, as are scholars outside of academia.
January 15, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
joshshepperd.bsky.social
Surprise major archive find today - Paul Lazarsfeld apparently hired Theodor Adorno to write a 100pp qualitative analysis of quantitative participant interviews for something called the “Labor Project” in 1944, same year that “Dialectic of Enlightenment” was published. Yes, it’s interesting.
December 18, 2024 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
rensbod.bsky.social
Thrilled to announce that the Call for Papers of "The Making of the Humanities XI" conference in Lund (9-11 October 2024) is open!

Deadline for submissions: May 1, 2024

Organized by the Board of Events of the Society for the History of the Humanities.

historyofhumanities.org/upcoming-mee...
The Making of the Humanities XI, Lund 2024 – Society for the History of the Humanities
historyofhumanities.org
February 4, 2024 at 12:17 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
ccmmody.bsky.social
CfP: How Sciences End
Oxford, 11-13 July 2025
Deadline: 31 January 2025
Submit 250-word abstracts to howsciencesend@gmail.com

[I'm broadcasting this on behalf of Joe Martin, Michelle Aroney & Alex Aylward, none of whom AFAIK are on this site yet]
CALL FOR PAPERS: How Sciences End Dates: 11–13 July 2025 Location: University of Oxford, UK Submission deadline: 31 January 2025 Conference Theme and Goals Historians have studied extensively how sciences begin—but how do they end? This is a crucial question for understanding how the labour of knowledge-making evolves. Previous attention to the founding, disciplining, and professionalisation of individual sciences has provided robust frameworks for thinking through the birth and growth of knowledge-making communities. Far less attention has been directed toward how those same communities decay, dissipate, or evolve beyond the contemporary boundaries of science. This conference seeks to cultivate case studies of the ends of sciences, and thereby to motivate a new approach to thinking about the developmental trajectories of scientific disciplines, communities, institutions, and the ordering of expert knowledge. A further aim is to strengthen the community of scholars with a shared interest in studying the ends of sciences. Submission Process Submissions should be sent to howsciencesend@gmail.com. Please title the email “SciEnds Abstract Submission” and include the following information in the body: - Full name as you would like it to appear on the programme - Email address - Affiliation, or how you would like to be identified on the programme - Presentation title - An abstract of no more than 250 words describing your proposed talk and how it fits the conference theme and goals. - An indication of whether you would like to be considered for travel support. (Limited funds are available to defray travel costs, with priority given to early career and insecurely employed scholars.) The submission deadline is 31 January 2025. We plan to circulate a draft program by the end of February 2025. Programme Committee Michelle Aroney (Oxford), Alex Aylward (Oxford), Joseph D. Martin (Durham)
November 25, 2024 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
bshsnews.bsky.social
We know, summer is a long way away. But we can't think of anything other than our upcoming BSHS conference. So, we wanted to share our excitement and remind you to submit your abstract for the 2025 BSHS conference in Cambridge, July 8-10 until Jan 10! https://buff.ly/3YWqCp6
December 10, 2024 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
Into the Unknown: France faces an uncertain future. tocqueville21.com/art-goldhamm...
Into the Unknown - Tocqueville21
Macron has spoken. He will not resign--no surprise there. Beyond that, he gave nothing away about his intentions, except to make it clear that he continues to believe in the possibility of a "republic...
tocqueville21.com
December 6, 2024 at 3:02 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
annekkrueger.bsky.social
Out now! @thorstenpeetz.bsky.social Our Routledge International Handbook of Valuation and Society has arrived! A big thank you to our fantastic colleagues who have contributed to this comprehensive compendium of research on valuation and evaluation in various societal spheres! lmy.de/ASSuq
December 6, 2024 at 10:37 AM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
kawulf.bsky.social
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH for sharing this terrific postdoc @jcblibrary.bsky.social! I'm testing your generosity here but would love to also share that we have TWO additional senior research fellowships for BROWN2026. Details at apply.interfolio.com/159128 and see number 2 below for terms... 1/
December 5, 2024 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
gabriellehecht.bsky.social
The French government has fallen. What does that mean, and why did it happen?

Some background and a short explainer 🧵
December 5, 2024 at 11:07 AM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
olakom.bsky.social
CfP: Predicting Europe. Histories of the Future in Post-1945 Europe

Deadline: 17 January
December 5, 2024 at 10:43 AM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
eastasiascitech.bsky.social
... your work, everyone who attended these talks, Oliver Lazarus for helping with logistics, and, as always, the Harvard University Asia Center for sponsoring the series! 🙏

See you in the spring! (lineup 👇)

scholar.harvard.edu/seow/STinAsia

2/2

#histstm #histsci #histtech #histmed #envhist 🧪
December 4, 2024 at 1:55 AM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
tedunderwood.com
When Matt shared this, I didn’t at first fully understand how great a resource it is. When Hathi has full text he *links*to it — so this is in effect the beginning of a legal, open 20c corpus.

I didn’t know we had that.
thisismattmiller.com Matt Miller @thisismattmiller.com · Oct 4
From the analysis I did about 4 years ago: thisismattmiller.com/post/non-ren...
There were about ~17K orphaned/non-renewed volumes set to full view in Hathitrust. Like more now I would assume.
Non-Renewed
Analysis of non-renewed works from 1923–1964 that are likely in the public domain
thisismattmiller.com
November 1, 2024 at 5:32 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
joycechaplin.bsky.social
A feast—like ordering dinner from a famous chef, knowing it’ll be good, not realizing how completely fabulous it will be
November 24, 2024 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
tijmen.globalcampus.ai
After Springer in 2022, now Elsevier forbids OpenAlex to store abstracts of Closed Access papers.

github.com/ourresearch/...

We think this is a worrying trend, hindering the discoverability of research. @relx.bsky.social Is this what you mean with 'Empowering Open Science' ?
do not store closed elsevier abstract · ourresearch/openalex-guts@b85b3bc
github.com
November 21, 2024 at 10:38 AM
Reposted by Alex Csiszar
jelena3121.bsky.social
I wrote a little introduction to the research project I am about to start working on soon ✨

If the title “Datafying Universities: The social construction of organizations as statistical units” sounds inviting or relevant to you—maybe you want to check it out!

👉 jelenabrankovic.net/datafying-un...
June 26, 2024 at 1:52 PM