Next IPBC talk on 10 June by Victoria Smit et al

[Phila M. Msimang]

​Greetings,  

The next talk of the IPBC will be a roundtable discussion by Victoria Shmidt (University of Graz, Austria), Simone De Angelis (University of Graz, Austria), and Peter Rohrbacher (Austrian Academy of Sciences) based on the new book Blumenbach’s Racial Classification: Deconstructing the Timeless Call for Human Differentiation. Please find below an outline of the discussion to be held: 

How to explore the past and present of race and anti-racism in science: Lessons from the Blumenbach case

This discussion will begin with a short presentation of the content of the book. The editors of the book, Victoria Shmidt and Simone De Angelis, will introduce us to the topics tackled in each chapter. Peter Rohrbacher will examine the reinterpretation of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's (1752–1840) theory of degeneration by Eugen Fischer (1874–1967), one of the central figures of German biological research during the time of the Third Reich. Using a combination of sociological biography and network analysis, Rohrbacher traces the continuities and epistemic ruptures from Enlightenment anthropology to Nazi racial science. This will open the way for a discussion aimed at challenging simplistic notions about race, anti-racism, and science. 

 

You can join the meeting using this hyperlink that I will send with every meeting reminder: Join the meeting now. 

Our schedule of talks for the next few months is as follows: 

10 June 2026: Victoria Shmidt (University of Graz, Austria), Simone De Angelis (University of Graz, Austria), and Peter Rohrbacher (Austrian Academy of Sciences). How to explore the past and present of race and anti-racism in science: Lessons from the Blumenbach case. (Discussion based on and around this text)

[Event in Türkiye during Northern Summer break (29 June - 5 July), meeting break in August] 

16 September 2026: Lucas Matthews (Columbia University, USA) How the problem of locality turned into the problem of portability.  (See text here)

7 October 2026: Philippe Huneman (CNRS/Université Paris I Sorbonne, France).  Talk on When Metaphysics Meets Biology. Kantian Approaches to the Concept of Organism. (Text available here)

Please do send me an e-mail if you would like to propose to present your work on any topic in the philosophy of biology in our series. 

We now have a Bluesky profile that you can follow here: https://bsky.app/profile/phil-bio-circle.bsky.social

Best wishes,

Phila. 

Phila M. Msimang

Senior Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences

Office: +27 21 808 9938 | Department administrator: +27 21 808 2418

Co-ordinator of the International Philosophy of Biology Circle

Fellow of the South African Young Academy of Science

Secretary of the Azanian Philosophical Society

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