Massimo Mazzotti's (Department of History, University of California Berkeley) research interests lie at the intersection of the history of science and science studies. He is especially interested in the historicity and situatedness of mathematics, logic, and deductive reasoning, and in the social processes that can make them universally valid. He is also interested in using technological systems and artifacts as ways of entry for the explorations of specific forms of social organization and power distribution. His past and present research projects have focused primarily on the early modern and Enlightenment period, with significant incursions into the nineteenth and twentieth century.

Conferences

"Shifting control: mathematical writing in the age of revolutions"

Is mathematics primarily about intellectual intuition and the visual, or is it primarily about writing, and portable algorithmic procedures? This age-old question assumes new and urgent meaning in an age of political turmoil and redistribution of authority.

• Wednesday 13 June 2018, 15:00-17:00 - EHESS (room 4) - 105 bd Raspail, 75006 Paris

"Calculus as spiritual exercise"

An intepretation of Maria Gaetana Agnesi's Instituzioni Analitiche (1748), the first systematic presentations of the techniques of differential and integral calculus.

• Thursday 14 June 2018,13:00-15:00 - EHESS (room 3) - 105 bd Raspail 75006 Paris

"History of mathematics as archeology"

The first journal of the history of mathematics was founded in Rome, in 1868. That the scientific study of mathematical documents should be supported by the last pope-king is not a coincidence.

• Tuesday 19 June 2018, 17:00-19:00 - EHESS (room A04_47) - 54 bd Raspail 75006 Paris

"Algorithmic Life"

Historians of science and mathematics can offer precious and much needed contributions to contemporary discussions on digital algorithms.

• Tuesday 26 June 2018, 17:00-19:00 - EHESS (room A04_47) - 54 bd Raspail 75006 Paris