Description
In this project we strengthen bilateral cooperation between Czech Republic and Norway by establishing a network of researchers who will study, in broad context, the scientific school of influential Czech mathematician Emil Schoenbaum (1882-1967), a key personality in creating the social security system not only in the first Czechoslovak republic, but also in Greece and later in many countries of Latin America. This group had important impact on the economic and social development in Czechoslovakia and thanks to Schoenbaum’s broad international contacts, e.g., in International Labour Organization (ILO), also in global context. We will organize three joint seminars and publish research papers in joint proceedings. Doing this we will involve junior scholars in history of mathematics and offer them interesting possibility to accelerate their scientific career. While working towards a common goal, a group of junior historians of mathematics will be trained in the most effective form.
Summary of project results
The mainly visible output consists in organizing three joint meetings. First, a seminar for PhD and master students in Brno approached mainly future historians of mathematics. It took place within their regular seminar and was appreciated as welcome comparison with the Norwegian teaching style. A couple of students visited also the second meeting, winter school in the history of mathematics, a forum for interdisciplinary discussions. We strive to choose interesting, but still enough broad topic, write a clear motivation text and invite established foreign scholar for a lecture. By setting up the programme we pay attention to providing the participants with enough time for the discussions with their foreign colleagues. This fact was repeatedly appreciated by the participants. At the closing seminar, we presented some of the research results to the mainly local mathematical audience, clearly showing benefits of the project. At these events, 10 talks were presented by the team members and 3 by invited speakers. They were all of high international standard. 5 papers were already submitted for publication in the proceedings of the winter school in the history of mathematics, which is going to appear as a special number of the journal Dějiny věd a techniky (History of Sciences and technology). Some additional papers are however being before completion. However, the main topic of the project has exceeded its size to the book-like form or a series of papers. The handbook, which resulted from the project, is a solid base enabling us to distribute the research among the interested scholars. As a result of our communication strategy, we have been striving for wide publicity among all possibly interested colleagues, utilizing mainly printed media and traditional WWW. However, there have been increased interest about our winter school thanks to advertisement at academia.edu webpage.
Summary of bilateral results
The project was needed to build a basis for enhancing cooperation among historians of mathematics. This was seen as one of the ways to internationalize the Czech community, as the project offered a possibility of short research stays, not a common feature so far. Under supervision of senior historians in Kristiansand, interdisciplinary research was fostered, taking into account the recent research trends and accepting different background of the different audiences. Overall objectives of the project, i.e. 1) to promote the careers of PhD students and postgraduate researchers in history of mathematics; 2) to reinforce the cooperation between the Czech and Norwegian partners on research topics of common interest; 3) to disseminate our findings through scientific meetings and joint scientific publications; 4) to enhance our understanding of the Czech actuarial school; were successfully accomplished, cf below. The main output consists in organizing three joint meetings. 1) a seminar for PhD and master students, future historians of mathematics 2) workshop of junior historians, a forum for interdisciplinary debate; 3) closing seminar with presentation of the project results. Together, 10 talks were delivered by the team members and 3 by invited speakers. Moreover, 5 of the papers were submitted for publication to a special issue of the journal History of Sciences and Technology. Within the implementation period, Czech audience could attend 3 meetings in the history of mathematics with 6 high quality lectures by respected foreign scholars. Moreover, 6 Czech junior historians visited Kristiansand for a research stay, 5 papers were submitted for publication and digitized Czechoslovak Journal of Actuaries is available for future research.