Call for Papers

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) and the University of Toronto (U of T) are pleased to host the seventh international conference for graduate students and early career scholars, to be held June 21-25, 2027, in Toronto, Canada. “Early Career” includes graduate students and recent PhDs, independent scholars, postdocs, and those in early-stage academic positions. This conference aims to provide a space for professional and creative communication and collaboration across national and disciplinary boundaries among junior scholars, and to provide a forum for exploring and reflecting on current issues in the historiography of the physical sciences.

Supplementary travel funds will be available for all participants

The conference seeks to encourage discussions on how the physical sciences have been shaped by intellectual, social, cultural, political, institutional, and material contexts, while also considering how historians of the physical sciences can engage with new questions, methods, and audiences. In this spirit, the conference welcomes contributions that address both established and emerging approaches to the history of the physical sciences.

We welcome submissions for 20-minute oral presentations, including works-in-progress. The history of the physical sciences includes, but is not limited to, histories of physics, astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, chemistry and physical chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, geophysics, meteorology, climate science, space sciences, industrial and applied physics, instrumentation, computing, metrology, energy, and related technologies. While the conference typically focuses on more recent periods, submissions may address any period, from ancient and early modern practices to contemporary developments, provided that they engage with questions relevant to the historiography of the physical sciences.

All historiographical perspectives are welcome, from socio-cultural to highly technical, as well as cross-disciplinary approaches. Previous editions have included work on theory and experiment, education and pedagogy, technology and instrumentation, gender, race and class, intellectual movements, institutional histories, scientific diplomacy, global and transnational science, material cultures, and the circulation of knowledge, objects, instruments, and people across different contexts. These examples are not intended as limits: we welcome proposals that expand the chronological, geographical, methodological, and disciplinary scope of the history of the physical sciences.

In addition to sessions with submitted papers, the conference program will feature roundtables, workshops, and other events designed to foster a community of scholars and develop career skills. The conference will also provide an opportunity for junior scholars to interact with invited senior scholars.

The conference is also sponsored by the Inter-Union Commission for the History and Philosophy of Physics (IUCHPP), which will award two medals of the IUPAP Early Career Prize in the History of Physics during the conference.

Paper proposals should be submitted via the form available at AIP-ECC-2027 Submission Form  by November 15, 2026. The application form requires the following information:

• Your name

• E-mail address

• Institutional affiliation

• Presentation title and abstract (1300 characters max., not including title)

• A short biography, indicating where you are in your studies and/or career (1300 characters max.)

A template for preparing proposals is available to applicants at AIP-ECC-2027 Proposal Template.  Proposals should be saved as a PDF file and uploaded through the submission form indicated above. Applicants will be notified by December 18, 2026, at the latest. Please let us know if you need an earlier notification.

All questions may be directed to the conference committee at EarlyCareer.AIP@gmail.com.

Contact Email

EarlyCareer.AIP@gmail.com

URL

https://www.aip.org/history/early-career-conference