Keeping Time: Scientific Theory and Cultural Practice from Galileo's Pendulum to the Atomic Clock

FAIN: RZ-51226-10

University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA 93106-0001)
Jocelyn Holland (Project Director: November 2009 to June 2012)

Three workshops, one conference, and an edited volume (print and online) on the scientific theory and cultural practice of keeping time from Galileo to the atomic clock. (10 months)

Although the question of time is arguably relevant to every single academic field, interdisciplinary research on time has been slow to evolve. This is particularly the case with regard to technological developments in the history of time-keeping as they relate to theories of time in both the sciences and the humanities. We therefore propose a collaborative research project which will bridge the theory, technology and cultural practices of time-keeping and be conducted through workshops and a conference. The project has two main objectives: 1) to propose a new line of inquiry which understands the technological advances in time-keeping as an important link between scientific and historical research agendas, and 2) to understand the radical developments in 20th-century timekeeping in an informed historical context.