Prof. Dr. Janine Rogers 

Museums of natural history and other museums of science are where we learn about the world and our place in it. We now live in a time of global social and environmental challenges that will require complex solutions. These solutions will not be purely scientific: the problems and solutions are located at the point at which science and technology meet culture and society. Therefore, the arts and humanities are a critical part of understanding these issues. In museums of science, especially natural history museums, there are unique opportunities to connect the sciences, arts and humanities. This collaborative research program considers medieval book culture as a meeting place, both historically and in contemporary museumship, for connecting the humanities and the sciences. Medieval manuscripts were literally “books of the world”: they were made of animals, plants and minerals. Medieval people thought of books as not only pages with words on them, but also as a kind of scientific instrument – a thinking device – for understanding our existence. To read was to connect to the world physically as well as mentally. We need this kind of “ecological thinking” now to raise science literacy and awareness around global challenges (climate change, migration, border conflicts, food security, species extinction, decolonization and Indigenization). Museums of science can rediscover medieval ways of thinking, as seen in manuscript culture, to help us understand and respond to our new world.