Dear BSHS member,

I hope everyone had a good holiday season–for most of us the first one in a long time without the kind of restrictions that have limited travel to family and friends.

The headline news from January’s council meeting is that the first year of membership at the concessionary rate is now only £10. We are very aware of the constraints facing students, early career scholars and others on limited incomes, and want to make membership as affordable as possible. We also decided not to raise any other membership rates this year, despite recommendations to do so for those subscribing to the print edition of the journal. The link for joining or renewing is https://www.bshs.org.uk/membership

To make all this possible, I’m asking those among you who can afford it to establish their current membership at the Supporters rate of £100. If you have an existing direct debit, just write to Lucy Santos, the BSHS administrator, at membership@bshs.org.uk and she will make the necessary change. It’s a really important way to express your support for the field and to encourage our efforts to broaden the membership. Or you can choose to make a one-off donation to the Society at https://www.bshs.org.uk/fundraising.

I’d also ask everyone to publicize now the new £10 rate as widely as possible, especially among students. It’s a particularly good time to do this, as our the postgraduate representative, Zoe Screti, is working with the PG committee to plan a fantastic meeting in Oxford from 30 March to 1 April. The call for papers ends in a few days (30 January) so if you are a student make sure to get your proposal in before then.

The other big event for this year is our second Digital Festival #DigiCon2023, which will be held 3-7 July. As with the first festival, the aim will be to bring together exciting panels, plenaries, and a variety of innovative formats to foster a wide-ranging discussion with participants from around the world. The call for proposals will be out shortly.

The Society is continuing its support for meetings in history of science, medicine and technology, and at its last meeting increased the amount available for supporting events of this kind. To find out more, follow us on twitter and also see https://www.bshs.org.uk/conferences/bshs-support-for-events Applications for grants (up to £500) are now open.

There are lots of ongoing projects–including a major redesign of our website and the introduction of a YouTube channel, being directed by our communications officer Alexander Stöger; a new series of PG workshops; and exciting plans for our journal, the newsletter, and outreach and engagement.

I’ve been involved with history of science for a long time, and there can be no doubt that the field is in an unprecedented era of ferment and change. It’s really wonderful to see how BSHS–not least through recent issues of BJHS and BJHS Themes–has been at the forefront of this, and with everybody’s continued support we can do even more.

all best wishes

Jim Secord

President, British Society for the History of Science

BSHS Membership Page