Article ID: CBB001253068

Amateurs by Choice: Women and the Pursuit of Independent Scholarship in 20th-Century Historical Writing (2013)

unapi

Pomata, Gianna (Author)


Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 55, no. 2
Issue: 2
Pages: 196-219


Publication Date: 2013
Edition Details: Part of a special issue “Beyond the Academy: Histories of Gender and Knowledge”
Language: English

In the early decades of the 20th century, women's access to the historical discipline followed fundamentally two paths. For the first time, some (a small minority) entered the profession as academic historians; others worked outside or on the margins of academia, pursuing their research interests as independent scholars. What did being an independent scholar mean for these women? Was it always a form of externally imposed marginalization? My paper argues that this is not the case. First of all, being an independent scholar did not necessarily mean marginality. Some of these women scholars exerted a deep influence on 20th century historiography, and their work is still influential today. Quite apart from posthumous fame, moreover, it should be noted that the lack of academic affiliation did not necessarily preclude for some of these women the possibility of recognition and influence during their lives. Secondly, we should be careful not to assume that being an independent scholar was invariably an externally imposed marginalization. Some of these women scholars can be defined as `obligatory amateurs,' because they were frustrated in their attempt to pursue an academic career. But others, in contrast, deliberately chose independent scholarship over an academic job, and can thus be defined `amateurs by choice.' What was the motivation behind this choice? I argue that an important factor was the resilience of the amateur tradition in historical writing. The amateur tradition offered a strong counterbalance to women's marginality in academia and a source of positive values and models for their participation in the intellectual life.

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Reviewed By

Essay Review Maria Elvira Callapez; Vanessa Silva (2014) 'Beyond the Academy – Histories of Gender and Knowledge'. Icon: Journal of the International Committee for the History of Technology (pp. 166-172). unapi

Included in

Article Oertzen, Christine von; Rentetzi, Maria; Watkins, Elizabeth S. (2013) Finding Science in Surprising Places: Gender and the Geography of Scientific Knowledge. Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 73-80). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001253068/

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Authors & Contributors
Wharton, Joanna
Jeremy J. D. Greenwood
James Parry
Waring, Sophie
Wagner, Darren N.
Goodman, Martin
Concepts
Women in science
Science and gender
Historiography
Amateurs
Biographies
Photography
Time Periods
20th century, early
19th century
Renaissance
20th century
18th century
17th century
Places
United States
Europe
Great Britain
Buenos Aires (Argentina)
England
Argentina
Institutions
British Ornithologists' Union (BOU)
Oxford University
Linnean Society of London
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