July 2007 Newsletter, Vol. 36, No.3
The British Society for the History of Science launched Viewpoint in February 2006 with Rebekah Higgitt as editor.
Q&A
A View with a Point: Rebekah Higgitt
Why did the BSHS decide to replace the newsletter?
A desire to increase membership. Our membership had been in decline and we were not sure why. One way to increase membership is to broaden the kind of people we might appeal to (and to offer members a bit more for their money) with a more interesting newsletter. The original idea came from some of the senior officers of the Society as part of a general reorganization. They redrafted the aims of the Society (the revamped mission statement can be found at http://bshs.org.uk/bshs/about_the_society/mission_statement/index.html). The BSHS journal is essential. We cater to the academic side well. It was a desire to add something else. We know our members do include teachers and retired scientists and the journal doesn’t absolutely cater to their interest in history of science. We had difficulty with the title of the newsletter. We wanted to be as inclusive as possible, so we came up with something that wasn’t going to annoy anybody, but may not be particularly strong. We wanted to make it look immediately striking, that’s why we went to full color. In the end when we looked at the printing costs, the difference was relatively little. The aim was to make it as shiny and attractive as possible.
How did you become editor?
I was asked. I was a member of Council and my term was coming to an end. People thought I might be enthusiastic – I had finished my Ph.D., I was someone keen to make contacts, and I was also at a level where I have a reasonable number of contacts. People on Council knew me and knew I was willing to put in a reasonable amount of effort pulling it together. And I said yes.
How do you collect information for Viewpoint?
Our Society was reorganized to include a Committee on Education and Outreach. They are very useful in getting material for the newsletter. The committee also has representatives for higher education, museums, etc., who help us get the newsletter out to people who are not members of the Society. We print lots of copies that get distributed to schools and museums. History of science is a smaller profession in Britain – I can call in personal favors more easily because I know a greater proportion of the people. I’ve approached a lot of postgraduates and junior scholars – obviously people who are interested in getting their name out – to do reviews and so on. I’ve been trying to get people who have an issue or an ax to grind to put it into a wider format. I also ask senior people for copy, though I know it is not going to be their first priority, unless I get them at just the right moment. I ask people with a book coming out or an exhibition. In the museum world people are only too happy to publicize what they’re doing, plus they’ve got good pictures. That is very important. A big strain on the budget is keeping up the pictorial interest.
What reactions have you noticed?
Viewpoint has received good feedback – visually it is so different to before. People have been enthusiastic in providing copy, because it is much more visible. It’s also getting a positive response from people in museums and so on. How that will bear out in the long term – in getting new members – we’ll have to wait and see. There is no hostility to the idea of outreach. I would like to get opinions in the newsletter on what outreach does to the history of science. Does it mean surrendering? Are we doing a science museum type of thing, which is essentially promoting science, not history? I’d like to get views on that. The balance has been left up to me, for example, how much we represent the academic constituency. It may make it tricky when we advertise academic conferences besides A Level science curriculums that include history of science. There is a danger due to the different constituencies, but it also opens peoples’ eyes to what is going on elsewhere.
