Fairs and Frontiers

The Transnational Circulation of Knowledge, Technology, and Visual Culture at 19th-Century European Funfairs

We are pleased to announce an upcoming two-day salon on 24-25 April 2025, which will lead to the publication of a book titled Fairs and Frontiers: The Transnational Circulation of Knowledge, Technology and Visual Culture at 19th-Century European Funfairs. This salon and resulting book volume will explore the rich and multifaceted world of European funfair culture, with a particular focus on its role in the popularization and transnational circulation of science, technology, and visual culture across Europe during the long 19th century.

While funfairs have traditionally been seen as spaces of sensory pleasure—filled with the sounds of lively music, the sights of dazzling attractions, and the smells of tempting foods—they also served as key venues for challenging societal norms. Scholars have often emphasized the fairground as a space where normal life is temporarily upended, a place of inversion where visitors encounter the unexpected, the abnormal, and the extravagant. Fairs have always been sites of boundary-testing, where the thrill of illusion, risk, and danger offered an escape from the everyday. They provided opportunities for indulgence in food, drink, and behaviour that would be unacceptable in other contexts. In this way, fairs blurred the lines between entertainment and transgression, inviting visitors to explore the frontiers between the acceptable and the illicit. 

However, beyond this carnival atmosphere, funfairs were also pivotal spaces for public engagement with science and technology. For over 150 years, travelling showpeople exhibited innovations in optics and mechanics, captivating audiences with spectacles that combined scientific demonstration and entertainment. Audiences marvelled at a variety of automata, witnessed experiments in microscopy, photography, and telegraphy, and explored the mysteries of anatomical cabinets that unveiled the secrets of the human body, displayed diseases like syphilis, or proved the perils of alcoholism. Showpeople—often self-styled professors and physicists—dazzled crowds with spectacular displays of electricity, magnetism, and X-rays. These performers introduced ordinary people to new discoveries, offering a blend of the educational and the spectacular. 

This two-day salon and the resulting book volume will focus on how funfairs served as sites of knowledge exchange and cultural interaction, reflecting the diverse and dynamic societies of 19th-century Europe. Emphasizing the transnational scope and the networks that linked these itinerant showpeople, we seek to lay bare how they facilitated the exchange of knowledge and visual culture across borders. This transnational approach is crucial in understanding funfair culture as not merely a local tradition but as a European phenomenon that contributed significantly to the cultural landscape of the continent, representing the scientific, technological, and social dynamics of the era.  

We invite scholars from a wide range of disciplines—including theatre and performance studies, history of science, media studies, cultural history, and sociology—to contribute chapters that offer new theoretical perspectives, in-depth case studies, or comparative analyses. This interdisciplinary and cross-cultural exploration will provide a nuanced and comprehensive view of how fairs functioned as venues for knowledge exchange and cultural interaction, and how they continue to resonate in contemporary cultural memory.

Submission Guidelines 

Interested contributors are invited to send an expression of interest of 300-500 words outlining their proposed theme for a chapter by 31 October 2024.  

Accepted authors are invited to a 2-day salon on 24-25 April 2025 in Ghent, Belgium, which will take place in a historic magic mirror tent at the House of Mysteries—a unique setting that evokes the vibrant atmosphere of the traditional European fairground. This gathering will provide an opportunity for contributors to present and discuss first drafts of their chapters in a collaborative and immersive environment. In addition to author presentations, the programme will feature interim results from the EU-funded project Science at the Fair, and participants will have exclusive access to the project’s developing database, offering a valuable resource for contextualizing their research. 

To ensure meaningful discussion and synergy, the number of participants is limited to 25. All participants will be required to submit a three-page pitch (approximately 2000 words, including references) by 1 April 2025, allowing ample time for everyone to review and engage with each other’s work ahead of the event. Full chapter drafts are expected by 5 July 2025. 

Submission Details: 

• Expression of Interest: 31 October 2024 

• Notification of Acceptance: 8 November 2024  

• First Draft (2000 words): 1 April 2025  

• Full Chapter Submission: 5 July 2025 

• Chapter Length: 6,000-8,000 words 

Contact Information 

Please send your ‘expression of interest’ and any inquiries to  

Nele Wynants (nele.wynants@uantwerpen.be) and Elisa Seghers (elisa.seghers@uantwerpen.be)  

^{The workshop and resulting book publication are organized in the framework of Science at the Fair: Performing Knowledge and Technology in Western Europe, 1850-1914 (www.scifair.eu), a five-year research project coordinated by Nele Wynants, funded by the European Research Council (ERC).}