Aoife Kearins

DPhil Research Topic

Examining the construction of a language of expertise for the mathematical and physical sciences, United Kingdom c.1850-1900

Supervisor: Christopher Hollings and Rob Iliffe

My DPhil research aims to explicitly link scientific writing and scientific authority, focused on mathematical physics in Britain and Ireland, c.1840-1900. I explore how institutional authorities moulded and regulated this ‘language of expertise’ and how it was perpetuated through the structures of these institutions – such as peer review and nomenclature meetings – as well as through correspondence. I claim that in the nineteenth century, science began to derive its authority not only from a special method, but also from a special language, which was codified in the latter half of the century. This language was created by institutions of authority and perpetuated through a process of mimesis, particularly through correspondence and referee reports. I take George Gabriel Stokes as a case study, an Irish mathematician and physicist who was considered a ‘bastion of Victorian orthodoxy’ and served as editor of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society for over 30 years.

Outside of my DPhil project, I am broadly interested in the history of early modern and modern mathematics and physics, the sociology of scientific knowledge, postal history, and the history of Irish science. 

I hold a BA in Mathematics from Trinity College Dublin, where I received the Naughton Foundation Scholarship, Intel Women in Technology Scholarship, Laidlaw Undergraduate Research Scholarship, and the Trinity Entrance Exhibition Scholarship, among other awards. I completed my MPhil in History and Philosophy at Science at Cambridge, which was fully funded by the George Moore Scholarship. Since 2024, I have worked as a science lexicographer for the Oxford English Dictionary on a freelance basis. I also hold a Diploma in Teaching Irish To Adult Learners from Maynooth University, which was funded by the Margaret Keane Scholarship from Conradh na Gaeilge Londain. 

My DPhil research is fully funded by the Oxford-Richards Graduate Scholarship for History.