📢: NEW DATE! Due to unforeseen circumstances, our talk with Sonia Wigh "Turning Tables: Tracking Movement of Desire in Early Modern South Asia" has been re-scheduled for March 12, 2026. Click below for more information and Zoom link. 🔗: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/turnin... @mpiwg.bsky.social

This is the sort of thing a cashless society robs us of, the opportunity to try to get away with paying the bus fare in Carthaginian currency www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

📢: Our Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow Tejas Aralere is giving a talk entitled “Ionians, Yavanas, and Kushans: Hellenistic Legacies of Astral Science in Asia” in the ASTRA Talks series tomorrow at 3pm (CET). More information and Zoom link: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/ionian... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: Our new ASTRA Talks series starts tomorrow! Paul Iversen will deliver a lecture entitled “Seeing Through Greek Time: The Antikythera Mechanism in 3D” followed by a hands-on demonstration of the HoloLens 3D mechanism. 🔗: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/seeing... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: Our Spring 2026 ASTRA colloquium series "Occult Sciences in South Asia: A Non-Western History" kicks off tomorrow with Fabrizio Speziale's talk "Mahouts’ Secret Language: Human–Elephant Communication in Persianate South Asia" 🔗: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/mahout... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: ASTRA Research Group Leader Anuj Misra is heading off to give a keynote entitled "The Facticity of the Stars: Negotiating Astronomical Knowledge in Early Modern Mughal India" at the IIM Kolkata tomorrow. www.iimcal.ac.in/events/muf2026

In collaboration with the Institute for the History of Knowledge in the Ancient World (Freie Universität), we are delighted to host Alfred Schmid's talk "Hatte die Horoskop-Astrologie einen Gegenstand?" today. Click the link for more details: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/hatte-...

📢: Our Spring 2026 Colloquium "Occult Sciences in South Asia: A Non-Western History" starts in three weeks. On Wed 25 Feb 2026, Fabrizio Speziale will talk about "Mahouts’ Secret Language: Human–Elephant Communication in Persianate South Asia" (online). 🔗: tinyurl.com/3enrjt9t @mpiwg.bsky.social

In the second installment of our “10 Questions for the Historian of Science,” I interviewed Audrey Truschke about her research, the state of the history of science, and public engagement within broader global debates. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor... @mpiwg.bsky.social

We have recently launched our "10 Questions for the Historian of Science"-interview series, in which we ask historians of science about their research, methodologies, impact, and the state of the field today. Check out our first interview with Fangyi Cheng: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor...

📢 : If you missed Prof. Chihyung Nam"s lecture on "The Origin of the Game of Go" last December, you can now catch it on our YouTube channel. 🔗 : www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kR-... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢 If you missed Prof. Chihyung Nam’s lecture “The Origin of the Game of Go” last week, you can now watch it on our YouTube channel. If you’d like to be notified about upcoming events, feel free to like, subscribe, and turn on notifications. @mpiwg.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kR-...

📢: Our Research Group Leader Prof. Anuj Misra will be teaching in the “Training week: Global history of astronomy week on primary sources” at the BnF in Paris next June. See link below for more details: 🔗: eida.hypotheses.org/seminars-2/2...

📢: A gentle reminder that our very own Dr Hamid Bohloul will give a lecture tomorrow (26 Nov, 2025) on "Royal Horoscopes in Persian" in the ZODIAC Colloquium: www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/wissensges... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: Our High Gravity Talk with @audreytruschke.bsky.social is just over two weeks away. It is free to attend but registration is required. Seats a quickly filling up, so register now to secure your place. www.eventbrite.com/e/fieldnotes... @mpiwg.bsky.social

#ResearchReels: 1 publication—3 minutes🏅 Researcher Jacob Schmidt-Madsen presents his article "Discovering Dadu: A Ludemic Enigma from South Asia," published in "Board Game Studies Journal" 🎲 🔗 youtu.be/QKR_Zi2MH08?si=QKmwfX9JyEJ #HistSci #CulturalStudies #GameStudies @astra-mpiwg.bsky.social

"Cosmic Games: Real Gods Play Dice" ✨🎲 Visit us at #Berlin Science Week's CAMPUS to play traditional board games associated with cosmological representations from cultures and societies across the world. 🗓️ Nov. 1–2, 2025 📍@mfnberlin.bsky.social 🔗bit.ly/3LtFpV6 #HistSci @astra-mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: Our workshop "For the Fortunate and Fearful Years: The Structure and Content of Persian Nativity Books" kicks off tomorrow! We are excited to have two days of intellectual and artistic discussion of Persian nativity books. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/fortun... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: Our workshop "Playing with the Past: Reconstructing Ancient Games" at the Berlin Science Week is now sold out. Didn't get tickets? Don't worry, we are planning more workshops in Berlin in the spring of 2026, so stay tuned for updates! @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢 Tickets for our workshop "Playing with the Past: Reconstructing Ancient Games" are selling out fast! One ticket left! Will you be the last to join us? Check out the workshop details here: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/playin...

📢 We are excited to participate in this year's Berlin Science Week with an exhibition "Cosmic Games: Real Gods Play Dice" and a workshop "Playing with the Past: Reconstructing Ancient Games". @mpiwg.bsky.social 🔗 www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/cosmic... 🔗 www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/playin...

📢 A gentle reminder that Prof. Elizabeth Kaske will present her work on "Digital Approaches to a Qing Chinese Boardgame" in the ASTRA colloquium series this morning at 10:00. Still time to tune in via Zoom. See link below.

📢 : The latest ASTRA Our Stories on Dr Hamid Bohloul's exciting research on Persian manuscript marginalia and court astrologers is out now! "How Reading Persian Manuscript Marginalia Provides New Histories of Astral Sciences" 🔗 : www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor...

📢 : On September 24, 10:00-11:00 CET, Prof. Elizabeth Kaske will present her work on using computational techniques to analyze a 19th-century Chinese board game (Shengguan tu 升官圖) modelling promotion in the bureaucracy of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢 Day two of our "Games across Asia: The Primary Sources of Play" starts at 9:30. Today's focus in on South Asian games. Check the programme here: 🔗 www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/games-...

This afternoon, in connection with the "Games across Asia: The Primary Sources of Play" workshop, we are also hosting an Open Play Session for anyone interested in hands-on experience with Asian board games. www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/open-p...

📢 Our workshop "Games across Asia: The Primary Sources of Play" kicks off this morning with papers on nard, chess, and shaṭranj, the medieval form of chess practiced across the Islamicate world. 🔗 www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/games-... @mpiwg.bsky.social #games #histsci #astral

Call For Abstracts Rethinking planetary and sustainability governance through cosmological imaginaries www.planetstewards.eu/call-for-abs...

Last week, Japan's oldest professional player of the board game Go retired aged 98. One of the world's foremost scholars of Go, Daniela Trinks, will join the ASTRA research group next week. We are excited to have Daniela on board. @mpiwg.bsky.social www.berlinertageszeitung.de/en/Boulevard...

Department "Knowledge Systems and Collective Life" seeks a Collaborative Research Coordinator! 🤝 Help expand its community-based, publicly engaged research 🎤 Advise researchers on cooperative methods 📋 Coordinate cooperation agreements 🗓️ Deadline: Sep 28, 2025 🔗 bit.ly/45FXu8R #HistSci #EnvHist

Did you ever hear of the South Asian board game Dadu? In this short video, Jacob Schmidt-Madsen gives a brief summary of his article "Discovering Dadu: A Ludemic Enigma from South Asia" published in the Board Game Studies Journal (no. 18, 2024). www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKR_... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢 Publication alert! We are delighted to share the latest publication from ASTRA researchers Jacob Schmidt-Madsen and Anuj Misra. "A Tree with Many Roots: Introducing the Zysk Collection of Indic Manuscripts", now open access in Manuscript Studies muse.jhu.edu/article/965563 @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢 We are excited to announce our next High Gravity Talk with @audreytruschke.bsky.social entitled "Fieldnotes from Battles over Indian History, Society, and Sciences" on November 20, 2025, 16:00 at the Leibniz Hall, Berlin. @mpiwg.bsky.social 🔗 tinyurl.com/mr2jrnz5

📢 Our next High Gravity Talk entitled "Fieldnotes from Battles over Indian History, Society, and Sciences" will be given by @audreytruschke.bsky.social on November 20, 2025, 16:00 at the Leibniz Hall, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. 🔗 tinyurl.com/mr2jrnz5 @mpiwg.bsky.social

New podcast episode ☕😌 Jacob Schmidt-Madsen talks to Benjamin Linder on "The Channel” by the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) about the history of South Asian #Games and their inherent spiritual and societal meaning 👁️ 🎧 bit.ly/44zyeSJ #HistSci #Cosmology @astra-mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: Jacob Schmidt-Madsen, Postdoctoral Scholar in the Research Group Astral Sciences in Trans-Regional Asia (ASTRA), spoke to 5 Games 4 Doomsday (5G4D) host Ben Maddox about his research on the Indian origins of "Snakes & Ladders" 🔗: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/news/jacob-s... @mpiwg.bsky.social

📢: Our postdoctoral fellow Hamid Bohloul is speaking about "Royal Horoscopes in Persian" in the Research Colloquium ZODIAC next week! 📅: 16 July 2025, 16:00-17:30 🌍: Institut für Wissensgeschichte des Altertums, Arnimallee 10, Raum 010, 14195 Berlin 🔗: www.geschkult.fu-berlin.de/e/zodiac/new...

📢: Postdoctoral Scholar Jacob Schmidt-Madsen was interviewed by The Channel, a podcast by the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), about games, our worldview, and spirituality. 🔗: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/podcast/sout...

“The Vera Rubin Telescope will be transformational for my research in #cosmology," says Esra Bulbul, astronomer @mpe-garching.bsky.social. "With its wide field of view and depth, it will observe billions of #galaxies across vast distances.” www.mpg.de/24900555/ver... @vrubinobs.bsky.social

@istb-univienna.bsky.social is hiring: We are offering a three-year 50% Postdoc Position in the field of Indology and Himalayan Studies at the ISTB in Vienna. Please circulate this advertisement among qualified candidates. Closing date for applications: June 26 jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Universi...

With the ability to scan the entire southern night sky every three days, the huge Vera C. Rubin Observatory could be about to start solving the mysteries of the universe, from dark matter to Planet Nine

Wednesday 25th continues our Middle Ages in Modern Games thread: the focus in this hybrid session is 'Periodisation Beyond the West'. With Muhammad Abdul Karim, Kristina Wittkamp (Passau), and Hirohito Tsuji @tsujihirohito.bsky.social, UEA)! 👇 #MAMOmonth

Last week, postdoctoral fellow Dr Hamid Bohloul went to Istanbul Medeniyet University’s Science and Advanced Technology Research and Application Center to discuss ways of reconstructing Ibn al-Shatir's astrolabe clock 1/2 ...

📢 : Tomorrow (June 11, 2025) is the last talk in our Spring 2025 colloquium series "The Ludic Languages of Asia: Sources and Terminologies": Tianyue Lei will deliver a lecture on "Soul and Body of Shengguantu: The Stable Terminology Needled the Way through Gameboards".

📢: Next week in our colloquium series "The Ludic Languages of Asia: Sources and Terminologies": Tianyue Lei will deliver a lecture on "Soul and Body of Shengguantu: The Stable Terminology Needled the Way through Gameboards". #histsci #games #china 🔗: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/soul-a...

📢 ASTRA has launched its own YouTube channel, where you can find videos of all our talks from the colloquium series as well as Alex de Voogt's High Gravity Talk. Please check it out and hit the subscribe button! 🔗 www.youtube.com/@ASTRA-MPIWG

Most of us can spot the group of stars known as the Plough or the Big Dipper. But there’s more to explore here, says Abigail Beall

👏 Our Postdoctoral Fellow Hamid Bohloul recently delivered a paper in the Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus (PAL) colloquium at the Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften in Munich.

Yesterday Prof. Frank Rövekamp (Ludwigshafen University of Applied Sciences) gave an inspiring and lively talk on Shogi, the Japanese cousin of Western chess, in the ASTRA colloquium series "The Ludic Languages of Asia: Sources and Terminologies". 🔗 www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/event/shogi-...

👏 We are delighted to share ASTRA's latest Feature Story "Playing with the Stars: Heavenly Knowledge, Trans-Regional Journeys, and the Performance of Astral Sciences across Asia". 🔗: www.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/feature-stor...