Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine
King's College London

Former research fellow of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Antonio García Belmar has developed his teaching and research tasks at the University of Alicante, where he directs the Interuniversity Master on History of Science and Science Communication since 2022. 

Antonio's  research interests has focused on the history of instruments, spaces and practices of sciences teaching and learning, the history of the scientific books and textbooks, the preservation and dissemination scientific heritage and science material culture, and the relationships between chemistry and public health, with special attention to the problem of food risk and toxics. In addition to exploring sources, actors and contexts unknown to historiography, his work has been aimed at proposing new ways of approaching the study of scientific practices in the past.  His researches on textbooks have given rise to several books and numerous articles and chapters, showed the importance of connecting historiography of science with book and reading history and history of education. In the same way, the works on scientific heritage tried to show through publications and exhibitions, the importance of the material culture of science and its recognition as part of culture, in the same way that it was shown through design and execution of several projects for the recovery, inventory and dissemination of heritage, the enormous possibilities that new information technologies opened up in this field. In this same perspective of reflection and critical innovation is situated the study of the relationships between chemistry and public health and its role in the definition of risk and food safety, in which his latest works are inscribed. Currently he directs the project “Fontilles y la lepra en España”, supported by the Sasakawa Health Foundation and available at the Miguel de Cervantes Digital Library.

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Research Projects:

Fontilles and Leprosy in Spain. A University of Alicante and Fontilles Foundation join project funded by the Sasakawa Health Foundation on the preservation and diffusion of Fontilles leprosy sanatorium material, archival, printed, iconographic and oral heritage, directed by Antonio García Belmar (UA) and Eduardo de Miguel (FF). 2018-2023.

(in) Visible toxics. A Unviersity of Alicante, University of Valencia and Autonomous University of Barcelona  join public project on experts and media agnotological practices related to the social visibility and invisibility of toxics. 2019-2022.

 

Recent Publications:

• García Belmar, Antonio. Relatos de vida en torno a la lepra, Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alicante,( forthcoming)

• Bertomeu Sáncez, José Ramón; García Belmar, Antonio, Practice and Experiment: From Laboratory Research to Teaching and Policy-making. In: Morris, Peter; Rock, Alan, A Cultural History of Chemistry. Vol. 6 A Cultural History of Chemistry in the Modern Age, Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021, 51-72

• Suay-Matallana, Ignacio; García Belmar, Antonio, El vino español y el espíritu alemán: el debate sobre los alcoholes artificiales a finales del siglo XIX. In: Guillem-Llombat, Ximo; Nieto-Galán, Agustí, Tóxicos invisibles. La construcción de la ignorancia ambiental, Icaria editorial, 2020, 29-54

• García Belmar, Antonio y Bertomeu Sáncez, José Ramón, L’Espagne fumigée. Consensus et silences autour des fumigations d’acides minéraux en Espagne, 1770-1804, Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française, 2016, 1, 177-202

• Simon, Josep y García Belmar, Antonio, Education and textbooks,Technology and Culture, 2016, 57, 940-950

• García Belmar, Antonio y Bertomeu Sáncez, José Ramón, Learning by writing. Chemistry student notebooks and lecture demonstrations in early 19th century France,Archives internationals d'histoire des sciences, 2015, 65 (2), 102-117

• Bensaude-Vincent, B.; Garcia-Belmar, A, Mendeleev’s Periodic Classification and Law in French Chemistry Textbooks, en: Masanori Kaji, Helge Kragh, Gabor Pallo, Early Responses to the Periodic System, Oxford University Press, 2015

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Recent Grants, Awards, and Prizes:

BEST 2022: Grants for the stay of Spanish professors in foreign research centers.King’s College London, 2022-2023

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Public engagement:

Various chapters in the online history of science textbook Saberes en Acción about sites of science, leper. colonies, sources, resources and tools for historical research, science in the classroom, science in the public sphere and Enlightened lives.

(in) Visible toxics. Online exhibition. 

Fontilles and leprosy in Spain. Thematic Portal at the Miguel de Cervantes Digital Library.

EDALNU. How we learned to eat. The educational and social action of the EDALNU program, 1961-1996. Online exhibition.

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Useful resources:

Sources for the history of science and science communication.