The Ischia Summer School on the History of the Life Sciences provides advanced training in a lively international field that offers a long-term perspective on some of the most significant ideas, practices and institutions in the world today. The school, which has a tradition of association with the Naples Zoological Station going back to 1978, was revived in 2005 after a break of a decade and has run almost every other year since then. Meeting in a culturally rich and naturally beautiful setting, the school offers a week-long experience of lively debate among students and scholars at various career stages and from diverse backgrounds.
The next school will (subject to funding) take place from 28 June to 5 July 2026 and delve into ‘Growth and Its Discontents’. Although critical to engaging with the challenges of an ever-expanding global economy in our age of climate crisis, growth has so far received little attention from historians of the life sciences or medicine.
