Medals of merit have been handed out to lifesavers, as tokens of recognition, from the 1760s onward, usually on the initiative of associations or spontaneous societal initiatives. Only from around 1800 is the practice adopted by governments in a sustained fashion.
Lifesaving medals provide answers to a variety of questions that pertain to otherwise elusive ideas. For instance, if one considers their relation with coins as currency--medals being coins that do not circulate--they can be seen as a medium that organizes distinctions and relations that people recognize as subsisting between exchangeable, monetary values and values that are considered non-exchangeable.
Similarly, the question of the role of the sovereign, as an instance of the guarantee, legitimacy, and durability of value, is complicated in interesting ways by the distinction of coin and medal.
Finally, currency provided one of the most widely accessible forms of visual imagery; the history of medals is alos a history of responses to the question of how values can be symbolically represented.
Lunch will be served in the beginning of the seminar.
The seminar is open for all.
Contact: Christine Amadou.
Idéhistorisk lunsjseminar er et forum for idéhistoriestudenter, ansatte og andre som er interessert i faget. På møtene presenteres aktuell forskning av idéhistorikere i eller utenfor UiO. Det arrangeres mellom fem og åtte lunsjseminarer hvert semester, seminarene foregår på fredager fra 12 til 13 og de er åpne for alle.