Margaret E. Schotte
Associate Professor
YCAR Faculty fellow
IHPST Associate Member, Graduate Faculty
Office: Vari Hall, 2138
Email: mschotte @ yorku.ca
Primary website: http://www.margaretschotte.com
Secondary website: http://yorku.academia.edu/MargaretSchotte
Attached CV
I am an associate professor in York's Department of History. My research and teaching interests include early modern history, the history of science and technology, history of the book and information, maritime history, and colonial trade networks in the Indian Ocean world.
My award-winning first book, Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800 (Johns Hopkins UP, 2019), is a comparative study of nautical knowledge. How did early modern sailors develop mathematical and technical expertise in the age of exploration and the print revolution? By analyzing rare manuscripts produced by sailors themselves, this study explores the many different ways by which mariners mastered scientific concepts--on shore, in the classroom, and on board ship--and how these practices in turn shaped their societies.
I am the PI for a collaborative project, "Sailing for the French: Labour, Trade, and Mobility in the Indian Ocean World." This research, supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant (2022-27), focuses on reinterpreting 18th-c. merchant records using ArcGIS and digital humanities. Find out more at www.SailingwiththeFrench.com.
Degrees
PhD, MA, Princeton UniversityMA, University of Toronto
BA, Harvard University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Co-Organizer, Joint York-University of Toronto Seminar in French History (with Deborah Neill, Eric Jennings, and William Nelson) 2021-present
Member of Advisory Board, International Journal of Maritime History (Leiden); ERC Rutter Project; Prize Papers Project; Navy Records Society (UK).
Canadian Nautical Research Society, Councillor and editorial board member, 2018-2025
Research Interests
- 2019 John Lyman Book Award, Naval and Maritime Science and Technology (North American Society for Oceanic History), awarded to Sailing School - 2020
- 2020 Leo Gershoy Award for the best book in the fields of 17th- and 18th-century western European history, American Historical Association - 2020
- LA&PS Dean’s Award for Distinction in Research, Emerging Researcher category - 2021
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
This international team project, supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant, focuses on reinterpreting 18th-c. merchant records using ArcGIS and digital humanities.
“Nautical Manuals and Ships’ Instruments, 1550-1800: Lessons in Two and Three Dimensions.” Routledge Research Companion to Marine and Maritime Worlds, 1400-1800: Oceans in Global History and Culture, Claire Jowitt, Craig Lambert, Steve Mentz, eds. (Routledge, 2020)
“Sailors, States, and the Creation of Nautical Knowledge,” chapter in Lauren Benton and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, eds., A World at Sea: Maritime Practices in Global History, 1500-1900 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020)
Review of Smith, Helen and Louise Wilson, eds. Renaissance Paratexts (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011) Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Reforme 38.2 (Spring 2015): 240-242.
“Distilling Water, Distilling Data: Questionnaires in Dutch East India Company Record-keeping,” Intellectual History Review 32.3 (2022), 531-551.
“Expert Records: Nautical Logbooks from Columbus to Cook,” Information & Culture: A Journal of History 48 no. 3 (2013), 281-322.
“Regimented Lessons: The Evolution of the Nautical Logbook in France,” Annuaire de Droit Maritime et Océanique (June 2013), 91-115.
“‘Books for the Use of the Learned and Studious’: William London’s Catalogue of Most Vendible Books,” Book History, vol. 11 (2008), 33-57.
Ph.D. Dissertation: “A Calculated Course: Creating Transoceanic Navigators, 1580-1800” Princeton University, 2014.
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2025 | AP/HIST4230 6.0 | A | A History of Reading | SEMR |
I am an associate professor in York's Department of History. My research and teaching interests include early modern history, the history of science and technology, history of the book and information, maritime history, and colonial trade networks in the Indian Ocean world.
My award-winning first book, Sailing School: Navigating Science and Skill, 1550-1800 (Johns Hopkins UP, 2019), is a comparative study of nautical knowledge. How did early modern sailors develop mathematical and technical expertise in the age of exploration and the print revolution? By analyzing rare manuscripts produced by sailors themselves, this study explores the many different ways by which mariners mastered scientific concepts--on shore, in the classroom, and on board ship--and how these practices in turn shaped their societies.
I am the PI for a collaborative project, "Sailing for the French: Labour, Trade, and Mobility in the Indian Ocean World." This research, supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant (2022-27), focuses on reinterpreting 18th-c. merchant records using ArcGIS and digital humanities. Find out more at www.SailingwiththeFrench.com.
Degrees
PhD, MA, Princeton UniversityMA, University of Toronto
BA, Harvard University
Appointments
Faculty of Graduate StudiesProfessional Leadership
Co-Organizer, Joint York-University of Toronto Seminar in French History (with Deborah Neill, Eric Jennings, and William Nelson) 2021-present
Member of Advisory Board, International Journal of Maritime History (Leiden); ERC Rutter Project; Prize Papers Project; Navy Records Society (UK).
Canadian Nautical Research Society, Councillor and editorial board member, 2018-2025
Research Interests
Awards
- 2019 John Lyman Book Award, Naval and Maritime Science and Technology (North American Society for Oceanic History), awarded to Sailing School - 2020
- 2020 Leo Gershoy Award for the best book in the fields of 17th- and 18th-century western European history, American Historical Association - 2020
- LA&PS Dean’s Award for Distinction in Research, Emerging Researcher category - 2021
Current Research Projects
-
Summary:
This international team project, supported by a SSHRC Insight Grant, focuses on reinterpreting 18th-c. merchant records using ArcGIS and digital humanities.
Project Type: FundedRole: Principal Investigator
All Publications
“Nautical Manuals and Ships’ Instruments, 1550-1800: Lessons in Two and Three Dimensions.” Routledge Research Companion to Marine and Maritime Worlds, 1400-1800: Oceans in Global History and Culture, Claire Jowitt, Craig Lambert, Steve Mentz, eds. (Routledge, 2020)
“Sailors, States, and the Creation of Nautical Knowledge,” chapter in Lauren Benton and Nathan Perl-Rosenthal, eds., A World at Sea: Maritime Practices in Global History, 1500-1900 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020)
Review of Smith, Helen and Louise Wilson, eds. Renaissance Paratexts (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2011) Renaissance and Reformation / Renaissance et Reforme 38.2 (Spring 2015): 240-242.
“Distilling Water, Distilling Data: Questionnaires in Dutch East India Company Record-keeping,” Intellectual History Review 32.3 (2022), 531-551.
“Expert Records: Nautical Logbooks from Columbus to Cook,” Information & Culture: A Journal of History 48 no. 3 (2013), 281-322.
“Regimented Lessons: The Evolution of the Nautical Logbook in France,” Annuaire de Droit Maritime et Océanique (June 2013), 91-115.
“‘Books for the Use of the Learned and Studious’: William London’s Catalogue of Most Vendible Books,” Book History, vol. 11 (2008), 33-57.
Ph.D. Dissertation: “A Calculated Course: Creating Transoceanic Navigators, 1580-1800” Princeton University, 2014.
Upcoming Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fall/Winter 2025 | AP/HIST4230 6.0 | A | A History of Reading | SEMR |
