International careers and local projects

analysis of a dispute over the institutionalization of physics in Argentina (1909-1910)

Abstract

This paper investigates the academic dispute that took place in the early twentieth century over the training of the first physicists in Argentina. We study several documents that bear on the relationship between local experts in charge of the first research and teaching tasks, and European scientists that took over their place, who succeeded in making the Institute of Physics of La Plata an internationally recognized institution. The process of pedagogical renewal entailed the displacement of an encyclopedic view of knowledge in favor of a professional training oriented towards the creation of a local scientific community modeled on European ones, aimed at including science in the national agenda.