Eindhoven History Lab

Tensions of Europe Digital Workshop Festival
2021-06-28 - 2021-07-02
The ToE network plans a digital workshop Festival (28 June-2 July 2021), filling the gap caused by postponing the 10th biennial ToE conference to 6-8 July 2022.
To the conference page

Join A Unique Series of Online Events from the 28th of June to the 2nd of July 2021:
The ToE network plans a digital workshop Festival (28 June-2 July 2021), filling the gap caused by postponing the 10th biennial ToE conference to 6-8 July 2022. The organization will be bottom-up; if you would like to plan, or are already planning, relevant international ToE-related events around that time, please consider connecting them to this initiative! Please note that you are free to decide the date and slot, theme within Tensions’ scope, format, participants, preferred platform in case you have one. For the sake of coherence, connections between and promotion of all initiatives, the management committee will act as programmer of this decentralized festival. We will supply a web environment and promotion of these bottom-up initiatives which will make up the 2021 Tensions of Europe digital workshop Festival.
Contact: Foundation for the History of Technology (SHT)
Organizers: Tensions of Europe network (you, if you like!)
Deadline: 31st of January for open session proposals; 28th of February for fully-fledged events
Date: 28 June – 2 July 2021
Fee: symbolic ;)
Place: Online
More information

Reflecting Technology in Academic Teaching
2021-07-27 08:00 - 2021-07-28 17:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | Karlsruhe
Workshop on teaching environmental, societal, and ethical dimensions of technological change.
Deadline for submissions: March, 31th, 2021
Organisation: Rafaela Hillerbrand / Marcus Popplow (Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis & Institute for Technology Futures, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology)
Anna Antonova / Hanna Straß-Senol (Environmental Humanities Development, Rachel Carson Center, LMU Munich)
Karena Kalmbach / Andreas Spahn / Gunter Bombaerts (Eindhoven University of Technology)

Scientific and technological developments have manifold effects that often go beyond the specific problem they are designed to tackle, expanding to a range of social and environmental areas. To address this, fields like history and philosophy of technology, technology assessment, and environmental humanities all analyse the environmental, social, and ethical dimensions of technological change from various disciplinary backgrounds. Thereby, they foster critical reflection of (and sometimes a corrective to) scientific and technological advances. Although strong conceptual links exist between these different fields, their institutional and pedagogical practices have grown apart over the last decades. For an encompassing perspective on the issues discussed in these fields, reciprocal references need to be strengthened, both in research and in teaching. We hold that teaching, in particular, can profit from a multi- and interdisciplinary exchange between these fields.

To stimulate discussion on related issues, we are hosting a workshop in Karlsruhe in July 2021 to discuss good practices of interdisciplinary teaching that can foster reflexivity especially, if not exclusively, in the context of Technical Universities. The workshop is a milestone event of the newly founded KIT-Academy on Responsible Research, Teaching and Innovation, ARRTI, funded by the Excellence Strategy of German Universities, which aims to foster critical reflection amongst KIT students and researchers on their engineering and scientific practices. The workshop is organised in cooperation with colleagues at Eindhoven University of Technology and the LMU Munich.

We invite junior as well as senior lecturers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to share their experiences in interdisciplinary teaching. We welcome presentations of experiences with particular courses and lectures at all levels – from introductory courses through project and practice-oriented seminars, to colloquia for Ph.D. students –as well as reflections on the conceptual didactical level for diverse groups of students from the humanities, social sciences, and engineering and natural sciences. Contributions are expected to be given in English.

Potential topics for presentations include

Challenges and strengths of interdisciplinary teaching
The role of humanities in education about technologies
Didactical best practices, educational methods and innovations
Experiences in teaching humanities to non-humanities students
The importance of critical reflection for technical universities
Measuring effect of humanities education in engineering curricula (motivation, critical thinking, competences, …)
Integrated curriculum approaches
…

The workshop continues a tradition of workshops on teaching the history of science and technology. Contributions to an earlier workshop at the Technical University Berlin may serve as a reference, accessible online (www.ksp.kit.edu/9783731509028, in German only). Recent workshops such as “Meeting the Challenge of Engineering Ethics” in Eindhoven in 2019 (https://www.sefi.be/2020/01/22/meeting-the-challenge-of-engineering-ethics-education-the-sefi-ethics-sig-workshop-2019/) and ”Teaching Environmental Humanities” at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich (https://www.carsoncenter.uni-muenchen.de/events_conf_seminars/event_history/2019-events-history/conferences2019/environmental-workshop/index.html) can also serve as an inspiration for potential participants.

Please send in your proposals for contributions (no more than 250 words, along with a brief CV) by March, 31st, 2021 to: technology_teaching@itz.kit.edu.

The final program will be published in May 2021. At the moment, we assume that the workshop cannot take place in person in Karlsruhe due to the Corona pandemic and will be organized as an online-event. If a hybrid format turns out to be possible, travel and accommodation costs will be covered for presenters who wish to come to Karlsruhe.

Please contact us for any questions that might arise at the mailing address mentioned above. We look very much forward to stimulating exchanges.

Rafaela Hillerbrand
Marcus Popplow

TU DELFT Lipkens Lecture : Technology, Societal Challenges and Global Sustainability History
2021-09-16 16:00 - 17:30 (Europe/Amsterdam) | TU Delft Library Central Hall
EHL’s Erik van der Vleuten will deliver the first lecture in the new Lipkens Lecture cycle at TU Delft. Maurits Ertsen (TUD) will act as commentator.
For more information please consult the TU Delft Studium Generale website.

PhD defense Henk-Jan Dekker: "Cycling Pathways: The Politics and Governance of Dutch Cycling Infrastructure, 1920-2020"
2021-09-30 16:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | Auditorium, Senaatszaal
In an effort to fight climate change, many cities try to boost their cycling levels. They often look towards the Dutch for guidance. However, historians have only begun to uncover how and why the Netherlands became the premier cycling country of the world. Why were Dutch cyclists so successful in their fight for a place on the road? Cycling Pathways explores the long political struggle culminating in today’s high cycling levels. Delving into the archives, it uncovers the important role of social movements and shows in detail how these interacted with national, provincial and urban engineers and policymakers to govern the distribution of road space and construction of cycling infrastructure. It discusses a wide range of topics, ranging from activists to engineering committees, from urban commuters to recreational cyclists and from the early 1900s to today in order to uncover the long and all-but-forgotten history of Dutch cycling governance.

Deep Transitions project SEMINAR 1: Introduction to the Project, Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability
2021-10-08 08:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Johan Schot (Utrecht University) & Harry Lintsen (Eindhoven University of Technology)
8th October 2021
13.00-14.30
We are excited to announce that the first in a series of six seminars on the Deep Transitions Netherlands project will take place on 8 October, organized within the framework of the Strategic Alliance between Utrecht University, TU Eindhoven and Wageningen University & Research. The seminars are intended for interested parties to exchange ideas on the design of a research program on sustainability transitions in the Netherlands, which will be implemented by April 2022.
As you have expressed an interest in participating in these seminars, we hereby provide you with an overview of the content and form of the seminar. This serves as both a reading guide for background literature and an explanation of the seminar format.
Content – Reading Guide
This introductory seminar has three goals; firstly, we will introduce the Deep Transitions Project and our goals to develop a research agenda. We will then introduce the key theoretical and methodological notions of the program based on Deep Transitions and Wellbeing & Sustainability trade-offs literature. In the third part of the seminar we use break-out sessions to organize knowledge exchange and to stimulate discussion, which will be employed as an input in building our research agenda. We whole heartedly appreciate your attendance and ideas that you can contribute as part of the discussion.
The theory and methodology section of this seminar will incorporate discussion on the connection between notions of Deep Transitions and long-term analyses of wellbeing & sustainability. In short, Deep Transitions literature employs concepts of socio-technical systems, landscape, regime rules/metarules and niche emergence as spaces of innovation to understand and explain how new meta rules emerge, are implemented and stimulate simultaneous change across multiple socio-technical systems. The literature argues that radical change in multiple systems is required to achieve climate change, resource neutrality and societal equality goals. In its explanatory framework, this literature describes shows how the meta rules of the first deep transition, based on non-renewable resources and fuels, are the main causes for the current social and ecological challenges. The current framework lacks a coupling towards the impact of deep transitions and how sustainability is operationalized across socio-technical systems however. Long term analyses of wellbeing & sustainability can offer more in-depth information on the development of various aspects of sustainability (climate mitigation, nature development, global equality and so forth) and the trade-offs between such elements in time and space.

THE DEEP TRANSITIONS NETHERLANDS PROJECT
In the Deep Transitions in the Netherlands Project, the Eindhoven History Lab collaborates with researchers from Utrecht and Wageningen Universities to analyze the sociotechnical development of the Netherlands from a long-term perspective, and to simultaneously develop system transformation investments strategies for policy makers, industries and investors.
More info: see here.
EHL contact person: Frank Veraart
PHASE 1 Seminar schedule

October 8th 2021: Introduction to The Project, Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability with Johan Schot (UU) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
November 5th 2021: Qualitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Bram Bouwens (UU) & Frank Veraart (TUe)
December 10th 2021: Quantitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Johan Schot (UU) & Gaston Heimeriks (UU)
January 14th 2022: Interconnections between Systems with Harry Lintsen (TUe) & Erik van der Vleuten (TUe)
February 11th 2022: Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability Dynamics with Jan-Pieter Smits (TUE/CBS) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
March 11th 2022: The Second Deep Transition in the Making with Barbara van Mierlo (WUR) & Laurens Klerkx (WUR)
March 25th 2022: Transformative Investing in the Netherlands with Johan Schot (UU) & Bram Bouwens (UU)

The Deep Transitions Netherlands Project has been supported by Dasym Investment Strategies and the Utrecht University, TU Eindhoven, WUR and UMC Strategic Alliance.

Deep Transitions Seminar 2: Qualitatively researching meta-rules and systems Seminar
2021-11-05 08:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Bram Bouwens (UU) & Frank Veraart (TUe)
November 5th 2021
13.00-14.30

After the first successful Deep Transitions Netherlands Project Seminar we are looking forward to continue discussing the Deep Transitions project in the Netherlands with you. The seminar series facilitate the development of a research program on deep transitions in the past and in the future. The seminars are meant to inform, to discuss and to get your feedback on proposed ideas during the break-out sessions.
The second online seminar will take place on November 5th. This seminar will focus on qualitative research methods of socio-technical systems and meta-rules. The purpose of this seminar is to introduce preliminary ideas on the topic and to start the debate on how we can use historical research to understand the first Deep Transitions, in order to inform the second Deep Transition in the making.
The slides of the seminar and a summary of the conversation topics and other relevant material can be found at the seminar series website. Access to these materials require signing up to the meetings by e-mail to Louisa King

Program
13.00-13.10 Welcome and Introduction to Deep Transitions Program
13.10-13.30 Deep Transitions in the Netherlands: qualitative research (Bram Bouwens and Frank Veraart
13.30-13.35 Introduction to Break-out sessions
13.35-13.55 Break-out session 1 (3 rooms)
13.55-14.20 Break-out session 1 (3 rooms)
14.20-14.30 Plenary: summaries and discussion
14.30 Closing
THE DEEP TRANSITIONS NETHERLANDS PROJECT
In the Deep Transitions in the Netherlands Project, the Eindhoven History Lab collaborates with researchers from Utrecht and Wageningen Universities to analyze the sociotechnical development of the Netherlands from a long-term perspective, and to simultaneously develop system transformation investments strategies for policy makers, industries and investors.
More info: see here.
EHL contact person: Frank Veraart
PHASE 1 Seminar schedule

October 8th 2021: Introduction to The Project, Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability with Johan Schot (UU) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
November 5th 2021: Qualitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Bram Bouwens (UU) & Frank Veraart (TUe)
December 10th 2021: Quantitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Johan Schot (UU) & Gaston Heimeriks (UU)
January 14th 2022: Interconnections between Systems with Harry Lintsen (TUe) & Erik van der Vleuten (TUe)
February 11th 2022: Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability Dynamics with Jan-Pieter Smits (TUE/CBS) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
March 11th 2022: The Second Deep Transition in the Making with Barbara van Mierlo (WUR) & Laurens Klerkx (WUR)
March 25th 2022: Transformative Investing in the Netherlands with Johan Schot (UU) & Bram Bouwens (UU)

The Deep Transitions Netherlands Project has been supported by Dasym Investment Strategies and the Utrecht University, TU Eindhoven, WUR and UMC Strategic Alliance.

Mini-workshop Global History of Technology and Sustainability
2021-11-15
DUE TO THE DUTCH COVID SITUATION, WE WILL MOVE THIS WORKSHOP ONLINE
On Monday 15 November 2021, we will host a small workshop on the Global History of Technology and Sustainability. The workshops explores issues and challenges related to our new research project Global Sustainability: Past–Present–Future, and draws on the experiences of the Global History of Technology program at TU Darmstadt. Mikael Hård, Jonas van der Straeten and David Drengk from TU Darmstadt will participate.

Student symposium: Historical Transition Studies
2021-11-15 16:30 - 18:00 (Europe/Amsterdam)
DUE TO THE DUTCH COVID SITUATION, WE WILL MOVE THIS SYMPOSIUM ONLINE
TU/e Symposium on Historical Transition Studies
Location: Atlas 1.65 –> ONLINE

Sustainable innovation and transitions are deeply temporal phenomena. Innovation choices of one generation affect the needs of later ones. Sociotechnical transitions too are long-term processes that may take decades to unfold, sometimes even centuries. And yet, the bulk of innovation and transition studies research has a ‘here and now’ character. A long-term perspective uncovers many hidden innovation and transition dynamics and conflicts. But how can we produce academic knowledge about this, and how can academic insights inform current sustainable innovation and transition efforts?

At the symposium, we will discuss diverse academic research approaches to this issue. In doing so, however, we will turn the tables. TU/e scholars will profit from the expertise of master’s students who have put different research approaches to a test. In essays for the course 0EM130 Modern societies in transition, they have engaged in-depth with different concepts and their analytical value and will share their experiences in different thematic panels. Their inputs will also feed into a wider discussion on the potentials and limitations of a field we might tentatively call Historical Transition Studies.

Agenda
16:30 Introduction by Erik van der Vleuten
16:40 Overview of the different groups by the lecturers
16:55 Short presentations by the students on their essay topics
17:10 Roundtable discussion: Putting the approach of Historical Transitions Studies to the test. What is its explanatory value, especially from a global perspective?
17:40 Concluding Discussion: Why engaging with historical transitions as an engineering student? And to the senior scholars: How to increase the outreach of our discipline within the academic landscape?
18:00 End and informal get-together in De Zwarte Doos [1]
[1] Note the definition of the term symposium in Oxford Languages: “1. a conference or meeting to discuss a particular subject. 2. a drinking party or convivial discussion, especially as held in ancient Greece after a banquet (…).”

Joint SHOT-HSS Annual Meeting
2021-11-18 - 2021-11-21 | New Orleans
18-21 November 2021 the joint SHOT-HSS Annual Meeting will take place in New Orleans (Louisiana).

Society for the History of Technology
Annual Meeting
New Orleans, 19-21 N0vember 2021

Dear SHOT Members and contacts,
The SHOT Program Committee is pleased to issue the Call for Papers and Sessions for the SHOT 2021 Annual Meeting, to be held 19-21 November, 2021 in New Orleans, USA

Link to full CfP SHOT Annual Meeting New Orleans 2021

contents:
· SHOT 2021 Annual Meeting in New Orleans
· Conference Theme: Environment, Infrastructure, and Social Justice
· Session Proposals & Abstract Submission
· General Guidelines for submission
· Presentation Options & Remote Access during SHOT 2021 NOLA
· An Experiment with Hybrid (Live-Streaming) Sessions
· Remote Presentation Options
· Indicating Your Presentation Preferences
· Guidelines for Resubmissions from 2020
· How to Resubmit Organized Sessions and Roundtables
· How to Resubmit Your Contributed Paper

Note from SHOT-Secretariat: participation in the SHOT meeting in any form requires SHOT membership and registration for the SHOT meeting. You can join SHOT here, or when registering for the meeting (registration will open at about 2 months prior to the meeting).

Society for the History of Technology Call For Papers

Dear Colleagues,

The SHOT Program Committee is pleased to issue the Call for Papers and Sessions for the SHOT 2021 Annual Meeting to be held 18-21 November 2021, in New Orleans. This will be a joint meeting with the History of Science Society . The current plan is for the conference to be held in-person in New Orleans, but with support for a limited number of Hybrid Sessions (live, online streaming) and an option for Remote Presentations in light of COVID-19 as well as SHOT’s effort to expand access and promote further internationalization (see details below).

We are preserving the theme of the 2020 SHOT Annual Meeting, “Environment, Infrastructure, and Social Justice” with particular attention to the role of race and anti-Black racism in history. The Committee also invites paper and session proposals on any topic in a broadly defined history of technology, including topics that push the boundaries of the field.

SHOT is an interdisciplinary and international community of scholars. We meet to share research on the historical interaction of technology and culture across time and across the globe. We define “technology” to include both the very new—machine learning and social media—and the very old—irrigation systems and temple architectures. Our definition of technologist includes not just engineers, but also consumers, maintainers, and makers. We welcome scholarship that examines the role of race, class, gender, disability, and other forms of identity and difference in shaping both technology and social relationships.

SHOT is committed to diversity. In addition to intellectual quality, we warmly welcome session proposals that reflect diversity in their line-up of speakers, in particular with regard to career level, gender, ethnicity, race, and geography. The Program Committee will prioritize proposals that make a conscious effort to increase diversity, both of topics and of presenters. Therefore, SHOT seeks proposals that are diverse in terms of temporal or geographic foci, proposals that include one or more women and/or underrepresented minorities (especially BIPOC), and proposals that include speakers at different professional stages, with different institutional affiliations and/or different nationalities and geographies.

SHOT and its Program Committee look forward to a vigorous, enthusiastic, and intellectually stimulating annual meeting in New Orleans!

SHOT Program Committee – Joseph November (Chair), Atsushi Akera, and Yulia Frumer

SHOT 2021 Annual Meeting in New Orleans

New Orleans. The name alone conjures a host of images: multicultural food, magnificent architecture, distinct music and dialects, and devastating hurricanes. For some, New Orleans is the most European of U.S. cities. For others, it is the northernmost Caribbean port. In the complex and often tragic history of race relations in the United States, the city holds a distinctive place: location of the largest slave market of pre-Civil War America; birthplace of jazz; and, most recently, exemplar for the human costs of environmental inequality and racialized vulnerability to disaster.

Nicknamed the Crescent City because of its unique geography—the Mississippi River curves deeply around its urbanized core—New Orleans has long been a vital commercial center for both domestic and global trade. A long history of infrastructural interventions needed to manage the river for human use is evident throughout the city, making it a particularly compelling destination for historians of technology. Today, nearly half of New Orleans exists below sea level. Indeed, the channelization of the Mississippi River, coupled with the vast pumping system constructed to drain storm water from the interior bowl created by the levees, has deprived the landscape of the sediment that a naturally overflowing river provides. The result is an actively sinking city, despite the injection of billions in federal post-Hurricane Katrina recovery aid. The benefits of this infusion of aid have, moreover, been unevenly distributed. New Orleans remains one of the most impoverished metropolitan regions in the United States.

To assert that New Orleans has a troubled, dichotomous history is to state the obvious. And yet the city persists, a fabled, hemispheric crossroads with an unmatched joie de vivre. That SHOT and the History of Science Society (HSS) in New Orleans have chosen to jointly host their meetings New Orleans in 2021 (2020 was the 15th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the 10th anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill) is no small matter. This co-mingling of associations offers scholars a splendid opportunity to reflect on the relationship between the environment, infrastructure, and social justice at the juncture of science and technology, and how all of these elements contribute to the ongoing story of New Orleans and to the maintenance of our modern world. To pay tribute to the location of the meeting, we encourage proposals that relate to a broadly interpreted theme of “Environment, Infrastructure, and Social Justice.”

Conference Theme: Environment, Infrastructure, and Social Justice

Infrastructure is an inherently social mode for the modification of natural environments. It is the most basic form of sociotechnical collaboration; it is fundamental to society’s functions; and it is indispensable for other technological developments. Infrastructure requires vision, planning, engineering, management, and maintenance. It also necessitates considerations of risk and an anticipation of environmental events with potential to seriously impact human lives and nonhuman landscapes. Colloquially described as “natural disasters,” these events become “disasters” only when infrastructure fails.

At the same time, infrastructure is also a symbol of nationhood and civilization. It is often cited as a justification for conflict, imperialism, and displacement. The benefits that it offers and harm that it causes are not distributed equally. Those who are displaced or otherwise affected by new infrastructure projects too often do not experience their benefits. And when infrastructure fails, the harm often falls disproportionately on those who are already socially and economically disadvantaged.

We invite SHOT participants to reflect on these themes from a historical as well as a contemporary perspective, and with respect to a variety of socio-cultural environments. Among the aspects which deserve discussion are how infrastructure modifies human and natural environments; how risk assessment influences infrastructure planning; how different societies approach infrastructure vis-à-vis other forms of technological development; and how climate change brings about reassessments of infrastructural needs.

Session Proposals & Abstract Submission

An important note for all applicants (including resubmittals of accepted session proposals in 2020): If health/safety conditions force the cancellation of the 2021 meeting, SHOT has committed to holding the meeting entirely in virtual format. Your commitment to presenting in New Orleans in 2021 should also be viewed as a commitment to present that same material at a virtual version of the conference, in the event that the 2021 physical meeting is cancelled. If the conference moves online, session lengths will be shortened from 90 to 60 minutes.

Note for applicants who have been invited to participate in sessions sponsored by the SHOT Internationalization Committee: Please be sure to indicate on the application form that your session has been sponsored by the SHOT Internationalization Committee.

For the 2021 meeting the Program Committee welcomes proposals of these types

Joint SHOT/HSS sessions: Since this meeting will be held in conjunction with HSS, it is possible to submit a proposal that speaks to both SHOT and HSS communities, and which would appear on both programs. When submitting a joint proposal, indicate this fact in the abstract and make sure to submit an identical proposal through the HSS website. The Program Committees of both societies will evaluate these joint proposals. (The proposal may meet the formatting requirements of either society.) SHOT and HSS plan to stream at least some of the joint sessions. Please indicate whether your panel is interested in being a hybrid session.

Traditional sessions: Sessions of 3 or 4 papers, with a chair listed in the session proposal. It is not necessary to have a commentator. However, if a commentator has a central role in the session, they will be counted as an additional speaker. Deadline: April 18, 2021

Unconventional sessions: Sessions with formats that diverge in useful ways from traditional sessions. These can include (but are not limited to) roundtables, discussion panels, workshop-style sessions with pre-circulated papers, “you write, I present” sessions, and poster sessions. Poster proposals should describe the content and the visual material to be used in the poster. Individuals whose posters are accepted must be available to talk about them in a lunch/evening slot to be decided by the Program Committee. The Program Committee encourages other creative formats to facilitate communication, dialogue, and audience involvement. The Program Committee will look favorably on formats that make sessions less hierarchical and reduce the ‘distance’ between audience and author, and between author and commentator. Deadline: April 18, 2021.

Open sessions: Individuals interested in finding others to join an organized session may propose Open Sessions, starting March 15, with a final deadline of April 7. Open Session descriptions, along with the organizer’s contact information, will appear on the SHOT website. (The earlier the proposal is sent to SHOT, the earlier it can be posted to the website.) For individuals who want to join a proposed session from the Open Sessions list, please contact the organizer for that session, not the Program Committee. In order to give the session organizer sufficient time to select proposals and assemble a final list of presenters, the deadline for submitting your paper proposal to the organizer is April 7, 2021. Open Session organizers will then assemble completed sessions and submit them through SHOT’s online system by April 18, 2021.

Individual papers: Proposals for individual papers will be considered, but the Program Committee will give preference to pre-organized sessions (traditional, unconventional, or completed open sessions). Scholars who might ordinarily propose an individual paper are encouraged to propose Open Sessions themselves or to join an Open Session already listed. Deadline: April 18, 2021.

General Guidelines for Submission

SHOT allows the same speaker to present papers at consecutive meetings but turns down papers that are substantially the same as previously accepted ones. Any submission on the same topic should explain how the new paper differs from the prior presentation.

Most pre-organized sessions, if accepted, will remain as proposed. In select cases, depending on the quality and coherence of the individual papers, part of a proposed session may be turned down, merged into another organized session, or combined with individual papers to form a new session. If you believe that your session can only work as one single unit, please specify “all or none” in the abstract. In this case, the Program Committee may reject the whole session proposal despite the presence of qualified individual papers.

Individuals are permitted to take on multiple roles at SHOT, as well as additional roles at HSS. However, no individual is to give more than one titled paper or commentary for both societies. Additional presentations in SIGs, participation in roundtables, poster sessions, and other activities for which no title is listed in the SHOT meeting program are allowed; however, a paper at a graduate student workshop does count as a paper for this purpose. The SHOT Program Committee ensures there are no schedule conflicts between an individual’s various roles on the SHOT program. However, SHOT and HSS cannot resolve conflicts between papers / commentaries and other roles across societies. In cases when an individual’s presentation or commentary would conflict with additional roles on the other society’s program, the individual will be asked to forgo the additional role.

Each session proposal should be accompanied by an abstract that details: 1) the session’s overall theme; 2) each individual presenter’s contribution; 3) the role of a commentator (if any); 4) diversity statement (see above); 5) whether a given proposal desires “all or none”; 6) hybrid session requests and remote participation and/or presenter preferences, with explanation, if applicable; and 7) whether any of the presenters are candidates for SHOT’s Robinson Prize.

Individual paper proposals should indicate whether the presenter is a Robinson Prize candidate, and provide their remote participation preferences, with explanation, if applicable.

Specific instructions related to submission details appear on the SHOT webpage (https://www.historyoftechnology.org/). For joint SHOT/HSS session proposals, please submit proposals to both SHOT and HSS. For details about HSS proposal submission, please visit the HSS webpage (https://hssonline.org/).

Presentation Options & Remote Access during SHOT 2021 NOLA

We first note once again that the SHOT physical meeting in New Orleans will be switched entirely to a virtual format if health conditions are deemed to be unsafe.

An Experiment with Hybrid (Live-Streaming) Sessions
SHOT is thinking boldly about how to structure our 2021 meeting to address possible concerns about travel during COVID-19. The Society is also committed to facilitating access and inclusion, reducing the environmental impact of meetings, and supporting the ongoing internationalization of our field. Accordingly, we will be conducting an experiment this year by offering three parallel hybrid (live-streaming) sessions available for remote access. We highlight the following, and hope to assess our society and its membership’s interest and willingness to lead the way in making our conferences accessible to people around the globe at a fraction of the cost of attending an in-person meeting. We see this as a process every society needs to experiment with, as climate change and other issues come to the fore. For the 2021 SHOT Annual Conference, the Program Committee hopes to offer the following:

● Live stream of the opening plenary, keynote, presidential roundtables, and other program highlights, such as the Da Vinci Lectures
● Live stream of a number of SHOT-HSS joint sessions (cosponsored with HSS)
● Live stream of sessions selected by the Program Committee that are deemed to be of greatest interest to a global/remote audience

Those participating in a hybrid (live-streaming) session, including the audience, will be able to contribute to the Q&A period. All individuals with an assigned role in a hybrid session (presenters, chairs, and commentator) will need to register for the conference at the usual registration rates (lower for graduate students, etc.).

Remote Presentation Options

Under conditions where the conference does meet in New Orleans, we understand that some potential presenters may remain concerned about COVID-19 exposure; they may also wish to, or need to participate remotely for other reasons. Accordingly, in addition to the opportunity to present remotely if selected for a hybrid (live-streaming) session, presenters may give their papers as a pre-recorded presentation in any session. Those doing so must commit to pre-recording their presentation and sending that file to their session organizer and chair by a deadline before the meeting starts. A session organizer or chair, in a session where at least one paper will be delivered remotely, will need to commit to handling the actual screening of this presentation in their session. Sessions for which all presenters plan to deliver their papers remotely must include a session organizer or chair who will be in-person; if you do not have such an individual, please indicate this on your proposal and if your organized session is accepted, the Program Committee will work to identify an individual who will be there in person to convene the session.) Remote presenters are also welcome to make arrangements with the session organizer or chair for them to join their session’s Q&A period by phone. Remote presenters will need to register for the conference at the usual registration rates (lower for graduate students, etc.).

Indicating Your Presentation Preferences

In submitting a session proposal or individual abstract, organizers and authors should indicate:

1. Whether they wish to have their paper/sessions considered for a hybrid (live-streaming) session.
2. Whether they intend to participate in person; as a remote presenter only if assigned to a hybrid session; or as a remote presenter regardless of session assignment (You may rank order your preferences, with the reasons for your preferences, if applicable.)
3. Or if an organized session, which presenters requests each of these presentation formats. (NOTE: Sessions for which all presenters plan to deliver their papers remotely must include a session organizer or chair who will be in-person; if you do not have such an individual, please indicate this on your proposal and if your session is accepted, the Program Committee will work to identify an individual who will be there in person to convene the session.)

Guidelines for Resubmissions from 2020

We regret that the 2020 SHOT Annual Meeting could not take place in person as was planned. If your paper or session or roundtable was accepted in spring 2020 for the original fall 2020 meeting and was not part of the Virtual Forum held in October 2020, then you have the following options.

How to Resubmit Organized Sessions and Roundtables

All organized sessions as published in our 2020 NOLA Program (https://www.historyoftechnology.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Program-website-version-24-june-2020.pdf) will be given three options to present in 2021.

Option S1: Roll over your unchanged session proposal
As a session or roundtable organizer, please contact your fellow presenters and ask them whether they wish to make changes to the abstracts of their presentations or to the overall session proposal. If you all agree to present your work as published in the 2020 program, you may re-submit your unchanged session proposal. In this case, you will be given priority for a slot if we are able to meet in person. (Participants in re-submitted sessions may choose to present their paper remotely, and the session may request to be considered for a hybrid live-streamed format – please see above for details.) Resubmitting a panel proposal does not guarantee acceptance, but does give it priority.

Option S2: Re-submit your proposal with changes
As research develops, plans and availability change, and new connections or urgencies emerge, so option 1 may not seem applicable to your session or roundtable. For example, you may wish to keep the title and abstract of your proposal the same, but one or two speakers have withdrawn and been replaced with new speakers. If your proposal differs in these ways from the version accepted to the 2020 program, please re-submit your session proposal and indicate that a similar proposal was accepted to the 2020 meeting. Resubmitting a panel proposal does not guarantee acceptance, but does give it priority.

Option S3: Submit a new session proposal
Our call for papers will also invite new proposals. Should your ideas or plans for a session change considerably to what you have submitted in 2020 (as published in our 2020 program), please submit a new proposal.

Attention: If you re-submit a joint SHOT-HSS session or roundtable proposal, please also consult HSS’s guidelines, as you will have to re-submit your proposal to both societies.

How to Resubmit Your Contributed Paper

Option P1: Re-submit your paper as part of the session as created for the 2020 program
Creating sessions from contributed papers is the most time-consuming task for program co-chairs when they compose the meeting program. Whether or not your paper is accepted depends on quality but also on whether it fits into a set of four contributions in meaningful ways. The original 2020 program was constructed to highlight interesting conjunctions between individual authors. For this reason, we kindly ask you to consult the published 2020 program to review how your paper was originally assigned to a session. If you like the way you were grouped together, please contact the other contributors in your session and see if you would like to re-submit this session as an organized session proposal. In order to do so, you will need to provide an abstract with an overall framework and name a session chair. For the 2021 meeting, we will give high priority to sessions re-submitted in this way. (You may choose to present your paper remotely, and the session may request to be considered for a hybrid live-streamed format – please see Presentation Options & Remote Access for details.)

Option P2: Find collaborators to form a new organized session
If Option P1 does not work for you, we encourage you to reach out to other colleagues to form a new organized session. This will enable you to deepen your networks and to collectively build a conceptual framework in which to present your work with others. Pre-organized sessions usually draw a bigger and more responsive audience than contributed papers sessions that lack such a common thematically-deep framework.

If you decide to re-submit your paper as part of a new organized session, your proposal will be considered as a new organized session proposal. We cannot guarantee that your session will be accepted in the 2021 program, but please note that generally, the acceptance rate of organized sessions is much higher than that of stand-alone papers.

Option P3: Re-submit your paper as a stand-alone contribution
You may of course also re-submit your paper as a stand-alone contribution. In this case, you will have to re-apply just like anyone else who will submit a new paper proposal. Because the program co-chairs for the 2021 meeting will have to figure out how your paper fits with others to make an engaging session, we cannot consider your re-submitted contribution with priority even if your paper had been accepted in 2020. (You may choose to apply and indicate that you plan to present your paper remotely – see Presentation Options & Remote Access)

﻿Deep Transitions Netherlands Project Seminar 3: Quantitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems
2021-12-10 08:00 - 17:00 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Gaston Heimeriks and Johan Schot (Utrecht University)
Friday 10 December 2021, 13:00 – 14:30
Link to Zoom Meeting:
Abstract:
Industrial societies are constituted by a broad range of socio-technical systems fulfilling functions such as the provision of energy, food, mobility, housing, healthcare, finance and communications. The Deep Transitions (DT) framework outlines a series of propositions on how the 250-year multi-system co-evolution has contributed to several current social and ecological crises. Drawing on evolutionary theories, the DT framework places a special emphasis on the concepts of ‘rules’ and ‘meta-rules’ as coordination mechanisms within and across socio-technical systems, respectively. In this workshop, we aim to discuss possible mixed-method approaches and data sources to provide an empirical assessment of the propositions of the DT framework.
THE DEEP TRANSITIONS NETHERLANDS PROJECT
In the Deep Transitions in the Netherlands Project, the Eindhoven History Lab collaborates with researchers from Utrecht and Wageningen Universities to analyze the sociotechnical development of the Netherlands from a long-term perspective, and to simultaneously develop system transformation investments strategies for policy makers, industries and investors.
More info: see here.
EHL contact person: Frank Veraart
PHASE 1 Seminar schedule

October 8th 2021: Introduction to The Project, Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability with Johan Schot (UU) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
November 5th 2021: Qualitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Bram Bouwens (UU) & Frank Veraart (TUe)
December 10th 2021: Quantitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Johan Schot (UU) & Gaston Heimeriks (UU)
January 14th 2022: Interconnections between Systems with Harry Lintsen (TUe) & Erik van der Vleuten (TUe)
February 11th 2022: Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability Dynamics with Jan-Pieter Smits (TUE/CBS) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
March 11th 2022: The Second Deep Transition in the Making with Barbara van Mierlo (WUR) & Laurens Klerkx (WUR)
March 25th 2022: Transformative Investing in the Netherlands with Johan Schot (UU) & Bram Bouwens (UU)

The Deep Transitions Netherlands Project has been supported by Dasym Investment Strategies and the Utrecht University, TU Eindhoven, WUR and UMC Strategic Alliance.

PhD defense Patrick Bek: "No Bicycle, No Bus, No Job: The Making of Workers’ Mobility in the Netherlands, 1920-1990"
2021-12-10 16:00 (Europe/Amsterdam) | Atlas 0.710

Deep Transitions Netherlands Project Seminar 4: Meta-rule dynamics and Interconnections between Systems
2022-01-14 13:00 - 14:30 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Organizers:Erik van der Vleuten and Harry Lintsen (TUE)
Friday January 14th 2022
Zoom Meeting
Abstract:
Industrial societies are constituted by a broad range of socio-technical systems fulfilling functions such as the provision of energy, food, mobility, housing, healthcare, finance and communications. The Deep Transitions (DT) framework outlines a series of propositions on how the 250-year multi-system co-evolution has contributed to several current social and ecological crises. Drawing on evolutionary theories, the DT framework places a special emphasis on the concepts of ‘rules’ and ‘meta-rules’ as coordination mechanisms within and across socio-technical systems, respectively.
In this workshop, we aim to collectively explore how to investigate the dynamics of meta-rules as coordination mechanisms within and across socio-technical systems. What major knowledge questions emerge? What meta-rule transfer mechanisms, processes, arena’s and subversions can we exploratively identify? How can one meaningfully research these in a follow-up research program?
Please contact Louisa King vifor further information about the seminar practicalities, or Stephanie Begemann s, Bram Bouwens or Frank Veraart for more details of the Deep Transitions Netherlands project.

THE DEEP TRANSITIONS NETHERLANDS PROJECT
In the Deep Transitions in the Netherlands Project, the Eindhoven History Lab collaborates with researchers from Utrecht and Wageningen Universities to analyze the sociotechnical development of the Netherlands from a long-term perspective, and to simultaneously develop system transformation investments strategies for policy makers, industries and investors.
More info: see here.
EHL contact person: Frank Veraart
PHASE 1 Seminar schedule

October 8th 2021: Introduction to The Project, Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability with Johan Schot (UU) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
November 5th 2021: Qualitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Bram Bouwens (UU) & Frank Veraart (TUe)
December 10th 2021: Quantitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Johan Schot (UU) & Gaston Heimeriks (UU)
January 14th 2022: Interconnections between Systems with Harry Lintsen (TUe) & Erik van der Vleuten (TUe)
February 11th 2022: Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability Dynamics with Jan-Pieter Smits (TUE/CBS) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
March 11th 2022: The Second Deep Transition in the Making with Barbara van Mierlo (WUR) & Laurens Klerkx (WUR)
March 25th 2022: Transformative Investing in the Netherlands with Johan Schot (UU) & Bram Bouwens (UU)

The Deep Transitions Netherlands Project has been supported by Dasym Investment Strategies and the Utrecht University, TU Eindhoven, WUR and UMC Strategic Alliance.

Deep Transitions Netherlands project seminar 6: Well-being and Deep Transitions
2022-03-11 13:00 - 14:30 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Organizers: Jan Pieter Smits, Frank Veraart and Harry Lintsen
(Eindhoven University of Technology and CBS)
Friday 11 March 2022, 13:00 – 14:30
Via Zoom
Abstract
The main question of this seminar is: Deep Transition theory is focused on dynamics but not on impact on sustainability/well-being; how do we gain knowledge on quality of life in the first and second deep transition? The answer: use the CBS Monitor of Well-being as starting point for research.
We will first explain the CBS Monitor of Well-being and look at the relation with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. A question of special interest is: how to apply the CBS Monitor of Well-being in historical research? We will further discuss the subject of the trade-offs and synergies: who/what benefits vs. who/what is lost and where. Finally we pose the question: how to apply the CBS monitor Well-being in relation to Deep Transitions in the Netherlands? For this we will propose four research strategies.

THE DEEP TRANSITIONS NETHERLANDS PROJECT
In the Deep Transitions in the Netherlands Project, the Eindhoven History Lab collaborates with researchers from Utrecht and Wageningen Universities to analyze the sociotechnical development of the Netherlands from a long-term perspective, and to simultaneously develop system transformation investments strategies for policy makers, industries and investors.
More info: see here.
EHL contact person: Frank Veraart
PHASE 1 Seminar schedule

October 8th 2021: Introduction to The Project, Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability with Johan Schot (UU) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
November 5th 2021: Qualitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Bram Bouwens (UU) & Frank Veraart (TUe)
December 10th 2021: Quantitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Johan Schot (UU) & Gaston Heimeriks (UU)
January 14th 2022: Interconnections between Systems with Harry Lintsen (TUe) & Erik van der Vleuten (TUe)
February 11th 2022: Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability Dynamics with Jan-Pieter Smits (TUE/CBS) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
March 11th 2022: The Second Deep Transition in the Making with Barbara van Mierlo (WUR) & Laurens Klerkx (WUR)
March 25th 2022: Transformative Investing in the Netherlands with Johan Schot (UU) & Bram Bouwens (UU)

The Deep Transitions Netherlands Project has been supported by Dasym Investment Strategies and the Utrecht University, TU Eindhoven, WUR and UMC Strategic Alliance.

Deep Transitions Netherlands Project Seminar 7: Transformative investment
2022-03-25 13:00 - 14:30 (Europe/Amsterdam)
Organizers: Johan Schot (Centre for Global Challenges, Utrecht University) and Sjoerd Bakker (Dasym)
13:00 – 14:30
Location: Zoom
Abstract
The final seminar in the series Deep Transitions in the Netherlands focuses on transformative investing. The financial world plays an important role in transforming human societies. But how can public and private investors best be mobilized to contribute to a sustainable future? This seminar addresses the role of the financial world and the investment strategies that promote a transformative change towards a more sustainable and inclusive organisation of socio-technical systems. During the seminar we would like to explore the idea of transformative investing in more detail. What new strategies are needed and how can public and private investors shape and accelerate the Second Deep Transition through transformative investment? What value and relevance has scientific research in this process? The vision and methods of the research-driven investment company Dasym will be explained and discussed.
Please see attached a paper by Jack Davies and Ed Steinmueller, ‘Regime Transformative Investing’ that will be the starting point of the seminar. This document has been used as a briefing note for Global Deep Transition Investors Panel. For more information see also: The Promise Of Transformative Investment: Mapping The Field Of Sustainability Investing – Deep Transitions

THE DEEP TRANSITIONS NETHERLANDS PROJECT
In the Deep Transitions in the Netherlands Project, the Eindhoven History Lab collaborates with researchers from Utrecht and Wageningen Universities to analyze the sociotechnical development of the Netherlands from a long-term perspective, and to simultaneously develop system transformation investments strategies for policy makers, industries and investors.
More info: see here.
EHL contact person: Frank Veraart
PHASE 1 Seminar schedule

October 8th 2021: Introduction to The Project, Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability with Johan Schot (UU) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
November 5th 2021: Qualitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Bram Bouwens (UU) & Frank Veraart (TUe)
December 10th 2021: Quantitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Johan Schot (UU) & Gaston Heimeriks (UU)
January 14th 2022: Interconnections between Systems with Harry Lintsen (TUe) & Erik van der Vleuten (TUe)
February 11th 2022: Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability Dynamics with Jan-Pieter Smits (TUE/CBS) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
March 11th 2022: The Second Deep Transition in the Making with Barbara van Mierlo (WUR) & Laurens Klerkx (WUR)
March 25th 2022: Transformative Investing in the Netherlands with Johan Schot (UU) & Bram Bouwens (UU)

The Deep Transitions Netherlands Project has been supported by Dasym Investment Strategies and the Utrecht University, TU Eindhoven, WUR and UMC Strategic Alliance.

Online seminar series: Global Matters III: Non-Eurocentric Histories and Futures of Technology and Sustainability
2022-04-06 00:00 - 2022-06-15 00:00 (Europe/Amsterdam)
On Wednesday April 6, we kick off a short series of online discussion seminar series on Global Matters III: Non-Eurocentric Histories and Futures of Technology and Sustainability. The series will run from April to June 2022, leading up to our stringed sessions at the 10th Tensions of Europe Conference in Aarhus.
Animesh Chatterjee (TU Darmstadt), Jonas van der Straeten, Erik van der Vleuten (organizers)

Conference and launch of the Deep Transitions Netherlands Research Program
2022-05-20
One-day conference and launch of the Deep Transitions Netherlands Research Program:
Date: Friday 20 May 2022

THE DEEP TRANSITIONS NETHERLANDS PROJECT
In the Deep Transitions in the Netherlands Project, the Eindhoven History Lab collaborates with researchers from Utrecht and Wageningen Universities to analyze the sociotechnical development of the Netherlands from a long-term perspective, and to simultaneously develop system transformation investments strategies for policy makers, industries and investors.
More info: see here.
EHL contact person: Frank Veraart
PHASE 1 Seminar schedule

October 8th 2021: Introduction to The Project, Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability with Johan Schot (UU) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
November 5th 2021: Qualitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Bram Bouwens (UU) & Frank Veraart (TUe)
December 10th 2021: Quantitatively Researching Meta-rules and Systems with Johan Schot (UU) & Gaston Heimeriks (UU)
January 14th 2022: Interconnections between Systems with Harry Lintsen (TUe) & Erik van der Vleuten (TUe)
February 11th 2022: Deep Transitions, Wellbeing and Sustainability Dynamics with Jan-Pieter Smits (TUE/CBS) & Harry Lintsen (TUe)
March 11th 2022: The Second Deep Transition in the Making with Barbara van Mierlo (WUR) & Laurens Klerkx (WUR)
March 25th 2022: Transformative Investing in the Netherlands with Johan Schot (UU) & Bram Bouwens (UU)

The Deep Transitions Netherlands Project has been supported by Dasym Investment Strategies and the Utrecht University, TU Eindhoven, WUR and UMC Strategic Alliance.

Gewina Woudschoten Conference on Contested Expertise: Trust in Science and Technology
2022-06-17 - 2022-06-18
On 17-18 JUNE 2022 Gewina, the Belgian-Dutch Society for the History of Science and Universities, will hold its 9th biannual meeting in the Woudschoten Hotel & Conference Centre (Zeist). The theme of this year’s conference is: Contested Expertise: Trust in Science and Technology. EHL’s Erik van der Vleuten is invited as a keynoter.
This two-day conference brings together historians of science, humanities, medicine, universities and technology; and all those from other fields with an interest in the history of knowledge.

10th Tensions of Europe Conference: Technology, Environment and Resources
2022-06-29 - 2022-07-01 | Aarhus University
The 10th Tensions of Europe Conference will have as its main theme the history of interactions between technology, environment and resources. It aims at exploring connections of factors such as scientific exploration, technology development, resource exploitation and use, resource markets and environmental change by investigating both scientific and technological practices as well as imaginations, representations and discourses related to natural resources and environmental issues. The conference puts particular emphasis on processes of circulation and appropriation of knowledge, ideas, representations, technologies and resources across space and time in all historical periods and on local, regional and global scales.
The Tensions of Europe conference is organised biennially by an interdisciplinary community of scholars who study the shaping of Europe through the lens of technology and material culture. We welcome fruitful interactions between historians of technology and scholars from all other fields of the humanities and social sciences (https://www.tensionsofeurope.eu). The conference is based on the transnational research network Challenging Europe: Technology, Environment and the Quest for Resource Security (EurReS, coordinated at Aarhus University) and the transnational research program Global Resources & Sustainability (GREASE, coordinated by Eindhoven University of Technology). Both are part of the Tensions of Europe program “Technology & Societal Challenges, ca. 1800-2050”.

WORKSHOP Alternative engagements with the soil: ways of knowing, being and doing in Mozambique (Maputo)
2022-09-14 - 2022-09-16 | Maputo University, Mozambique

PhD defense Ginevra Sanvitale
2022-10-19 16:00 - 18:00 UTC
On 19 October, Ginevra Sanvitale will defend her PhD thesis Technopolitical Resonance: Emotions, computers and socialism in Cold War Italy (1965-1990).
See the TU/e page (incl. a link to the thesis) here.

SHOT ANNUAL MEETING: Empire, Globalization, and Technological Change (New Orleans)
2022-11-10 - 2022-11-13
Empire, Globalization, and Technological Change
SHOT Annual Meeting New Orleans
10-13 November 2022

2022 SHOT Annual Meeting, 10-13 November, New Orleans (Louisiana)

CONFERENCE Technology and Material Culture in African History (Dar es Salaam)
2023-01-04 - 2023-01-08 | Dar es Salaam
Technology and Material Culture in African History: Challenges and Potentials for Research and Teaching
An international conference, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, January 4 – 8, 2023
Call for Papers and Roundtables
The conference seeks to consolidate and foster the further development of history of technology and material culture in Africa. By gathering scholars from Tanzania and across Africa, as well as colleagues from other continents, the conference will demonstrate the discipline’s high degree of relevance—to the research and teaching of history and adjacent fields, as well as to contemporary political agendas. The organizers wish to use this event to discuss how historians of technology and material culture may contribute to the writing of a “usable past” for further generations.
The organizers invite historians, archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers, sociologists, and urban scholars to discuss the potentials of interdisciplinary and international collaboration around present intellectual, social, technological, and environmental challenges in Africa and globally. In the recent past, African countries have increased citizens’ access to up-to-date mobility and communication technologies—electric household items, mobile phones, and engine-driven vehicles. As the variety of terms indicates—daladala, matatu, tro tros, bodaboda, bajaji, and so on—artifacts are not just simply imported, but constantly modified to fit local circumstances and needs. By and large, however, a historical understanding of these processes of domestication and reinvention is still lacking. That present-day historians of technology do not limit themselves to the study of modern, Western machines and systems, but include broader aspects of (pre-colonial, colonial, and post-colonial) “material culture,” also means the discipline plays a central role both in research projects and teaching programs.
There have been growing initiatives to integrate Africa into the global history of technology and material culture, but such efforts rarely focus on issues of teaching. Considering the
2
ongoing curricular review at African universities, it is a pressing concern to discuss the potentials of including the history of technology and material culture in Bachelor and Masters programs. The organizers are convinced that the discipline of history needs to include an African perspective and showcase Africa’s contribution to global history of technology and material culture. Therefore, the conference focuses on policies, practices, and use to rethink the historiographic role played by material artifacts and systems. We believe there is a certain urgency in researching, writing, and teaching the history of technology and material culture from a truly African perspective. The organizers hope that the workshop will provide important additions to the nationalist and materialist views which have dominated African history research, writing, and teaching since independence.
By giving participants an opportunity to discuss existing research projects and teaching programs, the organizers aim at laying the foundation for an international network of historians of technology and material culture in Africa. We thus ask interested teachers and researchers from Africa and beyond to contribute with standard workshop sessions and papers, roundtable discussions, and further innovative formats. Proposals may be on any thematic area in history of technology and material culture, for example:
– The place of technology and material culture in the teaching of African history
– The political “usefulness” of technological and material history
– Gender and material culture in African history
– Craft technologies (e.g., basketry, carpentry, weaving, pottery, metal working).
– Farming, fishing, and hunting technologies
– The adoption of material objects (e.g., cars, bicycles, electronic and domestic appliances)
– Infrastructure histories (e.g., transportation, water, power, sanitation)
– Repair and maintenance cultures
– Archaeological evidence
Please submit 300-word proposals and one-page CVs to Emanuel L. Mchome at emanuellukio@yahoo.com or Frank Edward at f38edward@yahoo.co.uk.
no later than August 31, 2022.
This unique event is organized by the History Department at University of Dar es Salaam in collaboration with the ERC-funded research project “A Global History of Technology, 1850-2000” at the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany, the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), and the Foundation for the History of Technology in the Netherlands. The event will take place on site in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Lodging and main meals are provided by the organizers; a one-day excursion is also included. Participants from Africa are invited to apply for travel grants. Selected applicants will be notified Sept. 15, 2022, and they will be requested to submit preliminary conference papers (min. 2,500 words) by Nov. 15, 2022. Representatives of leading scientific journals will be present at the event.

WORKSHOP: Global sustainability pasts/ presents/ futures II
2023-01-19
The Foundation SHT & the Eindhoven History lab organize the second workshop on Global sustainability pasts/ presents/ futures at 19 January 2023. Program: TBA

Seminar with Ginevra Sanvitale
2023-06-08 10:45 - 12:30 (Europe/Amsterdam) | History lab Atlas 9320
From chicken fiat to chicken nuggets. Notes on gender, technology and poultry processing in 20th century Italy (1920s-1990s)
Research Seminar – Eindhoven History Lab (Atlas 9320)
June 8th 2023, 10:45-12:00

10:45-10:50
Introduction. Erik van der Vleuten, Eindhoven History Lab

10:50-11:10
From chicken fiat to chicken nuggets. Notes on gender, technology and poultry processing in 20th century Italy (1920s-1990s). Ginevra Sanvitale, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Trinity Centre for Digital Humanities, Trinity College Dublin

Poultry meat is one of the main sources of animal protein in human diets worldwide. Historically, female labor has been crucial in poultry farming and processing. I discuss the interconnected histories of women and poultry in 20th century Italy, focusing on the technologies which enabled or facilitated this relationship, from the “rationalisation” of rural poultry farming under the fascist regime to the rise of a large scale poultry processing industry from the 1960s onward. I look at these technology-enabled encounters between women and chickens from three intersecting domains of feminist food studies: the material, the socio-cultural, and the corporeal (Allen and Sachs 2007).

11:10-12:00
Follow the chicken. Looking for non-human animals in the history of technology. Informal discussion.

Several non-human animals inhabit the history of technology. Some have a destructive effect on technology, such as the metaphorical and actual bugs altering the functioning of computer systems (Kidwell 1998). Other were the reason why technologies were developed or modified: a plough can be dragged by a human or by a horse, but it will have a different design, depending on the animal operating it. Non-human animals have also been equated with technologies. For example, the modern broiler chicken can be envisioned as a “protein machine” designed to transform vegetable calories into animal proteins (Galusky 2022), while pigs and sheep under fascist regimes were fundamental “technoscientific organisms” for the maintenance of political power (Saraiva 2016). Mutual dependency relationships between human and non-human animals, and the techno-scientific advancements facilitating them, often imply significant transformations of ecosystems, notably in global agri-food system: intensive animal farming histories are deeply interconnected with soy production histories (van der Vleuten and de Hoop 2022). In other words -or better, in Donna Haraway’s words: “follow the chicken and find the world”. In this informal discussion we seek to find the many words which have been created, or could be created, by past, present and future interactions between technologies and animals (human and not). Which non-human animals are most impacted by which technologies? How is their perception of these technologies different from that of humans, e.g. in spatial and temporal terms? Do non-human animals create technologies, or is it a prerogative of humans? If they do, what can humans learn from other animals’ technological systems and processes?

12:00-12:15
History Lab planning meeting

Bibliography

Allen, Patricia, and Carolyn Sachs. ‘Women and Food Chains: The Gendered Politics of Food’. In Taking Food Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World, 23–40. Taylor & Francis, 2007.
van der Vleuten, Erik, and Evelien de Hoop. “Crisis narratives from the Dutch Soyacene: Regional sustainability hi/stories at sites of soy consumption.” In The Age of the Soybean.: An Environmental History of Soy During the Great Acceleration, pp. 265-288. White Horse Press, 2022.
Galusky, Wyatt. Protein Machines, Technology, and the Nature of the Future. Springer Nature, 2022.
Haraway, Donna. When species meet. University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
Kidwell, Peggy Aldrich. “Stalking the elusive computer bug.” IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 20, no. 4 (1998): 5-9.
Saraiva, Tiago. Fascist Pigs: Technoscientific Organisms and the History of Fascism. MIT Press, 2016.

ICOHTEC 50th Conference in Estonia, August 14-18, 2023
2023-08-14 - 2023-08-18
ICOHTEC’s 50th Conference will be organized in Estonia at August 14-18, 2023
Topic: INTERDEPENDENCIES. FROM LOCAL MICROSTORIES TO GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE
HISTORY OF TECHNOLOGY
Call for Papers (deadline for submissions is 15th January 2023)
More information: Please check the ICOHTEC site

CONFERENCE 12th Biennial European Society for Environmental History Conference
2023-08-22 08:00 - 2023-08-26 17:00 UTC
The 12th Biennial European Society for Environmental History Conference (Bern, August 22-26, 2023) will have as its conference theme: Mountains and Plains: Past, present and future environmental and climatic entanglements
Conference website: https://www.eseh2023.unibe.ch/conference/

CONFERENCE: Les historiographies nationales des techniques. Au cœur de l’épistémologie en histoire globale des techniques
2023-09-28 - 2023-09-29
EHV’s Erik van der Vleuten will present the opening keynote.
Conference program link

CONFERENCE SHOT Annual Meeting (Long Beach CA, 25-29 October 2023)
2023-10-25 - 2023-10-29
This year, our SHOT secretariat will again co-organize the annual meeting of the Society for the History Of Technology.
CfP:
For the 2023 Annual Meeting, the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) will convene at the historic meeting place of land, sea, wetlands, and built worlds that is Long Beach, California. Shaped by histories of dispossession, extraction, and pollution, as well as by innovation, connection, and resistance, the multicultural city of Long Beach offers an ideal site to explore technological pasts, presents, and futures from local, regional, and thematic perspectives.
Our Society invites participants to explore any theme related to histories of technology around the world. As it aims to foster more diverse and inclusive communities, the Society has decided not to propose a specific conference theme but rather invites submissions of panels and papers that explore anew what has traditionally been centered or overlooked in discussions about the relationship between technology and power. This includes any disciplinary approach to technological pasts, presents, and futures.
As SHOT continues to explore the future of annual meetings for a society with a widely international membership and commitment to accessibility, the conference will include hybrid participation options for both panelists and audiences. The proposal submission form includes the option to designate proposals as hybrid sessions, which might include pre-recorded presentations or a combination of both in-person and virtual presentations as supported by available facilities.
Specifically, the program committee invites works that revolve around themes such as:

Race, including racial bias and racial equity
Migration, refugees, circulation, and movement
Internationalization and de-globalization tendencies
Disability and Accessibility
Non-Western Cosmographies and Periodizations
Empire, Sovereignty, and Decolonization
Labor (formal and informal), and women and minorities in the workplace
Urban and rural economies and their corresponding transformations
Humble, Non-Hyped Technologies
Environment, Sustainability, and the Blue Humanities – including materialities of growth and de-growth
Intersections of Gender, Sexuality, and Technology
Energy and Waste
Glocal Long Beach – connections between the Southwest U.S. and Latin America (especially Santiago, Chile, site of SHOT 2024) and the Trans-Pacific
Technological tensions and conflicts
Commerce, Infrastructure, and Development

We warmly invite scholars with diverse disciplinary backgrounds to join our conversations (including those from Anthropology, American Studies, Black/African-American Studies, Communication, Gender Studies, Indigenous Studies, Latin Studies, Literary Criticism, Media Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology). We especially encourage scholarship in African, Asian, and Latin American Studies.
SHOT’s program practice consists of prioritizing: a) all underrepresented scholars, whether based on race, class, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, disability, or geographic location; b) junior scholars hoping to enter into or learn from the history of technology.
The program committee especially welcomes the submission of non-traditional sessions including work-in-progress sessions, roundtables, flash-talks, unconference sessions, and interactive workshops.
Individuals and groups interested in finding others to join an organized session may propose an open session proposal that will be posted on the SHOT-website. Scholars interested in joining one of these sessions are encouraged to contact the organizers as soon as possible. The earlier an open session proposal is sent to SHOT, the earlier it will be posted on the website. Please make sure to leave sufficient time to enable interested scholars to respond, and for the organizers to prepare and submit a fully formed session proposal.
Participation is generally limited to one paper presentation and two additional roles, except by invitation of the SHOT program committee and/or SHOT officers.
SHOT Program Committee
Jethron Akallah (Chair), Josh Grace (Associate Chair), Bess Williamson, Diana Montaño, Itty Abraham

10th GEWINA Woudschoten conference
2024-06-21 - 2024-06-22
The 10th Gewina’s Woudschoten conference will be organized 21-22 June 2024 from Rotterdam (medical history group from Erasmus MC and historians of the EUR). Conference theme: ‘Ecology & Economy: History of Knowledge during the Unequal Anthropocene’.

REPARANDO: Joint SHOT/ ICOHTEC annual conference in Santiago de Chile
2024-07-04 - 2024-07-18
EHL and SHT will participate in and co-organize the joint annual conference of the Society for History of Technology SHOT and The International Committee for the History of Technology ICOHTEC in Viña del Mar (near Santiago de Chile) on July 8-14, 2024. This will the first time that either society meets on the South American continent.
Read the CfP
More info:
Reparando / Repair in the History of Technology
The technological environments we inhabit require continual repair and maintenance in order to function. Yet the people on whom such repairs rely—along with their knowledge and labor—too often remain unseen and undervalued, becoming visible only in cases of infrastructural breakdown or spectacular disaster. The routine invisibility of repair facilitates grand proclamations of technological solutionism, distracting from the requirements for living equitably in an increasingly fragmented and fragile world.
How does our understanding of the history of technology change when we center repair and maintenance? Such a shift involves highlighting users and experiential knowledge. It opens up conceptions of what counts as technological knowledge and who counts as technological actors. Such themes have lurked in our field for some time, mounting in scale and significance over the last decade. Repair is now part of our vocabulary, here to stay. The time has come to make it the thematic core of our annual meeting. The first joint conference between ICOHTEC and SHOT in three decades, to be held bilingually in Viña del Mar, Chile, provides the ideal place for doing so.
Reparando—the gerund of repair in Spanish—holds a special place in the history of Chile, a nation at the intersection of several tectonic plates. Chileans accept seismic activity as part of everyday life, remaining unfazed by mild earthquakes. Of course, the stronger earthquakes are deeply disruptive, destroying cities and communities. In 1960, the deadliest earthquake registered in human history (magnitude 9.5) struck the southern region of Valdivia. Accompanied by a tsunami, the Great Chilean Earthquake destroyed livelihoods and property, and took thousands of lives. This destruction required not just concrete infrastructural repair, but also social and emotional repair for traumatized victims. The Chilean experience highlights the need to approach repair as a practice of human and technological resilience, in which cooperation and compassion are as essential as material rebuilding and fixing.
This is the context in which we invite a critical appraisal of the concept, strategies, and philosophies of repair. How does repair/reparando sustain our built environment and our daily lives? How can we think through brokenness, restoration, and care? What and who counts as “normal,” and how does that affect our infrastructures? How do people excluded from infrastructural benefits use rebuilding, repurposing, adjusting, and reparando as navigational strategies? How do discussions about repair and repurposing reflect social, political, and cultural dynamics? What does reparando look like at different scales, from the individual to the planetary? And how can focusing on these themes open a discussion of what requires repair in our own field of the history of technology – and what methodologies and approaches are needed to enact that repair?
Topics and themes of special interest to the program committee include (but are not limited to):

The ethics, aesthetics, and politics of repair
Adjusting, tinkering, hacking – tactics for times of scarcity
Invisible labor in science and technology
Geographies of repair and care, from the local to the planetary
The role of technology in environmental and climate (in)justice
Ableism, disability, and crip epistemologies in technology studies
Indigenous lands, indigenous knowledge
Queering the history of technology
Technologies of care and healing
Local cultures of repair, repurposing, and recycling
Intersections of repair, design, and engineering
Normies and Others in technological history
The technological dimensions and aftermaths of disasters, emergencies, and crises
Reckoning with colonial pasts and imagining decolonial futures
Repairing the history of technology: methodological and epistemic strategies for the future of the discipline
The role of conservation, preservation, and archives in understanding the past and repairing the field
