International Committee for the History of Technology

Editorial

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Time is running: Our Victoria-Meeting will take place in the summer (5-10 August 2008) and next year the ICOHTEC symposium will be part of the large ICHST conference in Budapest (26-31 July 2009).
For details on the latter see: http://www.conferences.hu/ichs09/invitation.htm.
Thus deadlines for both ICOHTEC conferences are on 3 March 2008. It would be a pleasure to see you at both conferences.

With best wishes
Yours Stefan Poser

I. Other Conferences

20-23 August 2008
Converging technologies. 4S/EASST Meeting
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
CFP – Deadline 7 February 2008

"Converging technologies" refers to the conjunction of two or more of nano, bio, information and cognitive (NBIC) technologies. Major current concerns about the emergence and impacts of these technologies are couched in terms very similar to those of previously new technologies. Efforts to identify, formulate and address the ethical, legal, social and economic implications of new technologies have characterised the human genome project in the 1990s; nanotechnologies; eResearch encompassing literature and the humanities; and genomics. These efforts are signalled by the emergence of various acronyms to denote the social (science) dimensions like ELSI, ELSA, SEIN.

This session aims to provide a critical assessment of our experiences as social scientists in engaging with converging technologies and with predecessor technologies such as nano. How successful has been the partition of expertise between the technical and the non technical? To what extent and in what ways has social science engaged with the technologies in focus? What kinds of new relations between social and natural scientists have emerged? Has social science managed to remain critical or has it been drawn into a subsidiary supportive role? Has its recruitment served (merely) to recruit more and new research, publics and support? This session invites empirical studies which reflect on the dynamics of engagement and disengagement with/from nano and converging technologies in research, policy making and governance. Some of the issues and questions that the panel will address include:

Nano studies: doing ethnographic research on/with nano
The construction of relevant knowledges for (the governance of) nano and converging technologies
The nature of interdisciplinarity
A comparative US/EU perspective on ELSI
The politics of convergence
The performance and utility of "business knowledge" for nano
Nano and NBIC convergence: new questions and issues for STS?

To help us organize the session, please contact us (aviseu@yorku.ca) with your abstract and title before February 7th. You will also need to submit your abstract through the regular procedure at the conference website
http://www.4sonline.org/meeting.htm before February 16th.

Please contact:
Elena Simakova (Cornell), es537@cornell.edu
Steve Woolgar (Oxford), steve.woolgar@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Ana Viseu (York U), aviseu@yorku.ca
Rob Doubleday (Cambridge), rvld2@cam.ac.uk

25 September 2008
Memory and watercourses. Study day
Liessies, France
CFP – Deadline 30 April 2008

The meeting in September 2008 will focus on main beds, minor beds, and wayfaring beds.

The courses of streams and rivers have evolved or have been modified throughout centuries by anthrop and natural factors (tectonic, climatic, ecological, river phases…). For centuries, the changes of the hydrographical network in the North of France have been radical and mainly due to human actions. Since the Middle Ages, they were stimulated by urban development and economic needs (driving force of water mills, improvement of river navigation) and organised by the secular or the monastic power. In the Escaut basin, slow flows, slight slopes and a convenient landscape made these changes easier. In modern times, the industrialization of the region accentuated them, and they are still going on today with the huge project of the Seine River-North interconnection. Canalizations (with multiple purposes), diversions and interconnections follow one another up to deeply alter the course and the functioning of rivers (flow, ecology, landscapes…) and to modify noticeably environment (canalized banks, fauna and flora modifications…) and the quality of water. The changes are sometimes so important that the former aspect of a river has been erased, becoming the matter of geomorphologists, archaeologists and historians. The next Meetings of Liessies, open to all disciplines, will deal with the modifications of watercourses, the impact and the perception of these changes. Papers on North of France and the nearest basins will be privileged. However, there is no geographical restriction. The “water records” and other kinds of sources (whether written, cartographic, archaeological, legal, geographical or sociological) should be taken with the greatest care.
Suggestions of papers and posters have to be given in on the 30th April 2008 at the latest as a short summary with the names and function of the authors.
Please contact: cbeck16@wanadoo.fr, fabrice.guizard-duchamp@orange.fr

26-28 September 2008
Medizin, Wissenschaft und Technik in einer (Post-) Kolonialen Welt/ Medicine, Science and Technology in the (Post-)Colonial World
Annual Meeting of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geschichte der Medizin, Naturwissenschaft und Technik, DGGNMT e.V.
TU Darmstadt, Germany
CFP – Deadline 31 March 2008

For more information please visit:
http://www.gtg.tu-berlin.de/mambo/ index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=597&Itemid=267
Please contact: Noyan Dinçkal, Institut für Geschichte, TU Darmstadt, dinckal@ifs.tu-darmstadt.de or
Sabine Schleiermacher, Institut für Geschichte der Medizin, Charité, Berlin, sabine.schleiermacher@charite.de

1-3 October 2008
From the amphora to the container: Packaging and stowage on ships, past and present
Lorient, France
CFP – Deadline 31 March 2008

The objective of this conference is the study of packaging and stowage of maritime cargo over a very long period of time, its variation according to the trade or goods, as well as navigational period. The approach is a diachronic one with no spatial boundaries that is open to interdisciplinarity.
From the non decked boat to the freighter, from the pirogue to the high seas junk, all are packaging means developed by man to transport supplies, harvests, bartering and trade goods over the sea that will constitute the subject of comparative analysis on every coast, sea, and ocean.
Proposals can be from individual or collective research from within particular programs; syntheses of a thematic, chronological, geographical, or disciplinary nature that highlight the state of current knowledge are also welcomed.
Please find more information on: http://www.univ-ubs.fr/solito and http://www.univ-ubs.fr/solito/decouvr/documents/container.pdf
Please contact: Sylviane Llinares, Université de Bretagne Sud, sylviane.llinares@univ-ubs.fr

6-7 November 2008
Hagley Museum and Library, WilmingtonDelaware
CFP - Deadline 31 March 2008

The appearance of Ford's Model T automobile in 1908 ushered in a century during which motorized vehicles spread across the American landscape. Their impact was immense, visible in structures such as roads, bridges, garages and parking lots, in businesses including service stations and fast food restaurants, and in altered residential patterns. In addition to cars, other conveyances - such as buses, trucks, mobile homes, fire engines, and motorcycles -- as well as vehicles produced for construction and military purposes reshaped business and commerce,
created new industries, and generated endless technological innovations. For a conference that marks the Model T's 100th anniversary, the Center for the History of Business, Technology, and Society at the Hagley Museum and Library invites papers that reflect broadly on the impact of motor vehicles in America since 1908. As the automobile has been the subject of considerable scholarly work, papers concerning passenger cars should break new ground and address heretofore under-explored questions. Scholarship on other vehicles powered by internal combustion engines is far less developed. We therefore especially encourage papers that consider their business, technological and commercial dimensions. All papers should be empirically based and historically informed.
Please contact Carol Lockman, Hagley Museum and Library, clockman@Hagley.org.

14 November 2008
Frauen im Handwerk. Perspektiven der Forschung / Women working in handcraft since the 19th century. Freilichtmuseum Hagen, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Handwerk und Technik, Hagen
Mäckingerbach, Germany
CFP - Deadline 15 February 2008

Please visit: http://www.lwl-freilichtmuseum-hagen.de
Please contact: Anke Hufschmidt , LWL-Freilichtmuseum Hagen, anke.hufschmidt @lwl.org

13-15 November 2008
Aeronautical Culture: Artefacts, Imagination, and the Practice of Aeronautics, 18th-20th Century
Paris, Le Bourget, France
CFP – Deadline 31 March 2008

International Conference organized by the Centre d’histoire des techniques et de l’environnement (CDHTE/CNAM) and the Centre Alexandre Koyré – Centre de recherches en histoire des sciences et techniques (CAK-CRHST/CNRS) with the participation of the Aéro-Club de France, the Département d’histoire de l’armement (DGA/CHEAr) and the Musée de l’air et de l’espace
Paris, Conservatoire national des arts et métiers
Cité des sciences et de l’industrie
Musée de l’air et de l’espace, Le Bourget

Scientific organization committee
Marc Alban (ACF, Paris), Patrice Bret (CHEAr; CAK-CRHST/CNRS, Paris), Liliane Hilaire-Pérez (CDHTE/CNAM, Paris), Maryse Lassalle (Epistémé/Bordeaux I), Thierry Leroy (CERHIO, Rennes), Luc Robène (UHB Rennes II), Nathalie Roseau (LATTS/ENPC, Marne-la-Vallée), MarieThébaud- Sorger (EHESS/CRH-CMH, Paris).

Scientific committee
Bruno Belhoste (Paris I), Agnès Beylot (SHD/DA, Vincennes), Hans Joachim Braun (Helmut Schmidt Universität, Hambourg), Claude Carlier (Paris III), Thérèse Charmasson (CAK-CRHST/CSI, Paris), Joseph Corn (Stanford University), Tom Crouch (National Air and Space Museum/ Smithsonian Institution, Washington), David Edgerton (Imperial College, Londres), Patrick Fridenson (EHESS, Paris), Pascal Griset (Paris IV), Vincent Guigueno (LATTS/ENPC, Marne-la-Vallée), André Guillerme (CDHTE/CNAM, Paris), Peter L. Jakab (National Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution, Washington), Christine Macleod (University of Bristol), Caroline Moricot (Cetcopra/Paris I), Antoine Picon (Harvard University, Cambridge; LATTS/ENPC, Marne-la-Vallée), Dominick A. Pisano (National Air and Space Museum/Smithsonian Institution, Washington), Frédéric Pousin (LADYSS/CNRS, Paris), Daniel Roche (Collège de France, Paris), Vanessa Schwartz (University of Southern California, Los Angeles), Guillaume de Syon (Albright College, Reading), Christian Tilatti (Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, Le Bourget), Kazuo Wada (Université de Tokyo), Andrew Whitelegg (Georgia State University, Atlanta), Robert Wohl (UCLA). Submissions of proposals (title and 1-page abstract), short CV by March 31, 2008, to colloque2008@culture-aerienne.fr
The following themes are suggested as departure points.

1. Thinking, transferring and experimenting with flight
Be it through the thought process or the invention of speed and propulsion power, one wishes to clarify the transfer links between ballooning and aviation, emphasizing thee evolutionary and stationary phases. Aeronautical knowledge was built through teaching and innovation and eventually stabilized through teaching and evolution within companies. The first ballooning flight indeed crystallized into a restricted technology )linked to the impossibility of steering), but also to the knowledge acquired in the military and scientific fields of the 18th and 19th centuries, as well as the practices of fair balloonists and manufacturing families. Technical evolution surrounding dirigibles, engines and gliders offer new contributions, early thoughts on aerodynamics, linked clearly to flying, are formulated more rigorously (see Jules Marey). Actors and production structures, be they individual experiences or engineering practices raise new questions about flying.

2. Flight, Overflight and the Change of Space
Flight initiates a revolution whereby humanity rethinks its relationship to surrounding space. The worldwide extension of air traffic create new infrastructures in the urban landscape that symbolize the anchoring of said routes (runways, terminals). Such physical evidence, alongside “immaterial” ones (traffic corridors, beacons) are all concrete elements of an aerial culture. Not only is it the result of functional adjustments linked to technology developments, but such infrastructure is also the result of the relationship with over flown space. Furthermore, one needs to investigate differently the flux of cargo and travellers that change the notion of cross-border movement and to incorporate into the field of research questions linking imagination, art, architecture, air routes and territories.

3. The Practice of Flight
With the birth of professionalization appear standards, rules and licenses, as well as the creation of international and administrative organizations. The expansion of aerial mobility diminishes the personal exploit in favour of the mass phenomenon; the focus is now on the aviation corporation, where the engineer has a say, and on air transport for passengers. One wonders, however, about such evolution, as the individual achievement continues to exist in the sports and military aviation, as well as in space. One may wish to consider how air transport has changed the art of travel, and to re-examine the physical experience and practices in private and commercial flights, but which does not focus on aviation alone (airship “cruises”) and opens new paths of understanding. The actors in this canvas range from the occasional passenger to include on-board staff and ground staff.

4. Artefacts and Memory: Conservation, Collection, Gatherings, Shows
Aerial memory relies as much on archives (public or private) as it does on objects (be it a balloon of 1796 housed in Army Museum in Vienna, or aircraft seats at the Air France Museum). In addition to the big archival and photographic holdings gathered at the Service historique de la défense (Vincennes) or the material spread out among non specialized archives, museums play a central role, They are national (Musée de l’air et de l’espace at le Bourget; Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum) or private regional museums, Otto Lilienthal Museum, Zeppelin Museum)and were built on the basis of private collections, themselves constituted in the 19th century by collecting manuscripts and photographs. The point is to analyze the process of collecting and preserving, as well as the history of the building of these collections. In the context of reflecting on the industrial patrimony, the development of aeronautical industries have prompted companies, often on the basis of enthusiasts contact, to engage in a process of emphasizing their own legacy.. This new development is problematic because preservation is not the primary function of such companies. Be they virtual museums or documentation centres, these nonetheless offer new sources for historians.
For further information or a pdf version of the cfp, please contact members of the organizing committee or Guillaume de Syon at guillaume.desyon@fandm.edu

4-8 August 2009
Understanding Human Interaction with the Environment. First World Congress of Environmental History
Copenhagen, Denmark
CFP – Deadline 30 March 2008

The development of environmental history has been closely linked to local and regional histories and situations. While this is a strength of the field, it is also a potential weakness. We need to question whether big pictures can be constructed on the basis of more numerous case studies. Do we gain new insights by comparing case studies and drawing conclusions from doing so? Are we able to learn from each other with regard to sources and methods? Can environmental history become politically relevant if we put together empirically sound meta-narratives that go beyond specific times and places?

ICEHO member organizations believe that the answer to all these questions is YES! We therefore seek to devote this World Congress to sharing environmental histories worldwide. In order to broaden our comparative understanding, we seek to highlight places in which no environmental histories have been conducted, or have not yet reached an international audience. For the first time young scholars and senior academics, environmental historians from all over the world, and with different disciplinary backgrounds will meet in order to further the development of environmental history world-wide.
For more information please visit: http://eseh.org/CFPWCEH2009
Should you have any questions, please contact the conference secretariat at Roskilde University (RUC): wceh2009@ruc.dk

II. Recently published Books

Friedrich Naumann: Georgius Agricola. Berggelehrter, Naturforscher, Humanist. Erfurt (Sutton Verlag) 2007, 12.90 Euro

Georg Agricola (1494 – 1555), the well-known founder of mineralogy and mining science and author of "De re metallica libri XII" was the most influential author on mining for centuries to come. But he was also a physician, mayor of the town Chemnitz, diplomat and constant advocate of peace. In this concise, well-written and well-documented biography Friedrich Naumann, an Agricola scholar of repute, gives a useful survey of the life and achievements of this eminent schola

1st update • February 2008

Thank you for your proposals for the next ICOHTEC-Meeting in Victoria; the program committee will inform you about its decisions soon. It will be a pleasure to meet you.

I. Conferences

25-26 April 2008
Instability and Decomposition: 19th- and 20th Century Moments in Art, Literature, Philosophy and Technoscience
The Harvard Humanities Center Graduate Student Conference
Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
CFP - Deadline 7 March 2008

Please contact: Séverine Meunier, meunier@fas.harvard.edu, and Lambert Williams, lwilliam@fas.harvard.edu, Harvard University

10 -12 September 2008
Humans - Digits – Transformations. Datacizing the Organic
Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Germany
CFP – Deadline 15 March 2008
International conference on data processing and its consequences in medicine, organised by the Graduate Research Group "Gender as a Category of Knowledge" of the Humboldt- Universität zu Berlin in cooperation with the Institute for the History of Medicine (Charité) and the Neue Gesellschaft für Bildende Kunst e.V.

18-21 September 2008
Mobility and the Environment. Sixth International Conference on the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T2M)
Ottawa, Canada
CFP – Deadline 1 March 2008

The International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T2M) invites proposals for papers to be presented at its Sixth International Conference to be held in Ottawa, Canada from September 18th through the 21st, 2008.

Papers may address any aspect of the social, cultural, economic, technological, ecological and political history of transport, traffic and mobility. However, special consideration will be given to proposals related to the conference theme: Mobility and the Environment. The language of the conference is English.

Hosted by the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the 2008 conference coincides with a period of growing concern about the problematic relationship between the human desire and need for greater mobility, and the environmental consequences and challenges of this demand. Historical perspectives on this relationship offer the promise of greater clarity and understanding. To this end, we encourage proposals that explore all aspects of the issue across the full spectrum of modalities, systems, political contexts and environments. In addition, the conference theme is also intended to embrace philosophical, technical and cultural perspectives on the history of overcoming, or adapting to, the challenges of geography and climate. With respect to all of the above, the conference will also provide an opportunity to consider how important insights and ideas arising from historical research on the environment, and on issues of mobility in general, can best be shared with an interested general public.

Notwithstanding T2M’s natural affinity for the historical view, interdisciplinary approaches are greatly encouraged. Relevant proposals from the fields of geography, philosophy, cultural studies, sociology, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, engineering and others are most welcome. The participation of young scholars and doctoral students is especially desirable. T2M also invites professionals working in the areas of mobility or environmental policy and planning to contribute. Participants are encouraged, though not required, to organize and to propose panels on specific issues or ideas. As a rule, a panel should consist of a chair, a commentator and normally up to three speakers. Session proposals will also be considered.

The deadline for abstracts and a one-page CV (English only) is the 1st of March, 2008: maximum of one page for all individual papers or panel presentations, or one page per presentation within a session proposal. Session proposals should also include a one-page overview of the session. Please send proposals to: submissions@t2m.org.

Submitters will be notified by the programme committee during the first week of April, 2008 on the success or status of their submission. The full paper of all accepted submissions must be delivered on or before August 1st, 2008. These will be copied onto a conference CD-ROM for distribution in advance to all conference participants. Individual presentations at the conference are therefore to be limited to a fifteen-minute summary to allow for debate and discussion within the session. Registration information and deadlines will be provided during the month of March.

For information about T2M and previous conferences, please visit our website at: http://www.t2m.org.
More information on the Ottawa conference will be posted at http://www.t2m.org/conference in due course.

19-21 September 2008
Conference on History of Communication in the Baltic Sea Region in the 17th-19th Century
Tartu
CFP - Deadline 31 May 2008

On February 20, 1636, the regency council of Queen Christina issued the first postal service regulations in Sweden. Two years later, on the initiative of chancellor Axel Oxenstierna public postal system was established and it connected Stockholm via Åland with Turku and Helsinki. From there official mail network was extended to Tallinn and Narva. In 2008 we celebrate the 370th anniversary of public post system in nowadays Estonia. The Institute of History and Archaeology of Tartu University and Academic History Society organize a conference on history of communication in the Baltic Sea region in the 16th-19th centuries, in Tartu, September, 19-21.

The conference languages are English and German (talks as well as publications). There is no participation fee; your accommodation costs will be covered by organizers. The conference papers will be published.

Please contact: Enn Küng , Ajaloo ja arheoloogia instituut, Tartu Ülikool, enn.kyng@ut.ee

3-4 October 2008
Medien und Öffentlichkeit seit dem 19. Jahrhundert, Mass media and the Public since the 19th Century
Deutsch-Tschechische und Deutsch-Slowakische Historikerkommission
Meißen und Dresden
CFP – Deadline 1 April 2008

Conference on the power of mass media in national and transnational perspective since the 19th century, focused on the region of Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany.

Please contact:
Prof. Dr. Christoph Cornelißen, Lehrstuhl für Neuere und Neueste Geschichte, Universität Kiel, ccornelissen@email.uni-kiel.de
PhDr. Miroslav Kunštát, Institut für Internationale Studien, Karls-Universität Prag
Doc. Dr. Roman Holec, Philosophische Fakultät der Comenius-Universität, Bratislava
Christiane Brenner, Collegium Carolinum Muenchen, christiane.brenner@extern.lrz-muenchen.de

30-31 October 2008
Technologies of Globalisation
Graduiertenkolleg “Topologie der Technik”
TU Darmstadt, Germany
CFP - Deadline: 15 April 2008

Presently (re-)shaping social life as well as economics and science, the effects of globalization are in their turn – and in manifold ways – related to and in fact highly dependent on technology. The first International Conference of the DFG-Research Group “Topologies of Technology” seeks to explore in greater detail and from a delibarately interdisciplinary angle the role(s) and function(s) of world-embracing information and communication technologies, transport and computing facilities in the global age.

Please contact stream4@tog08.org or submit an proposal via upload on our website www.tog08.org before April, 15th, 2008. Complete papers (max. 8.000 words) should be sent before September 30th, 2008. The most outstanding conference contributions will be published after the conference.
For all conference issues please visit our website at www.tog08.org.

30 October –1 November 2008 “Film & Science-Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond”
The 2008 Biennial Conference of Film & History, Chicago
CFp – Deadline 1 June 2008

AREA: “Fantastisch” – German Science-Fiction Films

This Area looks at German history and its distinct epochs (or even trans-epochal aspects) via the genre of the Science Fiction film. Ranging from the ‘paper-mâché’-ish beginnings of early German cinema to the digital high-gloss landscapes of today’s virtual worlds, the Science Fiction film has responded to historical currents by gauging (often unconsciously) the moods, anxieties, hopes, and fantasies of a society. How has German culture reinvented itself through fantasy films? How has German SF, as a genre, reacted to the politics, the technology, popular culture and of its day?

The paper topics could, for instance, focus on the following themes:
- the dreams and/or nightmares resulting from the incipient industrial modernism in early silent pictures
- the articulated presentiments and paranoia emerging against the background of totalitarianism during the time of the Weimar Republic and the early 1930s (e.g., the German exile movie)
- the desire for purity and the staging of fascist fantasies of ‘Weltherrschaft’ during the National Socialism movement
- the attempt to draft new and better worlds during immediate post-war periods in order to overcome the culpable past and to recreate the society
- utopian sites in the course of revolts towards the end of the 1960s and in the new social movements as from the 1970s
- dystopian projections of the future during the Cold War and societal upheavals during the 1980s
- (post-)apocalyptic scenarios of doom after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, especially after 9/11

Further analytical topics are possible:
- the sci-fi movie of the GDR
- transnational effects and their cinematic adaptation
- other historical events or historiographies

Although this Area identifies cinematic productions, television programs and serials, as well as the adaptation of film to and from television, are likewise most welcome.

Please send your 200-word proposal by June 1, 2008 to

Massimo Perinelli, Chair of the German Science-Fiction Area
Anglo-Amerikanische Abteilung, Historisches Seminar, University of Cologne perinelli@gmx.ch

This area, comprising multiple panels, is a part of the 2008 biennial
Film & History Conference. For updates and registration information about the upcoming meeting, see the Film & History website www.filmandhistory.org.

12-14 November 2008Theories and Methods in Historical Discipline: The Way to the 21th CenturyThe Institute of World History (Russia Academy of Sciences) Moscow, Russia
CFP - Deadline: 1 May 2008

The Institute of World History (Russia Academy of Sciences) and the Russian Society for Intellectual History are pleased to announce an international conference on theories and methods in historical discipline.

The main themes of the conference are:

Scholars will be able to continue discussion at a series of workshops:
Teaching history: the role of theoretical disciplines in a historian’s professional training N.I. Kareev’s philosophy and methodology of history by in the context of humanities (late 19 – early 21st cc.) (to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the publication of his famous work Main problems of the philosophy of history) Historical semantics: history of ideas and concepts. The 85th anniversary of Reinhardt Koselleck

Papers in Russian and English are invited. The abstracts are to be send
to rsihconfer10@gmail.com. 13-15 November 2008The Representation of Working People in Britain and FranceSociety for the Study of Labour History (United Kingdom) and CORPUS(COnflits, RePrésentations et dialogues dans l'Univers anglo-Saxon),Universités d'Amiens et de Rouen, RouenCFP - Deadline 1 April 2008This conference will constitute a challenging reconsideration of representations of workers and the meaning and experience of labour, and the diverse ways in which the socio-political relations of work were mediated from the medieval period to the twentieth century. We aim for a series of workshops based either on chronological periods or thematic topics (or of course on both). Comparative papers on Anglo-French similarities and contrasts are also welcome.Our title has been devised to encompass- Organisations and movements that sought to represent working men and women;- The modes and mediums through which work and the working class[es] have been represented, by themselves and others.We therefore invite proposals not only from labour historians and those working in the discipline of history more generally, but also from art historians, critical theorists, historical sociologists, literary scholars, museum curatorial staff, and specialists in the history of economic thought.The submission of either single papers or panels will be welcomed.Papers may be presented in either English or French.

Proposals (250 words - panels pro rata), accompanied by a brief, single paragraph vitae, should be submitted electronically, no later than 1 April 2008 toProfessor Antoine Capet (Université de Rouen: antcapet@aol.com) or DrMalcolm Chase (University of Leeds: m.s.chase@leeds.ac.uk).Homepage <http://www.sslh.org.uk/>Please contact: Antoine Capet, Université de Rouen, antcapet@aol.com

14- 16 November 2008The Fourth Annual Art of Record Production Conference 2008
Hosted by William Moylan at The University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell,
Massachusetts, USA
CFP - Deadline 15 April 2008

The ARP Conference gathers together industry professionals, academic scholars, and musicians who utilize and study recording technology as a principle means of creative expression. It is the aim of this conference to facilitate the exchange of ideas between these groups,drawing upon broad areas of expertise, and providing a unique opportunity for individuals to inform, challenge, and stimulate the discourse surrounding the intersection of technology and music. ARPprovides a platform for the exchange of ideas and multipleperspectives across disciplines. The conference addresses a range of topics such as; how creative expression is achieved through technological practices; how changes in recording technology have impacted upon and informed musical practices; the so-called "democratization" of access to modes of creative expression and the resultant opportunities for the distribution of recorded work in the age of computer-based recording and the Internet.

The conference will comprise academic papers, industry speakers and panels, practical demonstrations and masterclasses as well as plentiful opportunities for networking and informal debate.

The 2008 Conference will deliver four streams of papers and panels around the following
topics:

1. The Studio as Musical Instrument.
In 1983 Brian Eno described the recording studio as his musical instrument. After several decades of technological change, it is worth considering how the definition of what constitutes a "studio" has shifted, and the various technological, economical, and
political impacts these shifts have had and continue to have on contemporary music. What does “The Studio as Musical Instrument" mean today? How has recording practice affected composition, arranging and song writing practice? How have “composer",“performer," “engineer," “conductor," or “musician", been redefined? How has the “recording studio" changed music and music making? Please send proposals for this stream to: arp08_smi@artofrecordproduction.com

2. Recording Practice and Performance.
How have changes in recording practice affected performance practice amongst recording musicians? How has technology influenced the sound art which results? How do record producers, musicians and sound engineers communicate in the studio? How do they view each other? How have the control surfaces of the studio been absorbed into and influenced musical performance? How do issues such as comfort and non- verbal communication between musicians balance against separation and audio quality in the recording process? How is the creative power distributed between musicians, producers, record companies and technicians? Please send proposals for this stream to: arp08_rpp@artofrecordproduction.com

3. The Empowered Artist
The means for composing, performing, recording, promoting and distributing sound recordings is available to all artists. Is the ‘capability’ to do it all being matched by the ‘ability’ to do it well? Are the potentially conflicting challenges of business and creation being juggled without undermining the economic or artistic value of what results? How has low-cost audio production technology impacted the recording industry, both economically as well as in re- casting the creative technologies contained in professional facilities? Please send proposals for this stream to: arp08_tea@artofrecordproduction.com

4. Production and the Listener
How aware are listeners of the possibilities and actualities of production? How aware are the industry professionals who are not involved in production? How do production practices impact on notions of authenticity? Are alternative mixes regarded by listeners as aesthetically equivalent? Do producers work with specific listening environments or audiences in mind? How has this impacted on the historical development of record production? Please send proposals for this stream to: arp08_pl@artofrecordproduction.com

Other subject areas will be considered and we encourage the submission of papers on any topic associated with the art of record production.

Proposals for individual papers and poster presentations should not exceed 300 words. Proposals for panels should include the names and brief CVs of all panel members and their individual contributions and should not exceed 1000 words.

Please visit http://www.ArtOfRecordProduction.com
Please contact Simon Zagorski-Thomas, simonzt@artofrecordproduction.com
The Art of Record Production - Conference and Journal

5-7 June 2008
Metropole und Umland / Cities and Coutryside, Annual meeting of the Gesprächskreis Technikgeschichte
Berlin, Luftwaffenmuseum der Bundeswehr Berlin-Gatow

19-23 May 2008
Cultures of Knowledge - International Working Group "Social Aspects of the Sciences"
Inter University Centre, Dubrovnik, Croatia
CFP - Deadline 5 May 2008

Idiom "Cultures of knowledge" encompasses all sorts of philosophical, sociological, anthropological and of course historical studies. In epistemology and sociology, it used to circle around various topics and headings. "Strong program in the sociology of knowledge", of Bloor and Barnes, and its requirements for causality, reflexivity, impartiality and simmetricity while explaining scientific claims, in the 1970s, used to provide case studies from the history of science, and referred to the idea of "social conditioning", and to social justification of knowledge claims, of both - true and false beliefs. Philosophers further discussed Wittgenstein's ideas of "language games", conceptual clusters, and finitism of reference. Can alien beliefs be properly understood or even translated? Kuhn's idea of incommensurability was en vogue. In sociology Peter Winch's Idea of the Social Science (written in the 1950s), gained new popularity in the period. In technology studies, Latour's Actors Networks, and "chasing scientists around" (under the banner "Science in Action") was just beginning to get ground. In anthropology discussions about the possibility of translation of foreign belief systems (and about the truth of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis) was current. Geertz's "thick descriptions" and new anthropological "reflexivity requirements" introduced a rather new approach to understanding foreign cultures. Foucault's Archeology of knowledge and his ideas about tacit power in "discourses" was very influential. Historical studies, influenced perhaps by the movements in 1968 around the world, broadened horizons to encompass new opinions, and new sources of anti-authoritarian local knowledge.

What is common to all these strains of cultural studies? They have all implicitly or explicitly endorsed or justified cultural, linguistic and philosophical relativism.

Thirty to forty years after, in spite of a very broad spectrum of cultural studies in the academe, we see certain exhaustion, an "anti-relativistic turn", a turn away from relativistic agendas. "Cultures of knowledge" is nowadays a banner for research and historical, anthropological and sociological case studies (for instance for current projects at the University of Giessen, or at the Austrian Academy of Sciences) which refrain from any relativistic idiom. Conferences and congresses under the same heading (for instance the one held in Goa in 2005) refrain from any topic that might refer to the relativists above. Instead, the idiom now describes the research on universals of human characteristics.

Why is that happening? Have natural scientists won "scientific wars", leaving humantists and social scientists at odds how to gain new respect? Have intrinsic deficiencies of the theories above proved to be insurmountable? Or are there external causes for such an "anti-relativistic" turn ("clash of civilizatons" for instance, or the universality of economic laws)?

23-25 May 2008
Wo steht die Technikgeschichte?, Conference on new fields of research in the History of Technology, Annual meeting of the (German) Society for History of Technology, Gesellschaft fuer Technikgeschichte, GTG
Salzburg, Austria
For more information please visit:

22-25 July 2008
Feeding the City in the Middle Ages
Nájera (Spain)
CFP - Deadline 25 April 2008

One of the main characteristics of the medieval city was that of being an area of consumption, which modalities and levels changed according to the epoch, the technologies and the demographic dimensions. The city generated a chain of supply, which began with the production of food and included the transport, storage, transformation, purchase and sale. On the other hand, the nourishment was not only referred to a physiological need of the human beings, but also to the technologies of production and supply, to the social structures, and to the set of determining cultural that takes form of a few certain nourishing diets. All these topics will be analysed from three axis:
Medieval city and its nourishing resources.
Supply and urban medieval markets.
Nourishing Diet in the medieval city
Historians and Graduate students are encouraged to submit abstracts for research presentations on topics related to the last three topics about feeding the city in the Middle Ages. Abstracts should be no more than 350 words and should clearly state the purpose, thesis, methodology, and principal findings of the paper to be presented. Successful proposals will be published in 2009.
All abstracts should be submitted electronically (either as a MS Word document or as text in the body of an e-mail) to Dr. Jesús A. Solórzano Telechea at solorzaja@unican.es. The deadline for submissions will be April 25, 2008.

18-19 October 2008
Medieval Seas
A Weekend Conference to be held at Rye College, East Sussex
CFP - Deadline 7 April 2008
Proposals for papers are welcome on any matters relating to ‘Medieval Seas’ broadly defined, covering the period c.500-c.1500. Possible subjects include: shipping and shipbuilding; material remains/maritime archaeology; navigation; cartography and world view; society at sea and ashore; trade; war at sea; artistic and literary expressions of the sea and maritime affairs; maritime law. Contributions are encouraged from established scholars and early career researchers.
Proposals for 30-minute presentations should take the form of title and brief abstract. The deadline for proposals is Monday.
Please contact: Dr Richard Gorski, Department of History, University of Hull, r.c.gorski@hull.ac.uk

26-28 October 2008
Urban Jewish Heritage and History in East Central Europe
Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, Lviv, Ukraine
CFP- Deadline 31 May 2008

The physical and cultural legacies of the Jewish civilization in Central and Eastern Europe largely destroyed by the Holocaust have long been neglected in post-Holocaust and postwar Eastern and Central Europe. With the end of the Soviet Union and the fundamental liberalization of politics and society, which has accompanied it, however, the region’s Jewish heritage, too, has entered processes of remembering, rediscovery, and reconstruction. In particular with respect to urban space, the regeneration or revitalization of historic Jewish quarters has become one main focus of attention, where several complex and challenging fields of theory and practice overlap: The relationship between the past, memory, and history; questions of reality, authenticity, and virtuality; urban-planning and economic aspects of regeneration. At the same time, these questions of space, its imaginary and practical meanings and uses, need to be contextualized within Jewish history in Eastern and Central Europe in general.

The Center for Urban History seeks to bring together an interdisciplinary as well as international group of scholars and practitioners for a conference on 26 to 28 October 2008 in Lviv – formerly Lemberg and Lwów, now in western Ukraine.

Graduate student participation is also encouraged. Conference languages are English, Polish, and Ukrainian. Please send a brief (300 word) synopsis of your proposed paper as an electronic attachment to the Academic Director, Dr. Tarik Cyril Amar by 31 May 2008 (t.c.amar@lvivcenter.org). The Center may be able to offer some travel and accommodation support for conference participants.

30 October - 2 November 2008
“Film & Science: Fictions, Documentaries, and Beyond”
SCIENTIFIC ICONS Area 2008 Film & History Conference
Chicago, Illinois
Second-Round Deadline: 1 May 2008

Beginning with The Story of Louis Pasteur in the late 1930s, a small but steady stream of films - documentaries, dramas, and occasional comedies--have focused on the great scientists of the past. Newton, Darwin, and Einstein have all had their turns on screen, as have J. Robert Oppenheimer (Day One, Fat Man and Little Boy, and the award- winning The Day After Trinity), Dian Fossey (Gorillas in the Mist), James Watson and Francis Crick (The Race for the Double Helix), Marie and Pierre Curie (Madame Curie), and many others. These films have, for better or worse, a key role in shaping the public understanding of how science works. This area welcomes all papers that deal with films and television programs depicting real scientists whose work was important enough or influential enough to give them iconic status at the time the film was made. The list of scientists in the preceding paragraph is meant to be suggestive, but by no means exhaustive. "Scientist" is meant, for the purposes of this area, to include medical researchers (as in Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet or And the Band Played On) but to exclude engineers and inventors (as in The Story of Alexander Graham Bell and Young Thomas Edison).

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

Depictions of historic scientists in specific films or television programs
Depictions of a particular scientist in multiple films and/or
television programs
Real scientists, fictionalized (Edward Teller/Dr. Strangelove, T. H.
Huxley/Professor Challenger)
Historic scientists on the A&E network's Biography
Historic scientists in classroom films
Use of dramatic conventions in telling "real" stories about scientists
Real scientists in non-US film and television
Documentaries about historic scientists
Historic scientists as supporting players (e.g. Lord Kelvin in the
2005 Around the World in Eighty Days)
Patterns: Who gets films made about them? Who gets overlooked?
Please send your 200-word proposal (email is fine) by May 1, 2008 to:

This area, comprising multiple panels, is a part of the 2008 biennial Film & History Conference; please visit:
www.uwosh.edu/filmandhistory.

Please contact: A. Bowdoin Van Riper Social and International Studies Department, Southern Polytechnic State University, bvanriper@bellsouth.net

6-8 November 2008
“Inside and outside: How Does the Square Shape the City?” International Conference
Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz (Max-Planck-Institut)
CFP - Deadline 15 May 2008

As distinctively urban creations city squares attract particular activities by their accessibility and open un-built form; in fact, they create the very possibility of such activities. This is determined not least by the square’s buildings and decorative elements but also by the streets and connecting thoroughfares, which constitute the space of the piazza. The modelling of the square as urban space, therefore, is subject to a wide range of factors, not least of which is the decisive caesura it has undergone in the modern era when it exerted its influence on the city by subordinating its surrounding walls to a series of spatially integrated sightlines and axes.

Through this symposium we would like to position this double function of the piazza – its determination by the city on the one hand, its counter effects on the city on the other – at the centre of discussion. The space of the city square is by no means only a “stage;” rather, through specific means, constitutes and continually shapes the city’s social relations. As exterior space the piazza becomes simultaneously an inside, whose elements the different forces in the city integrate into the public experience. Here, the relevant question concerns how different media (architecture, sculpture and other plastic arts, heraldry, ephemeral decorations, etc.) organise the square as space and how wider urban structures shape its form. At the same time the piazza binds itself, in its form, with the social and political orders of space (of the city, of the territory, of the nation, as well as other political formations). Constantly reworked and rearranged, there is, therefore, no particular point in time when it can be deemed a finished “work.” It continually undergoes further transformations, modernizations, and reconfigurations, which always newly rebuild it as a complex urban space. Such spatial and temporal problems emerge clearly in research concern in the city square, where there is as yet little awareness of how the potential of the piazza operates as a compositional factor. In his context, the goal of the conference is to initiate a methodologically reflective discussion on what constitutes the longue durée of the urban square. Therefore, no particular epochs or regions will be privileged so that, through contrasts and confrontations, the nature of the issues noted above becomes clearer. In this spirit, contributions from other disciplines are most welcome. Sought after are themes from Antiquity to the contemporary era, which should be arranged around the following themes:

1.        Insights: Blicke der Fachgeschichte(n) auf den Platz
2.        Zentrum und Peripherie: Platz gestaltet Stadt
3.        Vom Rand zur Mitte, vom Körper zum Raum: Skulptur und Platz
4.        Citing the Piazza / Plätze zitieren Plätze
5.        Time and Place: (Ver-)Formungen des Platzes

Papers should not exceed 25 minutes in length and can be delivered in German, Italian, English, or French. Abstracts of approximately 300 words are kindly requested by May 15, 2008.

Please contact: Dr. Cornelia Jöchner, Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz
Max-Planck-Institut, joechner@khi.fi.it

13-15 January 2009
Making mutations: Objects, Practices, Contexts
Cultural History of Heredity Workshop Series, Berlin
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science
CFP - Deadline 15 June 2008

This workshop aims to investigate mutation as a relatively unexplored phenomenon of interest in the history of biology. Analytical approaches to be employed may include the study of mutations as objects (mutants), as technical and social practices (mutagenesis, models, and networks), and in their many varied political and cultural contexts, from the dawn of genetics through the atomic era.

Abstracts (500 words) and contact information should be sent to Luis Campos at lcampos@drew.edu by 15 June 2008.

18-22 March 2009
SPA - Sanitas Per Aquam - Internationales Frontinus-Symposium zur Technik- und Kulturgeschichte der antiken Thermen / International Conference on the History of Technology and Culture of themes in the Roman Period.
CFP - Deadline 31 March 2008

Please visit: www.frontinus.de
Please contact Dr. Claudia Castell-Exner / Petra Fricke, Frontinus-Gesellschaft e. V, info@frontinus.de

14-15 October 2009
Fifth Railway History Congress
Palma de Mallorca
CFP - Deadline 31 May 2008

Spanish Railways Foundation is calling on all researchers interested in taking part in the 5th Railway History Congress, which will be held in Palma de Mallorca from October 14th to October 16th, 2009.
Topics:
The Railway in Mallorca and its contribution to regional development
Sea-rail transport and infrastructure: the complementary nature of the two modes from a regional perspective
Worker organisations and repression on the Railways: an international view
Railway and agricultural sector in Spain
Documentary sources for research into industrial railways in Spain
Railways and tourism. A long lasting relationship from a historical perspective
Foreign investment in railways in the Mediterranean area

Submitting proposals for papers
Those interested in submitting papers to this congress shall send a one page (as a maximum) summary of their proposal before 31 May, 2008, headed by the title and the name/s of the author or authors of the paper. This text shall be sent in a Word file to the following electronic address: documentacion@ffe.es
The proposals received will be assessed by the Scientific Committee to ensure that they conform to the congress contents and theme areas. All authors will be informed, before 31 July, 2008, about the acceptance or rejection of the paper proposal submitted.
Please visit http://www.docutren.com/congreso_palma
Please contact: Francisco Polo, Railway History Programme, Spanish Railways Foundation, fpolo@ffe.es

*Techné: Research in Philosophy & Technology*

*Techné: Research in Philosophy & Technology *announces a new editorial staff, consisting of Joseph C. Pitt of Virginia Tech as Editor-in-Chief, Pieter Vermaas of Delft University of Technology and Peter-Paul Verbeek of University of Twente as Editors, Tom Staley of Virginia Tech as Book Review Editor and Ashley Shew of Virginia Tech as Managing Editor. The Editors welcome submissions of all styles and approaches in philosophy of technology
and look forward to expanding the scope of the journal while increasing standards of the work published.

*Techné *welcomes all philosophical perspectives and styles. The editorial stance of *Techné * is ideologically neutral. There is, however, a unifying theme: a focus on technology, particular technologies, modern or traditional, worldwide, or on social and ethical problems associated with particular technologies. *Techné *aims at being the platform for presenting
novel developments and results in academic research on this theme. We therefore seek rigorous, seminal, interesting, creative work and eagerly solicit work from those in fields outside philosophy as long as they offer philosophical perspective.

Submissions will be blind refereed by at least two readers. It is our expectation that authors will be provided with critiques, where, in the judgment of the editors they are deemed helpful. We also seek to have a turn-around time of two months, although this is subject to the cooperation of our referees. We construe philosophy of technology broadly, and we are
dedicated to fostering the highest standards in what is becoming a diverse field of study. We hope you will consider submitting your work to *Techné*. Submissions and questions can be directed by email to technejournal@gmail.com. If you would like to read past issues of *Techné * for free, please visit our Ejournal, http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/SPT/.

III. Awards, Scholarships

The IEEE Life Members' Prize
CFP – Deadline 15 April 2008

The IEEE Life Members' Prize in Electrical History, supported by the IEEE Life Members' Fund and administered by the Society for the History of Technology, is awarded annually to the best paper in the history of electrotechnology—power, electronics, telecommunications, and computer science—published during the preceding year. Any article published in a learned periodical is eligible if it treats the art or engineering aspects of electrotechnology and its practitioners. The article must be written in English, although the journal or periodical in which it appears may be a foreign language publication. The prize consists of a cash award of $500 and a certificate. To nominate an article, please send a copy of the paper to each member of the prize committee. Deadline is April 15.

Please visit: http://www.historyoftechnology.org/awards/ieeeprize.html

Please contact:
Susan Schmidt Horning (chair)
Department of History
St. John's University
8000 Utopia Parkway
Jamaica, NY 11439
schmidts@stjohns.edu

Andrew J. Butrica
Defense Acquisition History Project
U.S. Army Center of Military History
103 Third Ave., Bldg. 35
Fort Mcnair D.C. 20319-5058
abutrica@earthlink.net

Robert MacDougall
Department of History
University of Western Ontario
Social Science Centre, Room 4328
London, Ontario, Canada, N6A 5C2
rmacdou@uwo.ca

There is some good news: (i) Thanks to the Juanelo Turriano Foundation ICOHTEC will award a prize for young scholars. Please find the announcement in chapter I. (ii) At time the program committees of our Victoria Meeting and of the conference in Budapest are working to prepare both conferences; they will inform you soon. (iii) As in 2007 I want to publish a bibliography of books, edited or written by members of ICOHTEC, in the Newsletter. May you please submit the bibliographic information and a short description (3-4 lines) of your books, published in 2007 and 2008?

ICOHTEC Prize for Young Scholars 2008
Deadline 31 May 2008

The new prize is sponsored by the Juanelo Turriano Foundation and consists of 3,000 Euro. Eligible are original works in English in the history of technology (published or unpublished Ph. D. theses, monographs, no articles) written by scholars who, when applying for the prize, are not older than 37 years. For the ICOHTEC Prize 2008 please send three copies of the work you want to submit to the ICOHTEC Secretary General, Professor Timo Myllyntaus, School of History, Kaivokatu 12, 20 014 University of Turku, Finland, by 31 May 2008.

If the work is a PhD thesis it should have been submitted to your university in 2007; if it is a published work the year of publication should be 2007. The submission should be accompanied by a CV and, if applicable, a list of publications. Applicants are free to add references or reviews on the work submitted.

ICOHTEC, the International Committee for the History of Technology, founded in Paris in 1968, is a Scientific Section within the Division of the History of Science and Technology of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
(IUHPST/DHST). It is a leading international organisation in the history of technology and has its membership base mainly in Europe, but also in the Americas, Japan, India and Australia. Research activities, in which ICOHTEC members co-operate, are on a comparative national basis, stressing aspects of co-operation between various nations, regions or institutions. ICOHTEC holds annual symposia and venues are spread round the world.

This year’s meeting will take place in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 5 - 10 August 2008. ICON is the organisation’s journal containing scholarly articles. Current issues are reported in the Newsletter, which also contains country reports on the history of technology and bibliographical surveys. Further information is available at the homepage: http://www.icohtec.org/

The ICOHTEC Executive Board calls for proposals on a venue for the 2011 symposium. Since the mid-1960s, 34 symposia have been held in various parts of Europe, twice in Asia and once in both North and Central America. The next 35th symposium will be held in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada; its website http://icohtec.uvic.ca/

Generally, our annual symposium has taken place during the summer months, most often in August. The number of participants has varied between 80 and 400 per a symposium. The practice has been that the Local Organizing Committee has been responsible for economic issues, receptions, excursions and practicalities, while an international programme committee has compiled the scientific schedule.

For further information, please, contact Secretary General Timo Myllyntaus, Email: timmyl@utu.fi

5 May 2008
Workshop CONSIST on Conservation and Restorations of Industrial Heritage
FHTW Berlin Please contact: Ruth Keller-Kempas, FHTW Berlin, kellerk@fhtw-berlin.de

11-13 September 2008
Conference “Common ground, converging gazes". Integrating the social and environmental in history.
Paris

The conference, aims to explore the opportunities for integrating social and environmental history.
Key themes include: the interconnections between social inequality and environmental degradation; commons and conflicts; environments and identities; and demography, resources and the environment.

The ‘Common Ground, Converging Gazes’ conference website is now available at http://crh.ehess.fr/document.php?id=944.

You can contact the conference organisers directly at:
Geneviève Massard-Guilbaud: massard@ehess.fr
Stephen Mosley: s.mosley@leedsmet.ac.uk

9 - 11 October 2008
MESDA Conference on American material culture
Winston Salem, NC, USA
CFP - Deadline 16 May 2008

The Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts presents its sixth biennial conference for recent research in early American material culture and decorative arts. Scholars and graduate students in fields related to American and particularly southern material culture are invited to submit proposals for presentation at the Gordon Seminar. Subjects with an interdisciplinary approach to the study of material culture are highly encouraged.

31 October - 1 November 2008
A Conference on the Moral, Economic, and Social Life of Coffee

To study coffee’s past, present, and future is to explore fundamental issues of how human taste and sociability have developed, how environmental damage can be halted or reversed, how the richer countries look at the social costs and benefits of international trade, and how development can be enhanced in poorer countries.

2-4 December 2008
Naturale Umwelt und gesellschaftliches Handeln in MitteleuropaEnvironment and issues of society in Central Europe
Georg August Universität Göttingen, DFG-Graduiertenkolleg Interdisziplinäre Umweltgeschichte GöttingenCFP
Deadline 1 June 2008
Please contact: Carsten Stühring, Georg August Universität Göttingen, DFG-Graduiertenkolleg Interdisziplinäre Umweltgeschichte, cstuehr@uni-goettingen.de

3-5 July 2009
Visual Delights 4: Visual Empires
University of Sheffield
CFP- Deadline 1 January 2009

Popular visual cultures have been central to the construction and propagation of imperial and colonial narratives and have helped define the nature of Empire. They have been intrinsically linked to discourses about the rise and fall of Imperial fortunes in the 19th and early 20th centuries and have been studied as both evidence of imperial attitudes to race and colonial subjects and as propaganda texts which helped spread and cement imperial and colonial ideologies. This conference seeks to explore this rich visual archive and to examine the roles played by popular visual culture in the construction of narratives concerning issues of race, identity, colonial and imperial ideologies, nationalism, patriotism and the ‘Visual Empire.’
We would like to receive suggestions for papers with deal with these issues in popular cultural forms such as photography, advertising, cinema, theatre, the magic lantern, ethnographic display and world’s fairs before 1930. Suggested themes could include:

Photography and constructions of ‘otherness’/Ethnographic display and racial identities/Advertising and imagined colonies/Cinema and the mapping of Empire/The Magic Lantern and the topography of Empire/Music hall and the patriotic show

Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be sent to Simon Popple, s.e.popple@leeds.ac.uk or The Louis Le Prince Centre, The Institute of Communications Studies, The Houldsworth Building, The University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK.
The conference will be jointly hosted by the Louis Le Prince Centre, University of Leeds and the National Fairground Archive, University of Sheffield. It is held in conjunction with the Journal of Early Popular Visual Culture.

Re-public: Call for papers: Distributed Creativity and Design
CFP –Deadline 30 May 2008

Re-public http://www.re-public.gr/en/ , an online journal published in Greece, focuses on theoretical and practical innovations that might renew the field of democracy. The journal is bilingual (Greek-English) and it is funded by the Papandreou Foundation, Athens.

Re-public invites contributions for an upcoming special issue (or issues, depending on the number and quality of submissions) entitled "Distributed Creativity and Design".

Design practice has been dominated in the past by the mythology of the lone creator or star designer. However, this view has been challenged in recent discourse informed by history, biology, anthropology, linguistics, and other fields. Design is increasingly regarded as an interdisciplinary, collaborative activity, established on a collective process of creation.

The term "distributed creativity" is used to describe networked cultural production that allows for the creative interplay of geographically dispersed participants. Internet-based tools greatly contribute to our new understanding of design by providing novel platforms for communication, co-creation, and dissemination. The obsession with objects and individual
designers-heroes is replaced with an enthusiasm for the process and the dynamics of social interaction.

Papers submitted may be about, but not restricted to, the following:

Essays should be approximately 1,500 words long. Please submit contributions in any electronic format to the issue editor Artemis Yagou, artemis@yagou.gr . The website is http://www.yagou.gr/

Kurrer, Karl-Eugen: The History of the Theory of Structures. From Arch Analysis to Computational Mechanics. 848 pp., Ernst und Sohn, Berlin 2008.

Kurrers important compendium of the history of static’s and theory of structures discusses the development from Renaissance period until today, from early attempts to analyse building construction by the help of mathematics up to computational mechanics.