Editorial

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

Thanks to Bart Hacker and Margaret Vining the Newsletter publishes a report on the Social History of Military Technology, which is an important subject of ICOHTEC since several years.

At the end of July most of us will meet for our joined conference with the ICHST Congress in Budapest. Thus please find an overview of the ICOHTEC sessions in the newsletter. The preliminary program of the whole ICHST 2009 is now available on the web: http://www.conferences.hu/ichs09/News.htm. Our hosting university the Budapest University of Technology and Economics belongs to the oldest technical universities in Europe; a short article introduces in the institution’s history. In Budapest we will discuss about our 2011 symposium; in order to prepare this meeting our Secretary General, Timo Myllyntaus, published a call for a venue; deadline is 15 of July 2009.
Please find a bibliography of books, published by ICOHTEC members in 2008 and 2009. As in the last year short comments are added.

It will be a pleasure to meet you soon,
Best wishes
Yours Stefan Poser

 

Contents

I. Social History of Military Technology
II. Brief History of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics
III. ICOHTEC at the ICHST Budapest Congress
IV. Call for a Venue – ICOHTEC Symposium 2011
V. Books of ICOHTEC Members – Bibliography 2008-2009
VI. Other Conferences   

 

I. Social History of Military Technology

Bart Hacker and Margaret Vining, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
Hackerb@si.edu, viningm@si.edu

The symposium on the social history of military technology has become an annual feature of the ICOHTEC meeting. Academic and public interest in the history of military technology has always been substantial, but has usually been expressed in terms of weaponry, warships, fortifications, or other physical manifestations of warfare, with emphasis mainly on how they were made or how they worked, often in antiquarian detail. Historians have also tended to assume a strictly utilitarian and rational basis for military technological invention and innovation. However indispensable such approaches may be, they largely ignore some very important questions. What are the contexts of social values, attitudes, and interests, non-military as well as military, that shape and support (or oppose) these technologies? What are the consequences of gender, race, class, and other aspects of the social order for the nature and use of military technology? Or, more generally: How do social and cultural environments within the military itself or in the larger society affect military technological change? And the indispensable corollary: How does changing military technology affect other aspects of society and culture? In brief, military technology is both agent and object of social change.

Bart Hacker and Margaret Vining organized the first symposium on the social history of military technology not for ICOHTEC but for the American Historical Association (AHA) in January 2004. A selection of ten papers from this first symposium was later published as Science in Uniform, Uniforms in Science: Historical Studies of American Military and Scientific Interactions, edited by Vining and Hacker (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2007). Bart and Margaret organized a second symposium for the 2006 AHA meeting, the same year that the symposium on the social history of military technology was inaugurated at the ICOHTEC meeting in Leicester. Another symposium followed at the Copenhagen meeting in 2007. The current issue of ICON, ICOHTEC’s journal, with Hacker as guest editor, carries nine essays selected from the Leicester and Copenhagen meetings.

At its most recent incarnation in Victoria, British Columbia, August 2008, the symposium comprised nine papers covering a wide range of times and topics: the impact of technological change on war and culture throughout history; textiles in Greco-Roman naval warfare; smallpox vaccination in the American army during the invasion of Canada; military-industrial relations in Britain and France in the Revolutionary era; the development of the infantry rifle as affected by relations between officers and men; the graphic representation of military technology in the First World War; the origins of Norwegian air power in the 1920s; industrialization and the expansion of the Red Army in the 1930s; and children playing with military toys in the Second World War. Bart and Margaret have organized a still larger symposium for the upcoming International Congress of the History of Science and Technology, in which ICOHTEC is participating, which will be held in Budapest in July. It will feature eighteen papers (if everyone shows up).

So successful has the symposium on the social history of military technology become that the Dutch publisher Brill has undertaken to launch a new journal with Bart and Steve Walton as co-editors. Provisionally entitled Vulcan: Journal of the Social History of Military Technology, its first issue should appear in 2010. We welcome proposals from anyone interested in the subject. Contact either of the editors with your ideas or submissions.

 

II. Brief History of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics

From Institutum Geometrico-Hydrotechnicum to the Budapest University of Technology and Economics

The Budapest University of Technology and Economics, which will host our conference, has a long tradition, dating back to the 18th century when the first polytechnical schools were found in Europe. In 1782 the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Joseph II established the Institutum Geometricum-Hydrotechnicum as part of the Faculty of Liberal Arts at the University of Buda. The Budapest Institute was the first in Europe to award engineering degrees to students of land surveying, river control, and road construction. After the Institute merged with a technical school it was named Royal Joseph University in 1862. Ten years later the new university was entitled to issue engineering diplomas; in 1901 the right to confer the doctoral degree, the Doctor Rerum Technicarum followed. The Joseph University was among the first institutions in Europe, to train engineers on the university level of education. It took about five years to become an engineer. In 1925 the first female students matriculated. After the World War II the University was named Technical University of Budapest. At this time the university offered studying at the faculties of Civil Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, Chemical Engineering and Electrical Engineering. Today the Budapest University of Technology and Economics has more than 110 departments. About 1100 lecturers and 400 researchers participate in education and research at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. Approximately 800 of the university's 14.000 students are from 50 countries abroad. The University issues about 70% of Hungary's engineering degrees. Please find more detailed information about the university’s history on http://portal.bme.hu/langs/en/history.aspx.  

III. ICOHTEC at the ICHST Budapest Congress

27 July – 2 August 2009

	Red = ICOHTEC		Black = Events in main Congress
	Date	AM	PM	Evening
	27,7		Registration	19-21
	Monday			Welcome Reception
	28,7	8:30-9:00	15-19:30	20-22
	Tuesday	Opening	Sessions	Dinner on
		9-13:30	S71 Heering	the Boat
		Sessions	S74 Myllyntaus	Europa
		S71 Heering
	29,7	9-13:30	15-19:30	20:30-23:00
	Wednes-	Sessions	Sessions	Jazz Evening
	Day	S72 Bluma	S73 Schatzberg	BP Jazz Club
				Museum utca 7
	30.7.	9-13:30	15-19:30	20:00-21
	Thurs-	Optional	Sessions	Organ Concert
	Day	Technical Visits	S75 Poser
			S76 ICOHTEC	20:00-22:00
		IUHPS/DHST		ICOHTEC
		General Assembly		Executive Board
				Meeting
	31.7.	9-13:30	15-19:30
	Friday	Sessions	Sessions
		S77 ICOHTEC	S79 ICOHTEC
			Special issues
	1.8.	9-13:30	15-19:30	20-22
	Saturday	Sessons	Sessions	Congress
			15:00-17:30	Dinner
			ICOHTEC
			General Assembly
	2.8.	10:00-12
	Sunday	2 Plenary
		Lectures
		12-12:30
		Closing Ceremony
Keys:
	S71-S79 = The codes of ICOHTEC's "symposiums"
	Name after the code = convener of the "symposium"

Link to the program on the ICHST’s website: http://www.conferences.hu/ichs09/Program_schedule.pdf

 

IV. Call for a Venue – ICOHTEC Symposium 2011

The International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) is a global organisation and among the leading societies in its field. It is part of the UNESCO related network focused on the research of the history and philosophy of science and technology (IUHPS / DHST). Take a glance at our website for a more detailed profile (http://icohtec.org/).

The ICOHTEC Executive Board calls for proposals on a venue for the 2011 symposium. Since the mid-1960s, 35 symposia have been held in various parts of Europe, twice in Asia and twice in North and Central America. The next 36th symposium will be held in Budapest in conjunction with the International Congress of the History of Science and Technology.

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

The deadline for preliminary proposals is 15 July 2009. Please, send your offer (including information on the host(s), site, venue, accommodation, and excursions) electronically via email to the address below.

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

 

V. Books of ICOHTEC Members – Bibliography 2008-2009

Bauer, Reinhold/ Williams, James/ Weber, Wolfhard (eds.): Technik zwischen Artes und Arts. Festschrift für Hans-Joachim Braun. = Cottbuser Studien zur Geschichte von Technik, Arbeit und Umwelt, vol. 31. Waxmann-Verlag, Muenster et al. 2008. The book addresses the relationship of early modern Europe’s ‘mechanical arts’ and the ‘fine arts’ in honour of ICOHTEC’s president Hans-Joachim Braun, who is an activist in ICOHTEC for many years. Thus many ICOHTEC members are among the contributors. The papers leave behind worn-out investigative shoes to bring about new insights and judgements – articles are written in English as well as in German.

Christensen Jens: Global Experience Industries. The Business of the Experience Economy. Aarhus University Press,Aarhus 2009.
Christensen Jens: Oplevelsesindustrien. Oplevelsesøkonomien som forretning i Danmark. Books on Demand,2009. Both Books cover all experience industries (worldwide and Denmark, respectively), including tourism, media and entertainment, design, and the informal economy (family, religion, sex and drugs) - covering developments since 1990 and including forecasts for 2010/2012. The relationship between business and technology (IT and the Internet) is a major point of focus.

Déré, Anne-Claire and Emptoz Gérard: Autour de Louis-Jacques Thenard(1777-1857), Grandeur et fragilité d’une famille de notables au XIXe siècle. Université pour Tous de Bourgogne, Chalon sur Saône 2008. A biography of a chemist who combined many science and technology studies, with well-known inventions (Thenard blue, hydrogen peroxide), a great university teacher (with the "Traité de chimie élémentaire théorique et pratique", translated to foreign languages)and also a political man who occupied high-level positions (deputy at the Chambre des députés, président of the Société d'encouragement, Chancellor of the French university). He married the granddaughter of Conté, and a parallel study of his family who was associated to industrial activities (Conté pencils, railways, and others) is made in the book.

Fickers, Andreas / Müller, Ego (eds.): Interactiviteit. Special issue of the Tijdschrift voor Mediageschiedenis, vol 11 (2008-2). The special issue deals with the history of interactive approaches to media dating back to the 1960s; contributions are written in Dutch and English.

Gonzáles Tascón, Ignacioet. al.:Ars Mechanicae. Fundación Juanelo Turriano, etc., Madrid 2008. The exhibition "Ars Mechanicae. Ingeniería medieval en España", which opened in Madrid in October 2008, has a companion book in which sixteen distinguished scholars write about diverse aspects of mediaeval technologies in the Spanish kingdoms. These articles, generously illustrated, range through subjects such as civil engineering, building techniques, transport systems and mechanical arts. Latin and Spanish glossaries of technical terms are also included.

Hård, Mikael and Misa, Thomas J. (eds.): Urban Machinery. Inside Modern European Cities. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. 2008. “Urban Machinery” investigates the technological dimension of modern European cities, describing the most dramatic changes in the urban environment over the last century and a half. Written by scholars from the history of technology, urban history, and the sociology of science and technology, the book views the European city as a complex construct entangled with technology.

Inkster, Ian (ed.): By Whose Standards? Standardisation, Stability and Uniformity in the History of Information and Electrical Technologies, Special Issue of History of Technology, vol 28 (2008). Technical standards have received an increasing attention in recent years from various disciplines of research. Often inquiry focuses on the emergence of stability, technical closure and culturally uniform modernity. Yet current literature also emphasizes the durability of localism, heterogeneity and user choice. This collection investigates the apparent tension between these trends using case studies from across the 19th and 20th centuries.

Jufre García, Francesc Xavier: El artificio de Juanelo Turriano para elevar agua al Alcázar de Toledo (S. XVI): modelo con escaleras de Valturio. Milenio, Lleida 2008. Sponsored by Fundación Juanelo Turriano. The water-raising device built in Toledo by Juanelo Turriano was considered by many to be the most important hydraulic machine in Europe during the XVI century. Lacking contemporary drawings or models, there are several different theories based on the descriptions made by chroniclers and travellers, but all miss to fully explain the known data. This book seeks to overcome this failure describing a model of the device based on the stairs of Valturio.

Kaiserfeld, Thomas: Krigets salt: Salpetersjudning som politik och vetenskap i den svenska skattemilitära staten under frihetstid och gustaviansk tid. (in print) Sekel förlag, Lund 2009. (English title: Salt of War: Saltpetre production as politics and scince in Sweden druing 19th and early 19th century). This books deals kwith how the organization of saltpetre production in Sweden relied on the traditional allotment system for taxation in kind as well as a new system for the furthering of goods manufacture in towns, especially textiles. Expert knowledge of different kinds were used to make production more efficient in both of these parallel systems. When the two systems were abolished in the beginning of the 19th century, this relied on bureaucratic expertise accepting the importance of practical knowledge in the process.

König, Wolfgang: Kleine Geschichte der Konsumgesellschaft. Konsum als Lebensform der Moderne. Steiner-Verlag, Stuttgart 2008. The author contributes to the history of the consumer’s society and analyses the development as a typical modern way of life in the United States and in Germany since the 1920s.

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.

Lackner, Helmut / Jesswein, Katharina / Zuna-Kratky, Gabriele (eds.): 100 Jahre Technisches Museum Wien. Carl Ueberreuter, Wien 2009. The Technical Museum of Vienna, Austria, belongs to the oldest technical museums we have; the history of its first collections is dating back as far as the 18th century. The impressive anniversary book investigates the development of the museum as well as its social and economic background.

Lytvynko, Alla: Становлення статистичної фізики в Україні (30-40-і рр. ХХ ст.). (Translation: The development of statistical physics in Ukraine. (30–40s of the XX century). Feniks, Kiev 2009. The monograph analyses the development of statistical physics as a key area of modern theoretical physics in Ukraine in the 1930–40s. Research in statistical physics was done by Ukrainian scientists in the institutes of the National Academy of Science, the universities and the scientific schools of Ukraine. The place of statistical physics in the system of sciences and its value for the development of probabilistic approaches, the basic stages of this sphere are considered.

Magoun, Alexander B.: Television. The Life Story of a Technology (now available as paper back). Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore et al. 2009. This compact 180-page survey of the popular technological system uses the latest research to discuss its conception, invention, innovation, subsystems, and death as a discrete system while explaining the changing nature of video culture.

Mauch, Christof and Zeller, Thomas (eds.): Rivers in History: Perspectives on Waterways in Europe and North America. University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, 2008. This book presents one of the first comparative histories of rivers on the continents of Europe and North America in the modern age. Case studies include the Seine in Paris, the Mississippi, the Volga, the Rhine, and the rivers of Pittsburgh.

Mauch, Christof and Zeller, Thomas (eds.): The World Beyond the Windshield. Roads and Landscapes in the United States and Europe. Ohio University Press, Athens 2008. (Distribution in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland by Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart, Germany.) For better or worse, the view through a car's windshield has redefined how we see the world around us. The authors in this book analyze the Washington Beltway and the Blue Ridge Parkway, as well as iconic roads in Italy, Nazi Germany, East Germany, and Great Britain.

Müller, Margrit and Myllyntaus, Timo (eds.): Pathbreakers, Small European Countries Responding to Globalisation and De-globalisation. Peter Lang, Bern et al. 2008. This book concentrates on how small European countries coped with economic integration and disintegration during the twentieth century. Small countries had to adapt flexibly to the drastically changing conditions outside their borders. The contributions contribute to a better understanding of the current process of globalisation in small and large countries.

Orlowski, Boleslaw: Fenomen turystyki industrialnej (Industrial Tourism Phenomenon). Akademia Humanistyczna im. Aleksandra Gieysztora, Ciechanow 2008. The book explains briefly what the industrial tourism is, what are the main trends in this movement, which finally has reached Poland. It also describes the mission of TICCIH, and recognizes the importance of some local institutions, like FOMT (Foundation of Open Museum of Technology). Finally it gives brief description of some of the finest examples of monuments of technology in Poland.

Orlowski, Boleslaw: Historia Techniki Polskiej (History of Polish Technology) (second edition). Instytut Technologii Eksploatacji, Radom 2008. This is the second, enlarged and revised edition of the book originally published in 2007. Comprehensive and near-to-ultimate, handsomely written compendium which covers the full history of technology in Poland through centuries, from the beginning, to the times after the communistic regime collapsed. Also the Author brings hundreds of names of engineers, scientists and inventors of Polish origin working in the country and abroad, who had a significant achievements in their fields.

Recuero, Antonio: Fundación Juanelo Turriano: 1987-2008. Fundación Juanelo Turriano, Madrid 2008. J. A. García-Diego, an engineer by professión, was also a devoted historian of technology. He was President of ICOHTEC and created the Fundación Juanelo Turriano in 1987, with the purpose of carrying on his work. This booklet, lavishly illustrated, records the activities of the Fundación along its twentyone years of life, as well as including a brief biographical sketch of García-Diego.

Ricart Cabús, Alejandro: Pirámides y obeliscos: transporte y construcción: una hipótesis. Fundación Juanelo Turriano, Madrid 2008. The knowledge of the techniques employed by the ancient Egyptians in the building of the pyramids or the lifting of very heavy obelisks has been a challenge for historians, archaeologists and engineers. This book, winner of the García-Diego Prize in 2003, includes both a critical history of the main theories proposed by various researchers, and also a new hypothesis showing possible solutions of these problems.

Schiefelbusch, Martin and Dienel, Hans-Liudger (eds.): Kundeninteressen im öffentlichen Verkehr. Verbraucherschutz und Verbraucherbeteiligung. Erich Schmidt Verlag, Berlin 2009. (German Edition of „Public Transport“)  

Schiefelbusch, Martin and Dienel, Hans-Liudger (eds.): Public Transport and its Users. The Passenger’s Perspective in Planning and Customer Care. Abingdon, Ashgate 2009. Public transport is essential to the quality of life of its passengers, both as a means to move around but also to achieve a sustainable environment. The book examines strategies for the representation of user interests in public transport from a variety of perspectives. The authors review approaches to integrating the passengers' views in the planning process and to protecting their interests in operations and customer care across a range of European countries, including Austria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and EU policies.

Schröter, Harm G.: Winners and Loosers, Eine kurze Geschichte der Amerikanisierung. C. H. Beck, München 2008. Comprehensive overview over the issue of Americanisation of Europe, 1880 – today.

Weber, Wolfhard (ed.): ICOHTEC. International Committee for the History of Technology 1968 – 2008. 2nd edition, Bochum 2009. The book offers contributions to the history of ICOHTEC and reflects the ideas of history discussed by its founding fathers.

Wosk, Julie: Alluring Androids, Robot Women, and Electronic Eves. Fort Schuyler Press, New York 2008. The idea of artifical women who seem alive has fascinated artists, photographers, filmmakers, video game designers, and today's robotics engineers. This book explores the development and depictions of these synthetic females from early automatons to today's robots that look so real they can easily fool the eye.

 

VI. Other Conferences

18 September 2009
EXTENSION of the CFP: "Utopian Spaces of British Literature and Culture, 1890-1945"

English Faculty, University of Oxford
CFP – New Deadline 15 July 2009

From the fin de siècle to the Second World War, the construction of alternative social and private spaces exerted a peculiar fascination for many British writers. The cataclysmic historical events of the period stimulated Utopian thinking and feeling even as they seemed to make them problematic or impossible. At the same time radical demands for new spaces, whether political, religious or aesthetic, also generated new ways of reading and writing the familiar urban and domestic spaces of everyday life.

The focus of the conference is on the spatial manifestations, geographies and practices of Utopianism, rather than on Utopianism as a category of millenarian anticipation. Papers are invited which address the various material and imaginary spatial forms of the Utopian impulse in the literature of period. How do certain spaces become associated with particular political or aesthetic visions of modernity? Does the Utopian bear a particular affinity to some spaces, rather than to others? Is the Utopian impulse articulated as a desire for order or anarchy?

Please send an abstract of no more than 250 words in length, including your name, position and institutional affiliation to utopianspaces@ell.ox.ac.uk. Deadline for submission: 15 July 2009.
Plenary speakers: Professor Jay Winter (Yale); Dr Matthew Beaumont (UCL); Iain Sinclair (London)
For further information, accommodation possibilities and updates please visit our website: www.utopianspaces.org

Papers are invited on any aspect, historical and/or theoretical, of the conference theme. Topics may include but are not limited to:

- the political, religious, aesthetic nature of Utopian spaces
- the city as a Utopian space
- imaginary, geographical and textual maps
- representations of Utopian spaces in literature and other media (e.g. painting, film, architecture)
- gendered/queer Utopian spaces (e.g. the struggle for female emancipation; representations of the New Woman)
- Utopian aspects of the everyday; strategies for defamiliarising the everyday (e.g. Mass Observation, Surrealism)
- theoretical considerations of Utopian ‘places’ and geographies (Walter Benjamin, de Certeau, Henri Lefebvre, Guy Debord and others)
- the theatre as a Utopian space
- mobility and transport
- exclusiveness of certain Utopian spaces (who is locked out from these spaces and for what reasons?)
- racialized Utopian spaces

Please visit http://www.utopianspaces.org
Please contact Benjamin Kohlmann, English Faculty, University of Oxford, utopianspaces@ell.ox.ac.uk.

 

25-27 November 2009
Port-Cities at War from the 18th to 20th centuries
Centre for Port and Maritime History
Merseyside Maritime Museum together with the Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Liverpool
CFP – Deadline 10 August 2009

Throughout the modern period, port-cities have been directly affected by war and its consequences. Because of their primary dependence on overseas trade and the increasing proliferation of naval and aerial conflict on an international scale, the impact of war on port-cities has been particularly extensive, while post-war settlements have often affected the commercial viability of individual ports by altering territorial alignment or by severing connections with port-city hinterlands. By definition, war often involved the disruption of port-city trading networks and existing patterns of population mobility. War had a disproportionate effect on the local economy of port-cities, in terms of sectoral employment patterns and labour relations. It was also accompanied in the context of the twentieth century by the destruction of physical assets, including the dock infrastructure, and a considerable loss of life, which, in turn, created significant problems in relation to reconstruction and post-war planning.

Despite their implicit interconnectedness, no attempt has been made to analyse the impact of war on port-cities in a comparative and interdisciplinary context. This international workshop is designed to bring together a wide range of scholars, including maritime and military historians and colleagues with an interest in business, cultural, labour and urban history, in order to construct an analytical framework for examining the impact of war on port-cites and their long-run development. Proposals are invited on any aspect of research relating to port-cities at war, including the following themes:

- War and the disruption of trading networks.
- The impact on war on the relationship between port-cities and their hinterlands.
- War, population growth and migration.
- The economic effects of war, in relation to wealth distribution, real wages and labour relations.
- The shifting priorities of naval warfare and their impact on ports
- The role of colonial ports
- War, society and gender: the social impact of war on port-cities.
- War damage, reconstruction and the development of port-cities.
- The political consequences of war.

Proposals are invited for individual papers and panel topics, focusing on the impact of war on Liverpool, British, European, and international ports from the 18th to the 20th centuries. Contributions from new researchers and doctoral students would be particularly welcome.
Applicants should submit a 400 word proposal and a brief cv (in World, RRTF or PDF format) by Monday 10th August. Participants whose papers have been accepted will be notified by Monday 24th August. Some financial support will be available to help with travel and accommodation costs, particularly for graduate students: food and refreshments will be provided by the workshop organisers.

Please contact: Robert Lee, School of History, University of Liverpool, w.r.lee@liverpool.ac.uk.

 

3-5 December 2009
Global Football: History, Gender, Nation

York University, Toronto
CFP – Deadline 15 July 2009

Paper proposals are invited for a conference to be held at York University, Toronto, Canada, 3 to 5 December 2009. The organizers are particularly interested in papers that address themes of nationalism, femininities/masculinities, economics, migration, transnationalism and race in historicaland/or contemporary contexts. In anticipation of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the conference is designed to highlight critical perspectives on football (soccer) from national, regional and international perspectives.
Please submit a 200-word paper proposal and one-page CV by 15 July 2009 to socfoot@yorku.ca; questions about the conference can also be sent to this address.
----
Appel de communication pour le colloque « Perspective internationale sur le football: histoire, genre et nation »
Vous êtes invité à soumettre une proposition de communication pour le colloque qui aura lieu à l'université York de Toronto, du 3 au 5 décembre 2009. Les organisateurs souhaitent recevoir des projets de communication traitant de l'un des thèmes suivants : nationalisme, internationalisme, économie, migration ainsi que les rapports de genre et ethnique. Ces projets de communication peuvent traiter ces thèmes dans une perspective historique ou contemporaine.
Ce colloque est organisé à la veille de la coupe mondiale de football qui aura lieu en Afrique du Sud en 2010. Il a pour but d'offrir un lieu d'échange critique sur le football en privilégiant les angles d'analyse régionaux, nationaux et internationaux.

Vous devez soumettre un résumé de 200 mots de votre proposition de communication et un court curriculum vitae (maximum d'une page) d'ici le 15 juillet 2009 à socfoot@yorku.ca . Si vous avez des questions concernant ce colloque, prière d'envoyer vos questions à socfoot@yorku.ca.
Please contact Kathryn McPherson, York University, Toronto, Canada, socfoot@yorku.ca.

 

14 – 15 January 2010
University jubilees and university history at the beginning of the 21st century

Copenhagen, Denmark
CFP – Deadline 31 August 2009

(Because of the postponement of the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen from November to the middle of December, we also need to postpone our own conference on "University jubilees and university history at the beginning of the 21st century" from the 10th and 11th of December to the 14th and 15th of January. We are sorry for the inconvenience.)

Researching and writing its history, has always been one of the tasks of the university. From the late Middle Ages, rectores magnifici and other professors delivered speeches on the occasion of anniversary celebrations and university jubilees, in which they presented the glorious past of their own institution. In the nineteenth century, these speeches were often replaced by thick and impressive commemorative volumes. Of course, this kind of research was concentrated on one university only, with little or no attention to other universities in the same country and even less to those in other countries. In general, such homage offered a celebratory, institutional history, in which less handsome episodes were often disregarded.

At the beginning of the 21st century, university jubilees still cause huge university history projects. This year, extensive volumes have been published to commemorate the foundation of the Helsinki University of Technology in 1908; the Forum for University History is established some years ago in order to prepare the 200th anniversary of the University of Oslo in 2011; the University of Iceland will celebrate its first centenary in 2011 with an extensive study of its own history. And apart from these projects, various Northern European universities have set up in recent years specific research projects to study their own history, e.g. Copenhagen, Turku and Uppsala.

Nordic universities are no exception in this regard: a "Kommission zur Erforschung der Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte" is established on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the University of Leipzig, the University of Cambridge is preparing a huge celebration of its 8th centenary in 2009 and also the 200th anniversary of the University of Berlin (historically closely connected to some of its Nordic counterparts) will not pass unnoticed in 2010. All of these university history projects face the challenge to commemorate "the own glorious past" in a critical way and without losing out of sight the relationships with other institutions of higher education at home and abroad.

The aim of this historiographical workshop is especially to study these challenges and to find ways how to deal with them. Representatives of the various jubilee committees and project leaders of other research projects are invited to present the state of the art in university history at their institution, especially indicating the difficulties and limitations. Together they will provide the participants of an extensive overview of the ongoing research in university history in Northern Europe, with special attention for the existing lacks. The picture will be enlarged by three keynote lectures on the university jubilees, and university history projects connected to these celebrations, in Cambridge (Elizabeth Leedham-Green), Leipzig (Jonas Flöter) and Berlin (Peter-Thomas Walther).

The programme of the workshop will offer much time for discussion in order to indicate and initiate possibilities for future collaborative and comparative research. The main question is how to make use of the results obtained through the existing projects, which are however always concentrated on one particular university (mindful of the tradition of university history as jubilee history), to obtain new insights and perspectives in the history of Northern European universities in general, nation-building, the formation of elites and other related themes.

Paper proposals (500 words) should be submitted to the following e-mail address: pieter.dhondt@helsinki.fi  before the 31st of August 2009. Presentations must be no longer than 20 minutes, followed by 10 minutes discussion time. Travelling expenses and subsistence are covered by the Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social Sciences (NOS-HS), although we encourage the participants to have their costs paid by their own institution if possible. LIT Verlag - Berlin is interested to publish the conference papers and conference results. The conclusions of the workshop will be brought together by Pieter Dhondt and Laura Kolbe.

On behalf of the organising committee,
Pieter Dhondt

Organising committee: Pieter Dhondt (University of Helsinki / Université libre de Bruxelles), Robert Marc Friedman (University of Oslo), Guðmundur Hálfdánarson (University of Iceland) and Ejvind Slottved (University of Copenhagen).
Please contact: Pieter Dhondt, University of Helsinki, pieter.dhondt@helsinki.fi.

 

21 – 22 January 2010
Bau-und Planungsgeschichte der DDR / History of Urban Planning and Urban Development in the GDR

Leibniz-Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung in Kooperation mit dem Schinkelzentrum der TU Berlin (Prof. Harald Bodenschatz) Erkner, near to Berlin
CFP – Deadline 15 August 2009
Please visit http://www.irs-net.de/aktuelles/veranstaltungen/index/php.
Please contact Harald Engler, Leibniz-Institut für Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung
Erkner, Engler@irs-net.de.

 

5 – 6 February 2010
Musik – Kontext und zurück: Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Musik als Forschungsobjekt /
Musique – contexte, aller-retour: Perspectives interdisciplinaires sur l’objet d’étude «musique»

CIERA (Centre Interdisciplinaire d’Études et de Recherches sur l’Allemagne), Paris;
Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin
CFP – Deadline 15 September 2009

Interdisciplinary conference (in French and German language) on new approaches of research on music in Germany and France.
Please visit: http://www.ciera.fr/ciera/
Please contact: Sara Iglesias, sara.iglesias@ehess.fr .

 

22 – 24 April 2010
Tourists and Nomads. Amateur Images of Migration
Université du Luxembourg, Centre national de l'Audiovisuel Luxembourg, Dudelange
CFP – Deadline 15 September 2009

Drawing on Zygmunt Bauman's distinction between two types of deterritorialisation, lived by “tourists” (moving out of choice) or by “nomads” (migrating out of economic necessity), this conference seeks to examine how experiences of spatial displacement are being represented and communicated by self-made photographs or films. The title is deliberately left rather open to encompass all kind of disciplinary approaches (anthropology, sociology, history, visual communication, gender studies, cultural studies etc.) and to allow for archivists and artists who deal with amateur images in the context of migration to feel equally addressed.

The term “migration” is thus used very broadly and may be applied to colonial settlers. The question is whether and how their home movies may be used to analyse and possibly denounce the exploitation on which their lifestyle rested. Tourists and explorers – a distinction that is always in the eye of the beholder (The tourist is the other fellow, said Evelyn Waugh) – may also be considered as temporary migrants who are making great deal of photographs and films. In the digital age the number of holiday pictures and clips has exploded and one may wonder how to deal with this phenomenon, both scientifically and archivally. Political and labour migration is of course a whole field of research, but it has rarely been looked at under the viewpoint of image production, reception and conservation.
One question that looms large behind is that of the relationship between amateur images and historical consciousness. As Robert Rosen has put it in his contribution to Mining the Home Movies (Karen L. Ishizuka and Patricia Zimmermann, 2008), three group of intentioned memory workers converge in the construction of meaning: the amateur filmmakers themselves; those who disseminate the photographs and films (documentary filmmakers, but also archivists, academics and artists) and the audience, who has its own historical background and transforms the meaning accordingly. The conference seeks to address all three types of actors:

How did people seek to share their experience of new places and encounters with family members or friends who stayed at home? How has this visual material been archived, used in documentary or fiction films? How have artists been using these images or have been inspired by them? How “migrant” are the images themselves in terms of shifting significations, new locations and contextualisations?

The conference Tourists and Nomads: Amateur Images of Migration will be held at the University of Luxembourg (Campus Limpertsberg) and the Centre National de l’Audiovisuel (Dudelange, L) from 22 to 24 April 2010.

The working language is English. Conferences may also be held in French, if accompanied by an explanatory PowerPoint presentation in English. There will be no simultaneous translation. Accommodation and travel costs (up to a certain amount) will be covered by the organisers.
Abstracts of approx. 300 words, written in French or English, and a short CV should be sent before 15 September 2009 to the following e-mail address: viviane.thill@cna.etat.lu. This conference is organized by Sonja Kmec (University of Luxembourg, Research Unit IPSE – Identités, Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces) and Viviane Thill (Centre national de l’audiovisuel). It will be accompanied by a photo exhibition on the same topic, curated by Marguy Conzémius and Michèle Walerich of the Centre national de l’audiovisuel.

 

16 – 19 June 2010
Conference on Water History of the International Water History Association
Delft, The Netherlands
CFP – Deadline 15 January 2010

In 2010, the International Water History Association will organise an international conference on water history in Delft, the Netherlands. Scheduled for June 16-19, 2010, the conference will be a unique opportunity to exchange existing and to develop new insights about the history of one of our most precious resources. Subjects can range from rivers to drops, from seas to mountain lakes. See the conference Web site at: www.waterhistory2010.citg.tudelft.nl.
The conference is co-organized by IWHA and the Department of Water Resources at Delft University of Technology. Three special sessions will be organized: Water History in the Low Lands, Irrigation in Ancient Societies, and History and Future. Furthermore, a special workshop on irrigation is planned.

Delft is an attractive, historic town with a vibrant student life: outdoor cafes and restaurants are plentiful; all are easy to find and in walking distance. No other university city has so many active student, sport, and cultural associations. As Delft is based in the urban west of the Netherlands (Randstad), cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague are all within easy reach. Just take one of the many trains—anytime—as they also run at night. Its University of Technology, and its water-related programs in particular, are famous around the world. According to the draft schedule, papers for this conference should be submitted before January 15, 2010, with letters of acceptance being foreseen on March 15, 2010. In case you cannot wait for the call for papers, you are invited to contact: Maurits W. Ertsen, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; e-mail: m.w.ertsen@tudelft.nl.

 

13-15 September 2010
Rural History. Conference of the British Agricultural History Society
University of Sussex, Brighton
CFP – Deadline 1 December 2009

The British Agricultural History Society is going to organise an international conference dedicated to rural economies and societies and is calling for other organisations to be involved. Until now, there has never been an international forum dedicated to the study of rural history in all its forms. The British Agricultural History Society is aware of the diversity of work being undertaken in the field, sometimes in cognate disciplines such as gender or development studies or under the banner of rural sociology or environmental history, perhaps institutionally separated from the historical mainstream by being undertaken in social science faculties, agricultural colleges or NGOs. It is also keenly aware that the current difficulties in the world's agrarian economies – with the development of new markets, the sudden appearance of high prices, the spread of innovative and controversial technologies, the impact of land reform and the threat of long-term climatic change – may well draw renewed attention to the discipline. Within Europe, the post-productivist countryside may yet turn out to be an interlude rather than the final stage in rural development. Whilst we acknowledge the pioneering work of the European networks; CORN, for the Rural History of the North sea area—the COST-funded project Progress ore for the European Union; the Rural History Network embedded within the European Social Science History Conference and the Arbeitskreis für Agrargeschichte — all of which have developed European connections, the Society now wishes to develop, deepen and internationalise these contacts. We have therefore taken the initiative to convene the first international open meeting dedicated solely to rural history. This will take place in September 2010 at the University of Sussex, Brighton, UK. We hope to receive sufficient support from the rural history community for the conference to run over three days with three or four parallel sessions.

This meeting will be open to all rural historians as well as those primarily interested in viewing contemporary conditions and likely future developments with a knowledge of the past. The conference does not accept that rural history has any single definition, nor does it admit any bounds, and the conference has no intellectual affiliation. It is open to those approaching rural history from any perspective, ranging from those of archaeology, anthropology and ethnography through rural geography, landscape studies and rural sociology to post-modern cultural approaches to the countryside. It will be equally concerned with the countryside as a place of production of foodstuffs as with as the countryside as a place of consumption of leisure and the location of heritage and national memory. Papers will be welcomed on all periods from the prehistoric to the very modern; and there are no geographical limitations on the area of study. Comparative discussions which deal with rural society as a whole will be especially welcome, together with accounts which seek parallels between present day agrarian problems and the past. It is intended that the conference should be the first in a series of biennial or triennial conferences and the Brighton conference will be the occasion when either a European rural history society or a continuation committee of some sort will be formed.

The timetable for the conference will be as follows:
Nominations for the scientific committee should be received from national and international societies, or individuals who wish to serve on the committee. The Society has nominated the editor of Agricultural History Review, Richard Hoyle, Professor of Rural History in the University of Reading, UK, as its chairman. It has also invited the chairmen of the three existing European networks, Professor Erik Thoen (University of Ghent), Dr Gerard Beaur (CNRS, Paris) and Dr Anton Schuurman Wageningen) to join the committee ex-officio. In enlarging the committee, the Society is especially eager to receive nominations from outside north-western Europe and from those working in emerging or non-traditional fields of rural history. All national societies and communities are asked to send their nominations to the chair of the British Agricultural History Society, Dr Paul Brassley, with short cvs of their nominees, by 1 December 2008.

A call for papers will be circulated with the names of the scientific committee about Easter 2009. We invite proposals for two or three paper sessions or even linked sessions. In this event we require the names of the chairman and speakers, a short abstract of each paper (150-200 words) and a short cv of each participant including the chairman (150-200 words each). We intend to make provision on the conference website for potential session organisers to canvass for support from others interested in contributing to their area of expertise. Proposals may also be made for individual papers where, again, an abstract of 150-200 words and a short cv should be supplied. The call for papers is expected to close on 1 December 2009, with a provisional programme announced in February/March 2010.

The Society has established a conference committee, chaired by Dr Nicola Verdon of the University of Sussex, which will make the local arrangements. A conference website is under construction and will be launched later in 2009. For the moment, expressions of interest or queries can be directed to Prof. Richard Hoyle, r.w.hoyle@reading.ac.uk, Dr Nicola Verdon. n.j.verdon@sussex.ac.uk, or the chairman of the Society, Dr Paul Brassley, p.brassley@plymouth.ac.uk.