Call for Papers SHOT 2004

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The International Society of the History of Technology will hold its annual meeting in Amsterdam from October 7-10. The Program Committee is seeking proposals for both individual papers and complete panels. In particular, the committee welcomes work-in-progress from researchers of all stripes (including graduate students, chaired professors, and independent scholars), and papers from those new to SHOT who believe that an engagement with history can help their own work, regardless of discipline.

This year the program will focus on the specific themes outlined below. While the committee is open to proposals not falling strictly within the themes, we nevertheless do encourage submissions that enter a dialogue with them.

*Water
The geography and history of the Netherlands lends itself to a focus on water; this, broadly defined, forms one of the conference themes. Access to and control of water has been central to human life, and it is a long-contested resource; this has inevitably had a technological component. Agricultural, domestic, industrial, hygienic, and therapeutic applications of water have been components of all civilizations. The committee seeks papers and panels on technology and water in oceans, lakes, rivers, canals, aquifers, spas, springs (including geothermal), and on rain, plumbing, sewers, or any other water-related topic, including political, social or cultural relationships organized around or influenced by water.

*Transatlantic Community
Building on the water theme, we also welcome papers and panels related to the creation, maintenance, and expansion of the Atlantic Community, defined here as including North and South America, Europe, and Africa. Possible topics include technological components of transatlantic interactions, competitions, exchanges, and the circulation of goods, services, people, ideas, and artifacts.

*Camouflaged Technologies
We are looking for papers addressing the historical and political trajectories of technologies in camouflage, whose actual uses were hidden to avoid political, social controversy or prosecution under the law. Examples might include controversial technologies such as nuclear power, and illicit activities such as drug use, burglary, prostitution, or music piracy, where producers and consumers camouflaged actual uses of these devices.

*Non-Aligned Technologies
The committee also seeks proposals considering what we call non-aligned technologies -- technologies that remain outside or resist larger networks, systems, geographical regions, or historical settings.

*Information Technology (IT) and Media Studies
Information technology and media are frequently the separate subjects of specialized academic fields. The program committee seeks proposals that problematize their intersections and/or their distinction in a historically informed fashion.

Deadline is April 1, 2004. Please submit your proposals to
shot2004@tm.tue.nl.

Proposals for individual papers must include:
1) a one-page abstract;
2) a one-page curriculum vitae, including current postal and e-mail addresses.

Proposals for complete sessions must include:
1) a description of the session's theme;
2) a list of the presenter's names and paper titles;
3) a one-page abstract and one-page c.v. for each of the presenters (with postal and e-mail addresses); 4) a one-page c.v. for the commentator, chair, and session organizer (if s/he is not one of the session's panelists).

The session description should clarify how individual papers contribute to the session's overall theme.

Applicants may submit as follows:

* Electronic application: send one single e mail message to the program committee e-mail address: shot2004@tm.tue.nl with electronic copies of all elements of the complete proposal as attachments, formatted in Microsoft Word (any version of Word is fine, but it must be in Word).

Guidelines for submission:
· Whether submitting an individual paper or a complete panel, the program committee needs to receive a separate attachment for each item (vita, paper, and so on).
· Please save your proposal with your last name and the word 'proposal' (for example brown.proposal.doc)
· Please save your c.v. (idem for panel members) also with your last name and the word 'vita' (for example brown.vita.doc)
· In case of a panel, please save their abstracts with their last name and the word 'abstract' (for example brown.abstract.doc)
· The file names for all attachments should end in .doc (for example johnsonvita.doc)

Once the program is fixed the committee will make arrangements to make the accepted abstract available on the World Wide Web (details pending and to be announced).