Wednesday, 10 October 2018
from 5:00 pm Registration
6:00–9:00 pm Public Keynote
Margaret Morris (University of Washington): Challenging Fears of Technology and Isolation
Moderator: Anne Schmidt (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin)
following reception
Thursday, 11 October 2018
9:30 am Welcome and Introduction by Bettina Hitzer (Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin) and Martina Heßler (Helmut-Schmidt-Universität, Hamburg)
10:30 am Short Coffee Break
10:45 am Panel 1: “Causing Fears”
Zachary Loeb (University of Pennsylvania): You Should Be Afraid: Erich Fromm and Lewis Mumford on the Fearsome Dangers of Technology
Olga Galanova (Ruhr-Universität Bochum / Fachhochschule für öffentliche Verwaltung, Bielefeld): Stasi-Surveillance of Everyday Communication in the Private Sphere
Comment: Andreas Spahn (TU Eindhoven)
12:15 pm Lunch Break
1:30 pm Panel 2: “Cultivating Fears”
Daniel White (FU Berlin): The Mechanics of Fear: Re-envisioning Anxiety through Emerging Technologies of Affect
Astha Jaiswal (Central University of Gujarat): The Hype of Cord Blood Banking in India: Understanding the Fear Based Discourse
Comment: Anne Schmidt (MPI for Human Development)
3:00 pm Coffee Break
3:30 pm Panel 3: “Contesting Fears”
Christian Götter (Deutsches Museum München): Fears and Fission: An Analysis of Four Variations of Fear around Nuclear Power
Serenity Sutherland (SUNY Oswego): The Rhetoric of Artificial Intelligence: Fear, Fiction and Forewarning
Comment: Alexander Gall (Deutsches Museum München)
5:00 pm Short Coffee Break
5:15 pm Lecture
Karena Kalmbach (TU Eindhoven): Nothing to Fear than Fear itself? A Historical Study into Fears as Drivers of Technological Innovation and Implementation
6:15 pm End of Sessions
7:15 pm Dinner with Dinner Talk
Friday, 12 October 2018
10:00 am Panel 4: “Enduring Fears”
Thomas Zeller (University of Maryland): Loving the Automobile to Death? Injuries, Mortality, Fear, and the Automobility in West Germany and the United States, 1950–2000
Artemis Yagou (Deutsches Museum München): Robots and Bricks: Using Play to Cope with a Menacing Technological Future
Wesley Shrum (Louisiana State University): Zbola at Large: Fear and Epidemic Exposure in the Internet Era
Comment: Bettina Hitzer (MPI for Human Development)
12.00 pm Lunch Break
1:00 pm Panel 5: “Fighting Fears”
Ginevra Sanvitale (TU Eindhoven): Tell Me Your Computer Attitude and I'll Tell You Who You Will Be: Fear and Computing in the Making of Future Society
Andie Rothenhäusler (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology): What Is Technology and Is it Possible to be Afraid of it? The Debate on “Technikfeindlichkeit” in West Germany
Comment: Martina Heßler (Helmut Schmidt Universität Hamburg)
2:30 pm Final Discussion
3:30 pm End of Conference