Call for Papers for ICOHTEC 2006

The International Committee for the History of Technology’s 33rd Symposium in Leicester, U.K., 15 - 20 August 2006

Deadline for proposals is 1 MARCH 2006.

Transforming Economies and Civilizations: The Role of Technology is the broad general theme of ICOHTEC’s 33rd symposium. Technology over “la longue durée” lends itself to a variety of topics. While open to all proposals, the program committee suggests the following themes to contributors:

• Energy, water, sanitary, and other utility systems

• Communication and media technologies, including cultural and social issues

• Transportation and its role in trans-local and “global” economies, cultural exchange, and cross-fertilization

• Long-term developments in materials and their uses (pigments, ceramics, dyes, metals)

• Comparative analysis of technologies and long-term changes

• Technological and modern cultural history topics (e.g., the body, youth, old age, birth, death, the senses, health, illness)

• Medicine, public health, and the evolution of medical technologies Developments in military technologies

• Survival of “old” technologies and revival of “obsolete” technologies Implicit knowledge, embodiment, and similar themes

• Technical “revolutions” (e.g., the Agricultural Revolution, the Technical Revolution of the Middle Ages, the Industrial Revolution, the Information Revolution)

Membership in ICOHTEC is not required to participate in the symposium.

PAPER proposals should include: (1) a 250-word (maximum) abstract in English; (2) a short CV (1-page maximum). Abstracts should describe the topic and address approaches, research questions, arguments or hypotheses employed by the author. In order to permit discussion, presentations should not exceed 20 minutes.

SESSION proposals should include: (1) an abstract of the session (250 words maximum); (2) a list of the proposed session papers; (3) abstracts for each paper (250 words maximum); (4) short CV (1 page maximum) for each author. ICOHTEC sessions customarily include a chairperson, but no separate commentator. Sessions should include a minimum of four speakers, and may include several parts extending for several days.

Please send all proposals by email to James Williams, Program Committee Chair at techjunc[at]pacbell[dot]net.

Other members of the committee include Ernst Homburg, The Netherlands; Sue Horning, U.S.A.; Alex Keller, U.K.; Wolfgang Koenig, Germany; and Timo Myllyntaus, Finland.

If Email is unavailable, proposals may be sent by fax to Dr. Williams: 650-960-8195. Otherwise they may be sent via regular mail, postmarked by 1 March 2006, to: James Williams, 790 Raymundo Avenue, Los Altos CA, 94024 USA

Graduate students members of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) are eligible for travel support. Go to: http://www.shot.jhu.edu/Awards/icohtec2.htm.