Call for papers - Society for the History of Technology
 (SHOT) 2009-PITTSBURGH
 
 The Society for the History of Technology will hold its annual meeting
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15-19 October 2009. The Program  Committee
invites paper and panel proposals on any topic in the  history of
technology,  broadly defined. Sessions dealing with  pre-19th century
technologies are particularly welcome. Of special  interest for 2009 are
proposals that engage the two following themes:
 
 Reform(ed) Technologies: While Pittsburgh often brings to
historically-prone  minds images of coke works and heavy industrial
pollution, the city is  consistently ranked high in livability surveys
of American cities, and  smokestacks no longer dominate the skyline. At
a moment when decaying infrastructure is a major topic of public
discussion and large  promised investment, Pittsburgh looks the right
place for historians of  technology to reconsider linear tales of
innovation or destruction. We are  interested both in the ways
technologies are reformed and on the historical  development of
technologies for reform. Environmental technologies are an  obvious
topic, but the theme also welcomes contributions on urban renewal,  new
uses of old technologies, and issues of maintenance.
 
 Circulation of Technology: We encourage proposals dealing with the
geographical circulation of technology that discard traditional
diffusion  models. We are interested in the relevance of local contexts
to accounts of  how technologies circulate at the global scale. We hope
that focused  engagement with such questions will also contribute to
SHOT's ongoing  efforts to build a more inclusive and diverse
cosmopolitan community. 
 
 The Program Committee's highest priority in evaluating paper and panel
proposals is scholarly excellence. The Committee welcomes proposals for
individual papers or sessions, as well as works-in-progress from
researchers of all stripes (including graduate students, chaired
professors,  and independent scholars). It welcomes proposals from those
new to SHOT,  regardless of discipline. Multinational, international,
and cross-institutional  sessions are also desirable. We especially
encourage proposals from  non-Western scholars. For the 2009 meeting the
Program Committee also  encourages unconventional sessions; that is.
session formats that vary in  useful ways from the typical three/four
papers with comment. These might  include round-table sessions,
workshop-style sessions with papers that are  pre-circulated
electronically, or "author meets critics" sessions. Panel  organizers
may choose either to have a commentator or to add one more  paper. We
also welcome poster proposals for presentation in poster sessions.
 
 The deadline for proposals is March 30, 2009. Please submit your
proposals  to [log in to unmask]
 
 Proposals for individual papers must include:
 1. a one-page abstract (maximum 600 words)  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 that explains how individual papers
contribute to an overall theme.
 2. the names and paper titles of the presenters  3. for each presenter,
a one-page summary (maximum 600 words) of the paper's  topic,
argument(s), and evidence used  4. for the commentator, chair, and each
presenter: one-page c.v., with postal  and e-mail addresses  Please
indicate if a proposal is sponsored by one of SHOT's special interest
groups.
 
 Submission Instructions:
 1. Materials should be sent as a single text attachment to an e-mail
message to  the Program Committee Chair, Tiago Saraiva, at
[log in to unmask] 
 2. Proposals for complete sessions as well as individual papers shall
be  submitted in one file.
 3. Please adhere to the 600-word limit for each paper. Use no unusual
fonts or  special formatting, and save your attachment either as a
Microsoft Word  document (.doc) or as a Rich Text Format (.rtf) file.
Nearly all word processing  programs, including those used on the
Macintosh,can save text in the Rich  Text Format. Do not use Adobe
Acrobat (pdf).
 4. Name your attachment with your last name and the word 'proposal',
e.g. 'Smith_proposal.doc'.
 5. A session organizer should also deliver a description of the overall
session.  
 If you are organizing a session and proposing a paper in that session,
you will  be delivering both an "abstract" and "proposal", plus your
c.v.
 6. If you are proposing a non-traditional session you may indicate that
in the  "abstract." These also require a curriculum vitae.
 
 General information:
 While SHOT rules exclude multiple submissions (i.e submitting more than
one individual paper proposal, or proposing both an individual paper and
a  paper as part of a session), scholars may both propose a paper and
serve as a  commentator or session chair.
 
 Presenting at the 2008 SHOT meeting will not rule out presenting in
2009. 
 
 For more information about the Society for the History of Technology
and  our annual meeting, please see the SHOT webpage:
 http://www.historyoftechnology.org/
 For questions, please contact SHOT secretary Bernie Carlson  at
[log in to unmask]
 
 Change at SHOT Pittsburgh Meeting
 
 In Pittsburgh, SHOT will be experimenting with a new format of turning
over  our Sunday morning program slots to our Special Interest Groups
(SIGs) and  associated groups, for some to organize their own paper
sessions, workshops,  roundtables, or other events.  If you are involved
with one of our SIGs or wish  to be, please watch for news of this from
your SIG officers or contact them for  more information (contact info
for SIGs is available through the SHOT webpage).  

 We welcome rich creative ideas.

 Dr. Amy Bix, outgoing SHOT secretary
 Associate Professor, History Dept.,
 Ph.D. Program Coordinator, History of Technology & Science
 633 Ross Hall, Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA  50011
 office: (515) 294-0122; fax: (515) 294-6390  e-mail - [log in to unmask]