Call for Proposals Spaces of History: Contexts of Application and Historical Environments of Technology University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne Saturday, 13 April 2013

The Centre for History of Sciences and Technology (CH2ST/EA 127) at the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne invites submissions for papers to be presented at a one-day conference entitled “Spaces of History: Contexts of Application and Historical Environments of Technology”

This conference will consider applied history and the environment of technology as growing areas within historical enquiry and seeks contributions from established scholars and advanced graduate students.

If the cultural environment of technology is a popular topic of research in classical historiography, the study of the physical environment of technology is often ignored. And yet, it is this area of history that would facilitate analysis of the evolution of technology in a geographical context and respond to the following: How has technology influenced or changed the geographical landscape or vice-versa? Can the physical environment of technology become a research field specific to history of technology? If so, how can this be achieved?

History of technology needs to look beyond the study of technology and its past environments: the cultural, economic and social practices of technology have to be emphasized to shed light on a site’s current as well as future challenges. In order to be prepared or answer societal questions, history of technology needs to understand the interaction between technology and the geographical environment in which it was/is utilized.

History has traversed its function as an object of curiosity in the museum to become a vital tool in the construction of the future. Applied history or public history attempts to integrate history with practice. This recent field of history examines the different ways in which history is consumed by the public. Simply put, it is the study of the various methods in which history may be applied in the real world.

With the primary focus being transformation of history into a product that can be used by the public, this interdisciplinary field stimulates collective research. Thus, applied history encourages and promotes historical research and analysis, museological studies, archival documentation, oral history, cultural and intangible heritage management and interpretation of physical and cultural environments, to name a few.

Paper submissions should explore : - interpretation of technology and its cultural environment; - physical environment of technology, a topic less studied; or - epistemology of applied history, through examples or concrete models.

Papers may be presented in French or English. Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words and a brief biographical note to Manisha Iyer, manishaiyer@gmail.com by 20 December 2012. Speakers will be notified by 15 January 2013.