CFP: Energy History in Asia
*CFP: Energy History in Asia*
The Energy History Project at the Joint Center for
History and Economics is
soliciting paper proposals for a workshop on *February
21-22, 2013* at
*Harvard
University and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology*. The meeting is
part of an ongoing series of events on the global and
comparative history
of energy.
The workshop will reexamine the history of Asia from the
perspective of
what might be called the “new history of energy,†an approach in the making
that builds on earlier research on energy history and
energy policy, in
order to better account for the particular
characteristics and uses of
different energy sources, from fossil fuels to renewable
alternatives to
human and animal labor. The workshop will place energy at
the center of
inquiry in Asian history, and will ask how energy
production and
consumption interacted with larger social and
environmental processes. It
will also explore how a focus on energy makes it possible
to reconsider
well-known narratives within national and regional
histories. How, for
example, might the Great Game in Central Asia, the
Vietnam War, Indian
Independence, or the Great Leap Forward in China look
when viewed from the
perspective of energy?
We define “energy†broadly and welcome proposals related to Asia—also
defined broadly—from across disciplines and
specializations. Much of the
published research in energy history has come out of
studies of North
America and Europe.
Narratives of this sort have, however, just begun to
be written for Asia. We seek to bring together historians
of Central,
South, Southeast, and East Asia who are working on
projects that speak to
the concerns of this new field.
The workshop opens in the afternoon on February 21 with a
keynote address
by John McNeill, University Professor, Georgetown
University, and will
proceed into a full day of paper presentations.
Please send paper proposals (of no more than 400 words)
and a short bio by
November 30th, 2012 to plehmann@fas.harvard.edu.
The Energy History Project will help participants cover
costs of travel and
accommodation.
This event is co-sponsored by the Harvard University
Center for the
Environment, the MIT Research Group on History, Energy,
and Environment,
the Harvard University Asia Center, the Reischauer
Institute of Japanese
Studies, and the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies.
Philipp Lehmann
Ian Jared Miller
Harriet Ritvo
Emma Rothschild
Victor Seow