CFP: Automotive History Conference
AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY CONFERENCE
CALL FOR PAPERS
The Society of Automotive Historians is seeking proposals
for papers to be presented at its Tenth Biennial Automotive History Conference
to be held in Palo Alto, California, USA, from April 10 through 12, 2014.The
conference will be co-sponsored by the Revs Automotive Research Program at
Stanford University and will take place at the Vail Automotive Innovation
Facility on the Stanford campus.
The conference theme is *“The Evolution of Automotive
Technology” *and will focus on the continuing development of the motor vehicle
and its process of manufacture over a 120-year history.Although considered by
many to have reached a plateau a half-century ago, the industry and its
products seem in recent years to have entered a new phase of creative
development addressing again issues once thought resolved and responding to new
economic, social, and environmental conditions through fundamental research.
Papers may address the search for an effective and
portable source of energy, one of the first issues confronted by automotive
pioneer designers and one that is being studied again from the point of view of
contemporary requirements. Papers may address the development of standardized
vehicle control systems, the arrangement of power components or safety devices
and the interface between the vehicle and the driver, all of them under
reconsideration in ways that have the potential to fundamentally alter the relation
between the vehicle, the driver and the road.At the same time the industry,
until recently believed to be entering a phase of business consolidation, has
expanded to embrace many new producers, a process that could only be made
possible through innovations in production technology and international trade
agreements. Proposals for papers on automotive subjects unrelated to the
conference theme will also be considered.
The keynote speaker will be Dr. Rudi Volti, Emeritus
Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, Claremont, California.Professor
Volti’s fields of expertise cover technology and society, social bases of
economic structure and behavior, automobility, and the sociology of work and
occupations.
Following the conference, a certain number of the
conference papers will be selected for publication in /Automotive History
Review/, the journal of the Society.
The Society of Automotive Historians is a unique
interdisciplinary organization devoted to all aspects of automotive history –
engineering, design, economics, the lives of automotive pioneers and
innovators, the history of motorsport competition, the integration of motor
vehicles into modern life and the culture of cars.In its publications and
conferences, historians of technology, business historians and social
historians interact to share their knowledge and perspectives.
Proposals should include the title of the submission,
names and affiliations of presenters, chairs, participants, etc., together with
addresses, phone/fax numbers, email addresses of contact personnel, proposed
format (paper, panel, workshop, etc.) and a one-page abstract describing the
content of the presentation.Proposals must be received by October 31, 2013;
notification of preliminary acceptance is anticipated by November 30.Proposals
should be submitted by email to Arthur W.
Jones, Conference Chair, _nomecos@verizon.net._