CFP: Opportunities in Crises - Technogoverning Sustainable Landscapes

Call for Abstracts (deadline approaching)
Opportunities in Crises: Technogoverning Sustainable Landscapes
University of Virginia, Wednesday, March 18, 2015

We propose an interdisciplinary workshop exploring the place of science and technology in the environmental and energy crises. Coinciding with the 2015 annual meeting of the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) in Washington, DC, March 18-22, this one-day workshop will be based on the theme of technogovernance. Addressing the creation and transformation of the heterogeneous practices of industrialists, environmentalists, and regulators in utilizing technology to render sustainable modes of manufacturing, consumption, and living during the long twentieth century, the workshop will embrace conferees from a variety of humanities and social science disciplines in analyzing energy and environmental governance in multiple geographical and temporal contexts. Key sub-themes will include climate science, environmental and energy policy, and environmental justice at the community, regional, national, and global levels. We encourage conferees to engage with problems of disciplinary translation, including determinism/causation, materiality, tacit ways of knowing, and co-production in the context of environmental and energy history. After this workshop, we plan to publish the papers as a theme issue of an appropriate journal or as an edited book. The event will be co-hosted by the University of Virginia’s Department of Engineering and Society and Miller Center. Among other goals, we intend the workshop to 1) address the relationship between science, technology, policy, and nature, 2) explore the role of scholarship, engagement, and innovation in environmental regulation and energy policy, and 3) reinvigorate discussions about energy and environmental challenges on multiple levels.

We will reimburse expenses for lodging, meals, and refreshments. Participants will be responsible for travel to and from Charlottesville. Applicants should submit a 500-word abstract and two-page CV to technogovernance@virginia.edu by January 19, 2015. Additional information will be available at http://people.virginia.edu/~jml7be/

Itinerary: conferees will arrive in the evening of Tuesday, March 17. They will lodge at hotels located either on-campus or at a convenient walking distance off-campus. The workshop will begin the morning of Wednesday, March 18 with breakfast at around 7:00 AM. Morning and afternoon sessions will follow with breaks for lunch and refreshments. The workshop will conclude around 4:15 PM.
(ASEH participants) they will arrive in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, March 17 and will take the 4:50 PM Amtrak 171 Northeast Regional from Union Station, arriving in Charlottesville around 7:23 PM. On Wednesday, ASEH participants will board the 7491 Amtrak bus from Charlottesville train station at 5:15, arriving in Washington, DC around 8:15 PM.

Workshop committee: Jongmin Lee and Matthew N. Eisler