CfP: Social History of Military Technology @ ICHOTEC 2018
Saint-Etienne, France, 17–21 July 2018
CFP deadline: 31 January 2018
We
seek proposals for papers to be presented in the 13th Annual Symposium
of the Social History of Military Technology (SSHMT), scheduled as part
of the program for the 45th Conference of the International Committee
for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC), Saint-Etienne, France, 17–21
July 2018. ICOHTEC has selected the general theme of “Technological Drive from Past to Future? 50 years of ICOHTEC.” Among the several subthemes listed, one is particularly relevant to our symposium: Heritage in the centennial commemorations of World War I: industry, technology, and the Great War.
In submitting a proposal for SSHMT, you are encouraged, but not
required, to address the ICOHTEC theme and subthemes. For the 2018
ICOHTEC conference as a whole, including the ICOHTEC call for papers
with all subthemes and information about registration, accommodations,
travel grants, and so forth, see: http://www.icohtec.org/annual-meeting-2018.html.
SSHMT,
a regular part of the ICOHTEC annual meeting since 2005, strives to
move beyond the narrow material focus that the history of military
technology often assumes among fans, antiquarians, and many historians.
As commonly practiced, the history of military technology centers on
weaponry, warships, fortifications, or other physical manifestations of
warfare, stressing their making, workings, or usage. Historians have
also tended to assume a strictly utilitarian and rational basis for
military technological invention and innovation. However necessary they
may be, such approaches largely ignore some very important questions.
What are the contexts of social values, attitudes, and interests,
non-military as well as military, that shape and support (or oppose)
these technologies? How do the social order and military technology
reciprocally interact? Or, more generally: How do social and cultural
environments within the military itself or in the larger society affect
military technological change? And the indispensable corollary: How does
changing military technology affect other aspects of society and
culture? In brief, this symposium will address military technology as
both agent and object of social change, taking a very broad view that
encompasses not only the production, distribution, use, and replacement
of weapons and weapon systems, but also communications, logistics,
medicine, and other technologies of military relevance, as well as
sciences of military interest.
We seek papers about:
- Representations of weapons as well as weapons themselves, about ideas as well as hardware, about organization as well as materiel;
- Ways in which social class, race, gender, culture, economics, politics, or other extra-military factors have influenced and been influenced by the invention, r&d, diffusion, or use of weapons or other military technologies;
- The roles that military technologies play in shaping and reshaping the relationships of soldiers to other soldiers; soldiers to military, political, and social institutions; and military institutions to other social institutions, most notably political and economic; and/or
- Historiographical or museological topics that discuss how military technology has been analyzed, interpreted, and understood in other fields, other cultures, and other times. Pre-modern and non-Western topics are particularly welcome.
All proposals must be submitted in English.
Although papers may be presented in English, French, German, Russian,
or Spanish, ICOHTEC does not provide simultaneous translation. Proposals
must include an abstract and a biographical sketch.
(1) Abstracts
should include a short descriptive title of the paper, a concise
statement of the thesis, a brief discussion of the sources, and a
summary of the major conclusions. Please do not include notes or bibliography.
(2) Your biographical sketch
must be no longer than 1 double-spaced page, It should include your
educational and professional employment histories, notice of significant
publications and/or presentations. You may include other relevant
information in the CV, as long as you do not exceed the 1-page limit. Be sure to include your name and email address, and to specify your present institutional affiliation (or independent status).
Do not submit your paper proposal to ICOHTEC. Bart Hacker and Ciro Paoletti are organizing the symposium. Send your proposal to Bart Hacker at: <hackerb@si.edu>, no later than 31 January 2018, but earlier is better.
Bart and Ciro will assemble and submit the complete symposium to
ICOHTEC. Please feel free to distribute this CFP to anyone you believe
may be interested and qualified.
Contact Info:
Bart Hacker, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
Contact Email: