CfP: 2nd Annual Conference of the DHST Commission onScience, Technology and Diplomacy
The
last decade has seen increasing interest in the concept, practice, and
history of science diplomacy in international affairs during the modern
period. Such discussions and debates have been dominated by ‘Western’
perspectives, tending to focus on the agency, activities, and influence
of actors from Europe and North America. Yet, the danger of treating the
‘Euro-American’ context and norms as defaults against which non-Western
ones are measured can often implicitly underpin or reinforce
problematic value-judgements, as Phalkey and Lam (2016) have argued in
relation to the wider history of science, technology, and medicine.
Building
on the global focus of the DHST Commission of Science, Technology and
Diplomacy’s first conference in 2019, this conference will centre on
Asia, emphasising the agency, activities, and influence of Asian actors
within both the intra- and inter-regional contexts of what we call today
science diplomacy. We wish to address a number of interconnected
questions including: what would be gained through looking at Asian
history through the lenses of science diplomacy? What actors, processes,
regions and activities would these new narratives encompass? Could
these reflections lead to re-consider the concept and meanings of
science diplomacy?
In
order to address these questions, we invite contributions exploring the
entangled histories of science, technology and diplomacy in Asia. We
expect contributions to involve or engage with:
- nationalism, regionalism and/or internationalism in STM
- official and unofficial/informal diplomatic channels
- colonialism, imperialism and anti-imperialism, decolonisation, and development
- alliances, non-alignment, and ‘South-South’ cooperation
- state and non-state actors (including religious, commercial and industrial actors, international organisations, transnational networks, and party-to-party relations)
We invite submission of paper proposals which include: a title, abstract (300 words maximum), and a short CV (150 words maximum) to Gordon Barrett by
30 January 2020.
30 January 2020.
Co-hosted by: Department of History of Science, Technology and Medicine of Peking University and School of Humanities of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences