CfP: Paper proposals on Oceans HSTM for the 2025 ICHST in Ōtepoti Dunedin, New Zealand

The International Commission for the History of Oceanography (ICHO) is seeking paper proposals to join its sessions at the 2025 International Congress of History of Science and Technology to be held 29 June - 5 July 2025 in Ōtepoti Dunedin, New Zealand (for details, see: https://www.ichst2025.org/).

Hybrid sessions permitting remote participation will be possible.

Proposals should address some aspect of the history of ocean science and/or technology (broadly construed) in conversation with the conference theme Peoples, Places, Exchanges, and Circulation, explained below.

Please submit proposed abstracts by Friday, March 1, 2024 via this form

Conference theme: Peoples, Places, Exchanges, and Circulation.

One of the most important trends in the field of the history of science, technology, and medicine has been a move towards more integrated, expansive, and connected histories that seek to include the participation of the entire world. Our Congress theme strives to further this development and to link different disciplines and perspectives. We also want to provide an opportunity for Indigenous voices, particularly those of Māori, to be heard.

The Congress theme emphasizes the importance of situating local knowledge and practices in specific contexts as well as local or regional history of science, technology, and medicine in a global context. What difference does a global perspective make for local, national, and regional studies in the history of science, technology, and medicine? How are local and global contexts related? How do local histories change if they are analyzed using a different scale of analysis, for example a regional or global framework?

The theme, however, also stresses the importance of circulation or back-and-forth movement across borders involving encounters and exchanges. We seek contributions that explore movement or flow between regions, cultures, or societies, specifically the circulation, exchange, and transit of knowledge, techniques, texts, peoples, and material objects. How has this interaction resulted in new configurations in the history of science, technology, and medicine? Nevertheless, circulation does not mean that flows are always smooth.

Exchange and circulation involve local actors, who, in some cases have played an important role as go-betweens or mediators between different knowledge systems, but also as mediators between producers and consumers around the world.

We particularly welcome contributions that explore the historical role of Indigenous peoples in the history of science, technology, and medicine.

Overall, our theme stresses inclusive histories exploring peoples, places, exchanges, and circulation in the history of science, technology, and medicine from around the world.