News

March 2nd, 2022

Call for Proposals SHOT 2022 Annual Meeting New Orleans, 10-13 November 2022

– Empire, Globalization, and Technological Change –

For the 2022 Annual Meeting, our Society invites participants to explore colonial and postcolonial legacies as they relate to the historical processes of globalization, imperialism, and technological change. The 2022 meeting will give us an opportunity to finally meet in New Orleans. An early and important port for global empires, this city has been sustained by global trade and maintained through intensive technological intervention. Now marked by aging technological infrastructures and complex sedimentations of racial, ethnic, gender, religious, and class difference, the setting for this conference offers an opportunity to better understand the moral and infrastructural legacies of a settler colonial past.

Building on our membership’s work from the past two years, we invite submissions from a diverse community of scholars interested in technology’s place and placement within modern, postmodern, and trans-modernist worlds. We are particularly interested in contributions that address infrastructure and environmental change. We also invite submissions that interrogate how history is used in the present to construct future imaginaries.  How does this dance between technology and time define who “we” are and who “we” hope to become? As usual, we will also accept proposals for papers, sessions, and panels in other domains of the history of technology.

In addition to our membership, we warmly invite scholars with diverse disciplinary backgrounds to join our conversations (including those from Anthropology, American Studies, Black/African-American Studies, Communication, Gender Studies, Hispanic Studies, Literary Criticism, Media Studies, Philosophy, Political Science, and Sociology).  We especially encourage scholarship in African, Asian, and Latin American Studies.

SHOT’s program practice consists of prioritizing: a) open and fully assembled session proposals over individual abstracts; b) non-traditional sessions including work-in-progress sessions, roundtables, flash-talks, unconference sessions, and interactive workshops; c) junior scholars hoping to enter into or learn from the history of technology; and d) all underrepresented scholars, whether based on race, class, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, disability, or geographic location. Participation is generally limited to one paper presentation and two additional roles, except by invitation of the SHOT program committee and/or SHOT officers.

Individuals and groups interested in finding others to join an organized session may propose an open session that will be posted on the SHOT-website. Scholars interested in joining one of these sessions are encouraged to contact the organizers as soon as possible. The earlier an open session proposal is sent to SHOT, the earlier it will be posted on the website. Please make sure to leave sufficient time to enable interested scholars to respond, and for the organizers to prepare and submit a fully formed session proposal.

Fully formed session proposals, individual abstracts, and unconventional session proposals are due April 10^th. Additional details regarding proposal submission are given below.

SHOT Program Committee
Atsushi Akera (Chair)
Jethron Akallah
Joseph November

Go to SHOT Annual Meeting New Orleans 2022 web page

Submission Guidelines

The program committee accepts proposals of these types:

• Open session proposals: Individuals and groups interested in finding others to join an organized session may propose an open session. Submit a 150-250 word abstract describing the proposed session, the type of papers you are looking for, and contact information for the session organizer(s). (Provide name, title, institution, and email address for each organizer.) SHOT will post the Open Session proposals on the SHOT website. Those interested in participating in a session listed on the Open Sessions List should contact the organizer(s) of that session directly.
  Deadlines:
  • Open session proposals: Please submit your open session proposal as soon as possible, so that it can be posted in the Open Session List on the SHOT-website. Please note that the Open Sessions List will be updated daily until March 27^th, 2022.
  • Paper proposals to organizer(s) of an open session proposal: Contact the session organizer, and make sure that you leave sufficient time for the session organizer to prepare and submit a fully assembled session proposal.
  • Organizers: Deadline for submission of fully assembled session proposals based on abstracts received to the program committee: April 10^th, 2022
  • (Open session proposals will be posted as they are received, so we encourage early submissions.)
• Traditional (fully assembled) session proposals: Sessions of 3 or 4 papers, with a session chair listed in the proposal. You may also list a commentator. Especially if compiled based on an open session proposal, sessions may be organized into a “thread” consisting of two and at most three sessions, which the program committee will strive to schedule in consecutive sessions in the same room. All session proposals must include a session title; organizer(s) and their title, affiliation & e-mail address(es); 200-300 word description of the session; 150-250 word individual abstracts; name, title, affiliation, and e-mail address of the chair, name, title, affiliation, and e-mail address of the commentator (if any); name, title, affiliation, and e-mail address of the presenters; and a diversity and inclusion statement (see below). If a commentator has a central role in the session (e.g., a titled commentary), we suggest that there be only 3 papers in the session. Other required information, including requests for online or hybrid access and the identification of Robinson Prize candidates, will be managed by our online submission portal. Deadline: April 10^th, 2022
• Individual abstracts: Individual abstracts may be submitted directly to the program committee. However the program committee will give preference to pre-organized session proposals, whether traditional, unconventional, assembled open sessions, and abstracts that cohere with other submitted individual abstracts. Individual abstracts should be 200-300 words in length, and must include paper title and the author(s)’s name, title, affiliation, and e-mail address(es). Other required information, including requests for online or hybrid access and the identification of Robinson Prize candidates, will be managed by our online submission portal. Deadline: April 10^th, 2022.
• Unconventional sessions: SHOT actively encourages unconventional sessions. In addition to the different formats described above (work-in-progress sessions, roundtables, flash-talks, unconference sessions, and interactive workshops) we will consider other known and unknown session formats including but not limited to Pecha-Kucha, syllabus sharing, video screening and discussion, and author-meets-critic sessions (for books published within the past two years), as well as sessions and workshops held outside of normal conference hours. For reasons of conference cost, our sessions generally run 90 minutes. If you are unsure about the acceptability of an unconventional session format or require specific resources, please feel free to reach out directly to the members of the program committee. Unconventional session proposals should have a length and content comparable to traditional session proposals, including a diversity and inclusion statement, where applicable. Deadline: April 10^th, 2022.
• Special interest group (SIG) meetings: SHOT operates with organized special interest groups, and all new presenters should reach out to relevant special interest groups to explore additional opportunities for presenting their work and connecting with those with similar interests during the annual meeting. SIG Chairs should contact the SHOT Secretariat directly regarding their annual business meetings, social events, and/or Sunday technical sessions and workshops during the time slots and space reserved for the Special Interest Groups. Each SIG may also advance one traditional session and one unconventional session as “SIG sponsored sessions” for special consideration by the program committee. (Please indicate that this is the case in the session description.)

Additional SHOT Program Practices

• SHOT allows the same speaker to present papers at consecutive meetings, but turns down papers that are substantially the same as previously accepted ones. Any submission on the same topic should explain how the new paper differs from a prior presentation.
• Most pre-organized sessions, if accepted, will remain as proposed. In select cases, depending on the quality of individual abstracts and their coherence within the session, one or more of the proposed papers may be rejected or moved to another session. Occasionally, the program committee may ask the session organizer to consider an individual abstract submitted directly to the program committee that speaks directly to the theme of a proposed session. If you believe that your session can only work as a single unit, please specify “all or none,” with or without explanation, and the program committee will evaluate the session proposal as a unit.
• Individuals may present one titled paper, and participate in two additional published roles that are listed in the regular portion of the annual meeting program. Additional roles include, and are not limited to session chair, commentator, panelist (including roundtables), and shorter (<10 minute) titled work-in-progress talks. Being listed as an organizer is exempted from being counted as a published role.

Diversity and Inclusion Statement

SHOT seeks to expand our membership base and to extend the scope of those who participate in our annual meeting. As such, those assembling organized sessions, whether based on a traditional or open session proposal, are encouraged to take a proactive stance in including individuals such as:

• Graduate students; early career scholars; independent scholars; emeritus faculty
• Scholars from different disciplines who have different kinds of engagement with History and historical evidence
• Scholars from underrepresented groups including, but not limited to race, class, ethnicity, religion, gender identity, age, neurodivergence, or geographic location
• Specifically, scholars from different regions of the world, including places where History of Technology scholarship is still emerging as a recognized field of study
• Scholars and those practicing in and with the practical, policy, and social action implications of Historical scholarship

Those organizing session proposals are asked to submit a brief statement separate from their session description that describes the composition of their panel in a way that addresses such approaches to inclusion as described above, and the efforts that were made to create an inclusive environment for historical scholarship.

Presentation Options & Remote Access for SHOT 2022 NOLA

Unless either the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or state and local guidelines dictate otherwise, SHOT 2022 NOLA will primarily be an in-person gathering. As part of our commitment as an international academic society, we aim to make online access a regular feature of SHOT’s annual meetings, both for presenters and general conference participants. Concrete plans for remote and hybrid access during SHOT 2022 NOLA are still under discussion at the time of this call for proposals. If you have specific requirements regarding access, please include this information in your session proposal.

Go to SHOT Annual Meeting New Orleans 2022 web page