The Brooke Hindle Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Technology honors the contribution of Brooke Hindle to the work of the Society for the History of Technology. The Fellowship, made possible thanks to the great generosity of his family, is for $10,000 and may be used for any purpose connected with research or writing in the history of technology for a period of not less than four months during the year following the award.
Fabian Prieto-Ñañez, Hindle Fellow 2023 (Photo: SHOT)
SHOT is delighted to offer the 2023 Brooke Hindle Post-doctoral Fellowship to Fabian Mauricio Prieto-Nanez for the project, “Pirates of the Caribbean Skies: Technology and Entrepreneurship in the Rise of Satellite Dishes in the Caribbean.” This research analyzes the history of commercial satellite television in the Americas from the 1970s to the 1990s. Prieto-Nanez explores the challenges faced by technical entrepreneurs in Central American and Caribbean countries who localized satellite television devices and altered regional media distribution. Prieto-Nanez contrasts United States commercial satellite design to the way Caribbean entrepreneurs and enthusiasts created new services, involving a complex story of hacking and tinkering techniques, encryption methods, and market dynamics.
Prieto-Nanez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech. Prieto-Nanez will be using this fellowship support for dissertation revision, expanding research with further archival work and preparing a manuscript for publication as a full monograph in the history of technology. SHOT appreciates this work as a fascinating intersection of the history of technology, infrastructure, business and entrepreneurship. This project emphasizes the significance of studying technologies outside of conventional innovation hubs. It also advances studies of the history of technology within diverse contexts of the Americas, widening an important conversation about the history of technologies, media, geography, and mobility.