Committee on Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (REDI)

SHOT’s REDI committee was created in 2021 in order to coordinate the society’s efforts to address systemic and epistemic racism in the history of technology, and to address matters of diversity, inclusion, and accessibility more generally. Its regular yearly activities include:

• Race and Technology Prize selection
• Awarding REDI travel grants
• Proposing and organizing at least one presidential panel
• One special project or partnership a year.

To succeed, this endeavor requires considerable labor, as well as material support. Please consider contributing to our work by donating here! If you’re interested in volunteering for the committee, please write [email protected].

REDI’s work so far

• Presidential panels at SHOT annual meetings:
  • Community Engaged Research (2021).
  • Systemic and Epistemic Racism in the History of Technology (2021). A written version of this latter panel opens the October 2022 issue of T&C, and consists of a dialogue among Chandra Bhimull, Gabrielle Hecht, Edward Jones-Imhotep, Chakanetsa Mavhunga, Lisa Nakamura, and Asif Siddiqi.
  • New work in Disability Histories of Technology (2022).
  • Epistemic Diversity in the History of Technology and Beyond: A Roundtable Discussion (2023).
• Created a Race and Technologies Prize, for outstanding scholarship that explicitly explores the multiple intersections and junctures between race/ethnicity and the history of technology.
• Create a preliminary disability access plan for annual SHOT meetings (led by Bess Williamson).
• Supported a conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, Jan 4-8 2023 as part of SHOT’s broader Africa Initiative. This initiative is in development and includes the establishment of an Africa-based network for historians of technology, an MOU between SHOT and the University of Dar es Salaam, an agreement with Johns Hopkins University Press to provide gratis memberships and access to Technology and Culture for scholars based on the African continent, and more. A newly appointed steering committee for this initiative is working on future plans.
• A Bibliography for Anti-Racist History of Technology, compiled by Justine Adetola Ajao of the University of Toronto’s Institute for the History  and Philosophy of Science & Technology.
• A trans-hemispheric seminar on Race and the History of Technology, focusing on scholars from the Global South, 11-15 September 2023, in partnership with Drexel University and Tapuya: Latin American Science, Technology and Society (led by Tiago Saraiva, Amy Slaton, Vivette García Deister, Edward Jones-Imhotep, and Jason Ludwig).
• Ramp up fundraising efforts to support REDI activities: to contribute to REDI, click here.

We welcome comments and suggestions from the SHOT community as we continue to develop this initiative. Please address these directly to [email protected].

REDI Committee 2024

Gabrielle Hecht (REDI chair & SHOT President)
Charnell Chasten Long
Kelcey Gibbons
Jason Ludwig
Sonja Schmid