USC campus
Page updated 30 October 2023
Organizing the 2023 SHOT Annual Meeting was – to say the least – challenging. Finding an alternative location one month before the conference that was not involved in the ongoing labor dispute was not easy. But we succeeded in finding an alternative venue to hold our annual meeting in person! Not in Long Beach but in Los Angeles. The University of Southern California generously agreed to host the entire meeting with no charge for the meeting space in the USC Hotel. We are extremely grateful to USC for making this possible on such short notice!
This year’s program was the result of the hard work of our Program Committee. On behalf of SHOT, I want to thank committee members Jethron Akallah (Chair), Josh Grace (Associate Chair), Bess Williamson, Diana Montaño, and Itty Abraham. The Program Committee managed to build an inspiring – partly hybrid – program with research sessions, several presidential roundtables, and an exciting plenary opening.
I also want to thank Gabrielle Hecht, Amy Bix, Debbie Douglas, Sonja Beekers, Jeroen Carbaat, Alina Bykova, Dean Schultheiss, Henk Treur, Lesli Montgomery, Matthew Wisnioski and our onsite volunteers, for their assistance in organizing the annual meeting. Finally, I also want to thank the staff of the USC Hotel. This was a special meeting and SHOT owes you all a debt of gratitude for all your hard work!
Jan Korsten, SHOT Secretary
Register for the SHOT Annual Meeting
SHOT’s program committee and the SHOT annual meeting organizing team have been hard at work assembling an exciting program of talks and events. We are grateful for the work, devotion and enthusiasm of our PC members – Jethron Akallah (Chair), Josh Grace (Associate Chair), Bess Williamson, Diana Montaño, and Itty Abraham.
Conference session schedule 2o October 2023 is now available. Check it out here.
Download the full conference program booklet
The plenary events (Opening Plenary, SHOT Community Meeting, and the Awards Event), and a number of sessions can be followed online. You can find an overview of these events and sessions and information on how to join below.
Download an overview of all hybrid and online sessions and events
The move to USC has posed problems for book exhibitors, with the result that this year’s display will be thinner than usual. So let’s make some lemonade out of these lemons!
If you have published a book recently (say in the last 3-4 years), we invite you to bring a copy to the conference, along with a flyer containing information about the book and any discounts your publisher may be offering. To ensure that there’s enough real estate for everyone, please limit the physical size of your flyer to A5 (roughly half the size of A4 or US Letter) or smaller.
I realize that this is last-minute. So when designing your flyer, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good! An image of your book cover, a website link or a QR code that people can scan, a discount code: if that’s all you can manage, that’s still way better than nothing.
Please don’t be shy. I’m doing this myself, and I don’t want to be the only one – I ask for solidarity in the form of participation! Needless to say, people will be responsible for their own books, etc – we can’t add to staff burden.
Looking forward to seeing you all very soon,
Gabrielle Hecht
SHOT President
We are pleased to announce the results of the 2023 SHOT Elections.
Elected are:
New members of the Executive Council (2024-2026)
Adewumi Damilola Adebayo
Diana J. Montaño
Magdalena Zdrodowska
Secretary (re-election second term): Jan Korsten
Treasurer (re-election second term): Amy Bix
Nominations Committee (2024-2026): Scott Gabriel Knowles
Editorial Committee (2024-2028): Thomas Zeller
We congratulate the elected candidates with their election, and we thank the candidates that were not elected for their willingness to take part in the SHOT elections 2023. We are grateful for your willingness to stand up and volunteer!
At the moment Covid numbers are rising again, also in California. SHOT prides itself on solidarity and remains committed to protecting its members from exposure to Covid-19. We are especially concerned to protect those with existing health vulnerabilities, while noting that long covid has ravaged people who were previously fully able-bodied. As was the case last year, SHOT requires everyone to have updated vaccines and to mask in indoor conference spaces. The masking policy applies in principle also when presenting a paper. We’ll have a limited number of masks available; please plan to bring your own.
(see also Frequently asked questions)
SHOT also warmly invites institutions, university departments, museums and libraries, and other groups or individuals to help sponsor an event or other opportunities to show your support for the history of technology. For information, please contact the SHOT secretary’s office at: [email protected] or to Amy Bix, SHOT’s treasurer.
You can find more information on the book exhibit, various conference sponsor opportunities and advertising options here.
The Society for the History of Technology gratefully acknowledges the following sponsors, publishers, and supporters. We thank them for their generosity and support:
AIP
B and B Stern Foundation Inc.
CIFAR
Eindhoven University of Technology
Foundation for History of Technology
Hagley Museum and Library
Johns Hopkins University Press
Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering and Technology
MIT Press
The University of Chicago Press
University of Southern California (USC)
USC Hotel
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