STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

Summer School: Mobility and Information Technologies: a long-term perspective 12th-16th September 2011, Pleumeur-Bodou France.
Sorbonne, Eindhoven University of Technology, Cité des Télécoms

Call for applications

Organised jointly by the Cité des Télécommunications, the Paris-Sorbonne University, the Foundation for the History of Technology SHT at Eindhoven University of Technology, and Transfers, Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, the summer school aims at providing doctoral students with an overview of relevant research results and of innovative tools and methodologies in the field of communication and mobility studies, and their history.

Students (including mostly Ph D students and a limited number of young post doc) will spend five days at the Cité des Télécommunications in the northern part of Brittany (see: http://www.cite-telecoms.com/). They will present and discuss their research in conjunction with lectures presented by scholars.

Daily language will be English.

The summer school will focus on the relationship between mobility and
communication history seen from a long-term perspective. This means that we are interested in projects dealing with the history of electronic
systems connected or included in a mobility system broadly defined, but also in approaches of intermediality in history.

The framework of the summer school will be twofold. On the one hand, we are indebted methodologically to the history of technology and innovation studies, including large technical system and social construction of technology approaches. On the other hand, we are interested in studies that explore the very borders of the concept of mobility, including studies that approach transport vehicles as media, just like means of communications such as the one enumerated above, but also novels, films, and other carriers of messages and knowledge. Topics could include wireless telegraphy, radar, mobile phone, mobile information systems, computerized traffic system regulation, radio, GPS as applied in walking, trains, cars, airplanes, boats, and rockets.

The summer school will be structured as follows. Each half-day session
will be based on a keynote lecture by an invited scholar and followed by student presentations and discussions of their work in progress. Social events and visits will give the opportunity to discover either traditional or modern faces of this high tech part of Brittany.

The academic organizers are: Mathieu Flonneau (University Panthéon
-Sorbonne) Irice-CRHI, Pascal Griset (University Paris-Sorbonne)
Irice-CRHI, and Gijs Mom (Eindhoven University of Technology; editor of
Transfers)

Teachers during the week will be:

Paul Cerruzzi
Air and Space Museum, Washington DC.

Mathieu Flonneau
Université Panthéon-Sorbonne

Pascal Griset
Université Paris –Sorbonne

Gisela Hürlimann
Universität Zurich

Vincent Kaufmann
Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Gijs Mom
Eindhoven University of Technology

Frank Schipper
Leiden Institute for History

Heike Weber
Technische Universität Berlin

Participation to the program, including social events, is free.
All local costs (accommodation and food) will be covered by the organizers.
Participants are expected to pay their own travel to and from Lannion, the closest railway station linked to Paris by TGV. There is a limited amount of travel stipends available, sponsored by SHT and Transfers. The stipend from the latter are available for those students who agree to submit their paper to Transfers for a special issue on Mobility and Communication.

Participation will be limited to 15-18 students. Those interested in
attending the summer school should send the following documents by e-mail to Mathieu Flonneau at: mattaflo@aol.com:

a CV

a summary of their dissertation project and an example of their work in
progress (provisional chapter of the dissertation or a published article
in any langage).

a summary of their project for post doc candidates

The deadline for applications is April 25th 2011. Students selected will
be notified before May 16th 2011.