STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

CALL FOR PAPERS
8th STEP meeting
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
21-24 June 2012

We are pleased to announce that the 8th meeting of STEP (Science and Technology in the European Periphery) will be held in Corfu, Greece, 21-24 June 2012. It is organized by the Philosophy and History of Science Department of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, which in addition to its thriving graduate program – the largest in Greece – is one of the few university departments in the world, offering a BA in HPS. We hope to see many of you there!

The deadline for submission of paper or session proposals is 31 October 2011. Brief details are given below. For further details check the website of the meeting: http://conferences.phs.uoa.gr/step2012/

STEP is an international group of historians of science, medicine and technology founded in 1999 by scholars from all over Europe. STEP organizes biannual meetings to explore the historical character of science, medicine and technology in regions and societies on the periphery of Europe and beyond.

A. Aims of the Meeting
STEP meetings have always sought to strike a balance between historiographical reflections which help us develop a broader comparative analysis, and case-studies examining different national and regional contexts. We will continue to favour both approaches at the 8th meeting. The Scientific committee encourages contributions on a range of themes related to STEP’s interests and in particular to its established research groups:

1 Cross-National, Comparative and Transnational History of STM
2 Experts in the Periphery
3 Material Culture of Science: Museums and Collections in the Periphery
4 Popularization of Science and Technology: Centres and Peripheries
5 Science and the Press
6 Universities in the Periphery
7 Women in Science, Women in the 'Periphery'

Individual papers should aim at building upon the work of previous conferences and the current group structure within STEP. However, for session proposals, we also encourage a focus on areas which have so far been under-represented in STEP meetings (especially medicine and technology). We particularly invite contributions with a transnational dimension (either within Europe, or relations beyond Europe), or with a philosophical/theoretical angle on the nature of peripheries and their significance in the history of science, technology and medicine. We would also be happy to receive suggestions for sessions (not individual papers) on any other theme that relates to STEP’s interests (see website).

B. Format of Meeting
Papers will be pre-circulated 40 days before the start of the meeting. The texts should be around 6,000 words in length (including notes). Talks at the meeting will be short (10 mins) and present only an outline of the argument developed in the pre-circulated paper in order to devote most of the time for commentary and discussion. We hope to be able to keep the 8th STEP meeting a single-strand conference, although we will consider parallel sessions if participation levels demand it.

i. Submission of a session
A single document [download template] should be submitted to step2012.athens@gmail.com, containing all of the following information:

• title of the session
• name and affiliation of the session organiser, the chairman and commentator (if different)
• 400-word abstract explaining the rationale for the session and its relevance to STEP
• Name, title, and abstract of three or four papers composing the session (paper proposals integrated in a session do not have to be submitted individually)

Please, name the file with “your Surname-STEP2012-session.doc”.

iii. Submission of individual papers
A single document [download template] should be submitted to step2012.athens@gmail.com, containing the following information:

• title of the paper
• name and affiliation of the author
• abstract (no more than 300 words), including purpose, methods, scope, main arguments, and relevance to STEP

Please, name the file with “your Surname-STEP2012-abstract.doc”.

We are also interested to hear from anyone with ideas for alternative formats of sessions (e.g. workshops, roundtables, etc). For this or any suggestions, please get in touch via:

step2012.athens@gmail.com

iv. Timetable:
10 June 2011: First call for papers
1 September 2011: Second call for papers

31 October 2011: Deadline for submission of paper and session proposals
15 December 2011: Decision on accepted papers and sessions will be communicated to the authors

10 May 2012: Deadline for submission of papers for pre-circulation (extended 17 May 2012).
21 June 2012: Arrival in Corfu
21 June 2012: 8th STEP meeting starts in Corfu!

v. Membership of STEP
Conference participants are expected to be (or become) members of STEP. Membership is free. To join STEP (and the NODUS email list) see www.cc.uoa.gr/step/?q=node/7

C. Practical matters and costs
Academic sessions will take place on the 21-24 June (Thursday-Sunday); participants arrive Thursday and depart Monday. The growth of STEP over the last decade and the shadow of the current political and economical crisis mean that it is no longer realistic to expect host institutions to cover all the costs of meetings. Since participants (or their institutions) will be responsible for their own costs, we have planned the meeting as a low-budget conference. More details on costs and stipends will be made available on the meeting website.

We look forward to seeing you in Corfu!

The Scientific Committee

Anastasia Filippoupoliti (Democritus University of Thrace)
Samuel Gessner (Centro Interuniversitário de História das Ciências e da Tecnologia, Lisbon)
Annette Lykknes (Norwegian University of Science and Technology)
Gisela Mateos (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
Faidra Papanelopoulou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Eirini Mergoupi-Savaidou (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)
Josep Simon (Université Paris Ouest)

10 June 2011