STEP - Science and Technology in the European Periphery

CALL FOR PAPERS
Sixth Symposium on the Social History of Military Technology

Annual Meeting of the International Congress of the History of Technology
Glasgow, Scotland, 2–7 August 2011
Proposals are sought for papers to be presented in the Sixth Symposium on the Social
History of Military Technology, to take place in Glasgow, Scotland, 2–7 August 2011, as part
of the program for the annual meeting of the International Congress of the History of
Technology (ICOHTEC). The general theme selected for the 2011 meeting is: Consumer Choice and
Technology. For more information about the 2011 ICOHTEC conference as a whole, see the
Call for Papers at: >

The history of military technology usually centers on weaponry, warships,
fortifications, or other physical manifestations of warfare, emphasizing how they were made or how they
worked. Historians have also tended to assume a strictly utilitarian and rational basis
for military technological invention and innovation. However necessary they may be, such
approaches largely ignore some very important questions. What are the contexts of social
values, attitudes, and interests, non-military as well as military, that shape and support (or
oppose) these technologies? What are the consequences of gender, race, class, and other
aspects of the social order for the nature and use of military technology? Or, more
generally: How do social and cultural environments within the military itself or in the larger
society affect military technological change? And the indispensable corollary: How does
changing military technology affect other aspects of society and culture? In brief, this
symposium will address military technology as both agent and object of social change, taking a
very broad view that encompasses not only the production, distribution, use, and
replacement of weapons and weapon systems, but also communications, logistic, medical, and other
technologies of military relevance.
We seek papers about: (1) representations of weapons as well as weapons themselves,
about ideas as well as hardware, about organization as well as materiel; (2) ways in which
social class, race, gender, culture, economics, or other extra-military factors have
influenced and been influenced by the invention, r&d, diffusion, or use of weapons or other
military technologies; (3) the roles that military technologies play in shaping and reshaping
the relationships of soldiers to other soldiers; soldiers to military, political, and social
institutions; and military institutions to other social institutions, most notably
political and economic; and/or (5) historiographical or museological topics that discuss how
military technology has been analyzed, interpreted, and understood in other fields, other
cultures, and other times.

Your proposal should include four elements:
(1) A short descriptive title.
(2) An abstract of no more than 400 words. As mentioned above, the general conference
theme is: Consumer Choice and Technology. The conference CFP suggests numerous subthemes. If
you can do so without unduly distorting your topic, you should make an effort to show how
your paper relates to the conference theme or subthemes. THIS IS NOT REQUIRED, but it
will be helpful in presenting the proposal for our symposium to the program committee.
(3) A 1-page CV or résumé with your educational history, professional employment
history, list of significant publications and/or presentations. You may include other relevant
information in the CV, as long as you do not exceed the 1-page limit.
(4) Current contact information for you (including email address).

DO NOT SEND YOUR PROPOSAL TO ICOHTEC. It should be sent to the symposium organizer, Bart
Hacker, who will assemble and submit the complete symposium.Proposals must reach the
symposium organizer, Bart Hacker, at: >, no later than
15 January 2011.