History of Technology
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Consortium Respectful Behavior Policy
Participants at Consortium activities will treat each other with respect and consideration to create a collegial, inclusive, and professional environment that is free from any form of discrimination, harassment, or retaliation.
Participants will avoid any inappropriate actions or statements based on individual characteristics such as age, race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, marital status, nationality, political affiliation, ability status, educational background, or any other characteristic protected by law. Disruptive or harassing behavior of any kind will not be tolerated. Harassment includes but is not limited to inappropriate or intimidating behavior and language, unwelcome jokes or comments, unwanted touching or attention, offensive images, photography without permission, and stalking.
Participants may send reports or concerns about violations of this policy to conduct@chstm.org.
Upcoming Meetings
There are no currently scheduled upcoming events.
Past Meetings
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March 27, 2018
Philip Scranton, Rutgers University, discussed his current project, A Business History of Communism: Enterprise and Experiment in China, 1950-71.
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February 20, 2018
Christopher Otter, Ohio State, presented an excerpt from his book-in-progress "Diet for a Large Planet: Food Systems, World-Ecology and the Making of Industrialized Britain."
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December 12, 2017
Note Special Day
Greg Eghigian (Penn State and co-convener of CHSTM's Human Sciences group) presented on UFOs in post-World War II culture.
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November 14, 2017
Note Special Day
Katie Boyce-Jacino (Johns Hopkins) presented on planetariums in Weimar Germany
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October 17, 2017
Phil Tiemeyer (Kansas State) shared from his book manuscript, Aerial Ambassadors: National Airlines and US Power in the Jet Age, the chapter "The “Love Bird” Takes Flight: Independence, Neo-¬Imperialism, and the Founding of Air Jamaica, 1960-¬1977."
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April 18, 2017
Matt Wisnioski, Virginia Tech, "Big Bird and the Artificial Kidney," presented a chapter from his book in-progress Every American an Innovator
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March 21, 2017
Amy Slaton, Drexel University, presented "Knowable Selves in a Knowable World," a chapter from her book in-progress All Good People: Diversity, Difference and Opportunity in High-Tech America
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February 28, 2017
Steven Harris, University of Mary Washington, "A Soviet Anxiety of Influence: What Harold Bloom Can Tell Us about Aeroflot’s History of Technological Development”
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December 13, 2016
- Joshua Grace, University of South Carolina, presented his manuscript “The Momentum of Things Not Built: Technology, Socialism, and Appropriateness in Independent Tanzania.”
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November 22, 2016
Tiago Saraiva of Drexel University introduced his draft book chapter, "Frantz Fanon in LA: Californian Clones and French Settlers in Colonial Algeria."
Group Conveners
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Jennifer Alexander
Jennifer Alexander is an Associate Professor of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Minnesota, with specialization in technology and religion; industrial culture; and engineering, ethics, and society. Her publications include The Mantra of Efficiency: From Waterwheel to Social Control (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008). Her current project is a book manuscript analyzing the international religious critique of technology that developed following WWII. She asks how religious and theological interpretations of technology have changed over time; how, over time, technologies and engineering have extended their reach into the human world over time through a developing technological orthodoxy; and how these changes have affected each other.
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Benjamin Gross
Benjamin Gross is Vice President for Research and Scholarship at the Linda Hall Library in Kansas City, Missouri. He is responsible for managing the Library’s scholarly outreach initiatives, including its fellowship program. Before relocating to the Midwest in 2016, he was a research fellow at the Science History Institute and consulting curator of the Sarnoff Collection at the College of New Jersey. His book, The TVs of Tomorrow: How RCA’s Flat-Screen Dreams Led to the First LCDs, was published in 2018 by the University of Chicago Press.