My Current Work and Its Possible Implications:
A Joint INES/Prometheans Workshop
Wednesday, November 2, 2011, Cleveland, Ohio
A call for 6 minute 40 second presentations and eager discussion participants
The International Network for Engineering Studies (INES) and the Prometheans
special interest group in the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT)
announce a joint one-day workshop on engineering studies and the history of
engineering.
The workshop will take place on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 at Cleveland State
University in Cleveland, Ohio. It is hosted by Peter Meiksins, Professor of
Sociology at Cleveland State. November 2 is the day before the joint
HSS/SHOT/4S meetings begin.
Thanks to sponsorship by Taylor & Francis/Routledge, publishers of Engineering
Studies: Journal of the International Network for Engineering Studies, the
meeting is free to members of INES and the Prometheans who pre-register. It
may include support for breakfast and lunch (more on logistics later).
The workshop's purpose is to bring researchers in engineering studies and
history of engineering together in concise, fast-moving, wide-ranging, and
hopefully entertaining discussions of the contents of current research and its
possible implications for different audiences inside and outside scholarly
arenas.
The workshop's more general goals include deepening scholarly connections among
researchers; attracting more researchers to engineering studies and history of
engineering; heightening the visibility of this research across the memberships
of HSS, SHOT, and 4S; and increasing the extent to which this research makes a
difference beyond scholarly arenas.
The workshop will use a PechaKucha approach to presentation and discussion
(www.pecha-kucha.org). Speakers are free to draw on up to 20 slides for 20
seconds each. They must stop after their 6 minute 40 second slot expires (even
if in mid-sentence).
With up to 4 presentations in 45-minute slots every hour, separated by
15-minute breaks and lunch, as many as 24 scholars will present between 9am and
3:45pm. The organizers welcome suggestions for a final plenary discussion,
ending around 5pm.
To present at the workshop, send a confirming message to the INES
Secretary/Treasurer Crystal Harrell (
crcrigge@vt.edu) by May 15, 2011. Include
in the body of the message your name, institutional affiliation, title, and
50-100 word abstract of your proposed presentation. Offering to present
constitutes registration. The program committee will notify you by June 15
regarding your inclusion in the program.
To pre-register, send a message by September 15, 2011 to the same address
membership status in INES and/or the Prometheans. Note: please write now to
help us plan logistics.
Join us! It will be fun!
Collegially,
The program committee
Maria Paula Diogo (U Nova de Lisboa)
Gary Downey (Virginia Tech)
Ann Johnson (U South Carolina)
Peter Meiksins (Cleveland State U)
Cherrice Traver (Union College)
Introduction to INES
The International Network for Engineering Studies (INES) was founded in Paris
in 2004. INES operates as a collection of overlapping intellectual
communities, linked by workshops, conferences, its journal Engineering Studies
The field of engineering studies is a diverse, interdisciplinary arena of
scholarly research and teaching built around the question: What are the
relationships among the technical and the nontechnical dimensions of
engineering practices, and how do these relationships change over time and from
place to place? Addressing and responding to this question can sometimes
involve engineering studies researchers as critical participants in the
practices they study, including, for example, engineering formation,
engineering work, engineering design, equity in engineering (gender, racial,
ethnic, class, geopolitical), and engineering service to society.
Membership in INES is designed to complement memberships in other professional
societies. Its mission is threefold:
1. to advance research and teaching in historical, social, cultural,
political, philosophical, rhetorical, and organizational studies of engineers
and engineering;
2. to help build and serve diverse communities of researchers interested in
engineering studies; and
3. to link scholarly work in engineering studies to broader discussions and
debates about engineering education, research, practice, policy, and
representation.
INES is coordinated by Dr. Gary Downey, Alumni Distinguished Professor,
Department of Science and Technology in Society, Virginia Tech, USA; Maria
Paula Diogo, Associate Professor, Department of History, New University of
Lisbon, Portugal; and Dr. Chyuan Yuan Wu, Director, Institute of Sociology and
Program in Science, Technology and Society, National Tsing Hua University,
Taiwan.
The INES Web Editor is Dr. Brent Jesiek, Assistant Professor, School of
Engineering Education and School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue
University.
The Cleveland meeting is the 4th INES workshop. The first three were the 2006
Blacksburg workshop, 2008 Lisbon workshop, and 2009 Grafton workshop. INES has
also sponsored numerous paper sessions at 4S and SHOT and co-sponsored other
workshops and conferences.
You can join INES and subscribe to Engineering Studies through the INES
website. Note especially the invitation to sponsor another member!
Regular Rate (US $56): For professionals, INES membership includes a one-year
subscription to Engineering Studies at the discounted, at-cost rate of US $46
(vs. the regular individual rate of US $190), as well as a US $10 annual fee to
cover bank fees and web expenses.
Discounted Rate (US $46): For students, retirees, and scholars from non-OECD
countries, includes a one-year subscription to Engineering Studies at the
discounted, at-cost rate of US $46 (vs. the regular individual rate of US
$190).
Introduction to the Prometheans
The Prometheans' first meeting in 2005 was heralded by the announcement that
"the engineering community and its cousin the engineering-education community
remain important parts of SHOT's environment and valued segments of its
membership."
The Engineering Education working group of the SHOT Prometheans Special
Interest Group (SIG) is currently engaged in a number of different activities
to help promote:
a) A better understanding of engineering education by members of SHOT,
including an appreciation of new visions and proposed standards in engineering
education (such as ABET EC 2000, and the National Academy of Engineering's The
Engineer of 2020 in the United States),
b) The development of new humanistic curricula for engineers, and the exchange
of course syllabi to help make the current findings in the history of
technology and other related fields relevant to the engineers of tomorrow, and
c) Liaison with organizations such as the Liberal Education Division of the
American Society of Engineering Education, so that we can pursue a coordinated
approach to improvements in engineering education
For more information, visit the Prometheans website:
