Dear colleagues
<br>
<br>please see below a call for paper proposals for the upcoming ESHS conference
<br>in Bologna.
<br>https://sites.google.com/view/eshsbologna2020/call-for-symposia?authuser=0
<br>
<br>
<br>Acting with Images and Objects:
<br>The Political Epistemology of Mobile Atomic Exhibitions
<br>
<br>
<br>Symposium proposal to be submitted to the ESHS 2020 Conference in Bologna
<br>(https://sites.google.com/view/eshsbologna2020/home)
<br>
<br>
<br>Our starting point is the assumption that scientific knowledge produced
<br>especially after the second half of the 20th century has been situated in a
<br>strongly political context. Politics and diplomacy have been historically
<br>linked not only to new geopolitical orders but also to the emergence of new
<br>structures of knowledge, concepts, scientific practices and actors. These
<br>phenomena are prime candidates for epistemological investigation. This panel
<br>brings front and center a version of political epistemology that explores
<br>scientific images and objects as political instruments, which in turn affect,
<br>as such, scientific practice. The focus is on atomic exhibitions and on their
<br>mobility as an epistemic-cum-political virtue.
<br>
<br>Historians of science have recently recognized the power of exhibitions to
<br>engage the public in the production of knowledge (i.e. Kohlstedt 2010; Rader
<br>and Cain, 2014). Exhibitions, however, have the potential to do much more.
<br>They make political statements; they become sites for the visualization of
<br>different social futures (Molella and Knowles, 2019); they represent fertile
<br>spaces for diplomatic negotiations (Rentetzi, forthcoming). Despite the vital
<br>role of exhibitions in the production of knowledge and the formation of
<br>political worldviews, there is hardly any work on the historical role of
<br>atomic mobile exhibitions in shaping nuclear science and politics.
<br>Acting with images and objects is an attempt to highlight the decisive role
<br>of mobility in the postwar period, especially for the international
<br>organizations that were keen to spread images of a common atomic future
<br>worldwide and in so doing to shape local scientific cultures.
<br>
<br>We are seeking papers that combine an interest in global and transnational
<br>histories of atomic exhibitions with their epistemic and political cultures.
<br>As we acknowledge the epistemic value of images and objects, we invite
<br>proposals that discuss how mobile atomic exhibitions such as those designed by
<br>the UN and its related organizations or any national attempts to exhibit the
<br>atom such as USs Man and the Atom, and Atoms for Peace, defined nuclear
<br>futures. We are keen to receive proposals that emphasize the role of atomic
<br>exhibitions not only in Europe but in Latin America, Asia, and Africa as
<br>well.
<br>
<br>Please send your abstracts (300 words) with a cv (150 words) to Maria Rentetzi
<br>(maria.rentetzi@tu-berlin.de ) by December
<br>5, 2019.
<br>
<br>Cited literature:
<br>
<br>Kohlstedt, Sally. "Place and Museum Space: The Smithsonian Institution and the
<br>America West, 1850-1900" in Livingstone, David and Charles Withers (eds)
<br>Geographies of Nineteenth-Century Science, 399-437. Chicago: University of
<br>Chicago Press, 2011.
<br>Rader, Karen and Cain, Victoria. Life on Display: Revolutionizing U.S. Museums
<br>of Science and Natural History. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
<br>2014.
<br>Molella, Arthur and Knowles, Scott Gabriel (eds) World's Fairs in the Cold
<br>War: Science, Technology, and the Culture of Progress. Pittsburgh: University
<br>of Pittsburgh Press. 2019.
<br>Rentetzi, Maria. Nuclear Classroom on Wheels as a Diplomatic Gift: The
<br>IAEAs Mobile Radioisotope Laboratories Centaurus, forthcoming.
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi,
<br>ERC Consolidator Grantee
<br>Technical University Berlin
<br>Faculty I - Humanities
<br>Institute of History and Philosophy of Science, Technology, and Literature
<br>Office 2527
<br>Phone: +49 3031421284
<br>Strae des 17. Juni 135
<br>D - 10623 Berlin
<br>
<br>skype name: maria.rentetzi
<br>email: maria.rentetzi@tu-berlin.de
<br>
<br>President of the Gender Commission of DHST (2017-2021)
<br>International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science
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