CFP: Under Tropical Skies: Giants and Dwarfs in Meteorology and Technology

Fiona Williamson Announcement
Subject Fields
Asian History / Studies, Colonial and Post-Colonial History / Studies, Environmental History / Studies, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology

Under Tropical Skies: Giants and Dwarfs in Meteorology and Technology

CFP for papers for 2 linked symposia (4 papers each) for 26th ICHST Conference, Prague 25-31 July 2021

ICHM aims to propose two linked symposia to the ICHST organising panel for their 2021 annual conference. We seek paper titles, abstracts and author bios to become part of our proposal. You can find more details about the conference here: https://www.ichst2021.org/

For questions, or to submit your abstract by 30 December please email Fiona or Ruth. For our symposia themes, see below.

Convenors:

Fiona Williamson (Singapore Management University), fwilliamson@smu.edu.sg

Ruth Morgan (Monash University, Australia), ruth.morgan@monash.edu

Symposia overview:

In keeping with the conference themes, these two linked symposia aim to tell the unknown stories and the histories of lesser known people from an understudied climatic region and subject field of historical tropical meteorology and technology. Our premise stems from the claim that most histories of weather science have focused on polar or temperate regions yet, the tropics are home to half the world’s people (Fleming, 2019). Although there has been some work undertaken on tropical climates in relation to colonial health anxieties (eg. Beattie, 2011; Arnold, 1993), or on the monsoon climates of British India (eg. Adamson, 2012; Grove, 1998), little has been done to investigate the development of atmospheric sciences and technologies in this region more widely.

Among its topics of discussion, Under Tropical Skies might consider agricultural meteorology in tropical regions; climate technologies (for example, typhoon detection and weather modification); socio-technical imaginaries and visions of the future; intersections between new technologies with, for instance, aviation and weather science; and, the involvement of female and/or indigenous scholars in tropical meteorology. Discussion will not be limited to time period or place, and especially welcomes discussions of non-western knowledge and technologies.

We encourage scholars at any stage of their career to engage with these questions relating to the history of the science and technology of tropical meteorology, the people, places and stories of the science.

The symposia will be kindly supported by the International Commission for the History of Meteorology (ICHM).

Contact Information

Fiona Williamson (Singapore Management University), fwilliamson@smu.edu.sg

Ruth Morgan (Monash University, Australia), ruth.morgan@monash.edu

Contact Email
fwilliamson@smu.edu.sg