Industrial Environments

Seminar series at Rutgers

Call for papers:
Industrial Environments - Creativity and Consequences, 1800-1940
A seminar series at Rutgers University’s Center for Historical Analysis

From September 2001 through May 2002, the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis, in associationwith the New Brunswick Department of History and its new doctoral field in the History ofTechnology, Environment and Health, will sponsor the first year of a broad-gauged inquiry into theinterplay between industry, environments and health, engaging the period 1800-1940 worldwide. Weseek to open an extended dialogue among scholars, focused on the spiral of creativity at thecenter of industrialization and its relationships to the human and natural environments and topublic health. Medical and environmental crises arising from industrialization, for example, havegenerated creative initiatives toward advancing public health and in environmental protection -new knowledge, new technologies, new professions, and new alliances between citizens, scientists,and the state. Engaging these and related themes in a 26-part weekly seminar series will anchorour efforts.

This call for papers invites historians and social scientists with a historical interest to offerresearch paper proposals (one-page abstract and a brief vita) on topics of relevance to theproject. We welcome contributions from advanced graduate students and senior scholars alike, andare especially interested in research that reaches beyond the usual industrializing regions toSouth and East Asia and the Southern Hemisphere. Seminars will meet each Tuesday throughout theacademic year, for discussion of papers circulated in advance. Texts must be in hand one monthprior to the seminar’s date, in order to facilitate copying and distribution. RCHA has funds forUS-based seminar presenters’ travel support and local accommodation, and the directors willundertake to assist non-US presenters in securing travel funds. (Note: colleagues who contactedRHCA earlier to offer paper topics need not do so again.)

Deadline for submissions - April 10, 2001. Email proposals preferred.

Send to Philip Scranton and Susan Schrepfer, Project Directors, at: scranton@crab.rutgers.edu and schrepfe@rci.rutgers.edu.

For further information on the project, including the regular mail address, visit the RCHA website: rcha.rutgers.edu.

Posted: 22 February 2001