2021 Tarr Envirotech Article Prize awarded to Bill Rankin’s “The Accuracy Trap”

The selection committee for the Joel Tarr Envirotech Article Prize is pleased to announce this year’s winner:

Bill Rankin, “The Accuracy Trap: The Values and Meaning of Algorithmic Mapping, from Mineral Extraction to Climate Change,” Environment and History (published online August 23, 2020), https://doi.org/10.3197/096734020X15900760737275.

How are environmental maps created, and what do they mean? Bill Rankin’s compelling article focuses on a fundamental but easily overlooked component of environmental mapping: the underlying algorithm. Weaving together insights from environmental history, visual studies, and critical cartography, Rankin traces the development and spread of now-ubiquitous mapping algorithms from their Cold War origins in the fields of mineral extraction (in postcolonial Africa) and military weather forecasting (in the USSR). Although their use was limited at first, such algorithms sparked intense philosophical disagreement among specialists over the goals of environmental visualization – between what Rankin calls accuracy and realism. However, epistemological tensions around the purpose of visualization have largely been forgotten as advances in computing made algorithms more accessible to non-specialists. In an increasing retreat from human subjectivity, mapping has become a technique of data-processing, hollowing out the meaning of accuracy. By probing the limits and possibilities of accuracy in environmental mapping, Rankin offers a welcome reminder of the contingent and contested nature of visual representation, and a model for linking the histories of environment and technology to questions of epistemology and visual culture.

Tarr Prize Selection Committee:
Camille Cole, University of Cambridge
David Fedman, University of California-Irvine
Aristotle Tympas, University of Athens

Envirotech 2021 Spring Meeting and Roundtable: “Beyond the Boundary”

On April 26, 2021, from 12 noon-2pm EST, as part of the American Society for Environmental History’s Environmental History Week, Envirotech will hold its annual spring meeting including a roundtable discussion of the past, present, and future of scholarship at the intersection of the histories of environment and technology.

The first hour of the meeting (12 noon-1pm) will be a virtual version of our usual “breakfast” meetings at the annual meetings of ASEH and the Society for the History of Technology. It will include a round of introductions, announcements, and discussion of Envirotech business.

The second hour of the meeting (1-2pm) will feature comments from the following panelists followed by an open discussion:

  • Johan Gärdebo (Linköping University)
  • Ann Norton Greene (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Aleksandra Kobiljski (CNRS/EHESS)
  • Taylor Moore (UC Santa Barbara)
  • Sara Pritchard (Cornell University)

The meeting will take place via Zoom and registration at the following link is required: https://upenn.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIvdumorDssEtH7PTTxYLjnK1AlM3ul_DVR

We hope to see you there!

Envirotech Communications Fellowship

In light of the virtualization of our interactions over the coming year, the Envirotech SIG invites applications from graduate students, recent PhDs (within three years), and independent scholars for the position of Envirotech Communications Fellow for the 2020-2021 academic year (August-June).

The fellowship includes an honorarium of $800 and entails maintaining the Envirotech website and Twitter account and possibly assisting with the organization of virtual panels and other online events, in collaboration with the Envirotech conveners. Experience with WordPress is helpful but not required.

We anticipate a time commitment of 1-2 hours per week over the 2020-2021 academic year. Applicants should send a CV and brief statement of interest to ebenson@upenn.edu and jpbaeten@iu.edu. Application deadline is July 15, 2020.

Envirotech Travel Award for ASEH 2020 in Ottawa

The Envirotech Special Interest Group is pleased to announce the Joy Parr Envirotech Travel Award for the upcoming American Society for Environmental History conference.

The Joy Parr Envirotech travel award is a grant of $400 toward the costs of attending the annual meetings of the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) and the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). The award is named in honor of the eminent Canadian historian of work, gender, and technology Joy Parr.

Eligibility for the award is limited to those presenting a paper or poster at the meeting addressing the interrelated histories of environment and technology. The grant is available to current graduate students, recent PhDs (within the past three years) and independent scholars. The winner will receive a check for $400 at the Envirotech breakfast meeting at the conference.

Applicants should complete the linked questionnaire and email it along with a 1-page CV to envirotechtravelaward@gmail.com.

Applications for the travel grant for the upcoming ASEH conference in Ottawa, Canada, from March 25-29, 2020, are due by January 31, 2020. The applicant selected for the award will be notified by mid-February.

Any questions can be sent to Envirotech co-conveners Etienne Benson and John Baeten at the above email address. For more information about Envirotech, visit our website at http://envirotechhistory.org/

Meeting Report: Envirotech in Milan 2019

Lesser scholars might be stymied by coffee shortages and unlighted rooms, but not Envirotechies, who powered through some logistical challenges in Milan to gather both for the traditional Saturday morning breakfast and for a special Envirotech SIG Sunday Workshop. Mille grazie to Kellen Backer and Aleksandra Kobiljski for stepping up, in the absence of the SIG’s official conveners, to ensure that the breakfast and workshop went off smoothly.

At the Saturday breakfast, in addition to the usual round of introductions and passing of the hat, two awards were announced. The Joy Parr Travel Award was given to Nicole Welk-Joerger, who presented a paper at the conference on “Safety by Design: Silo Design in Twentieth-Century United States.” The Joel Tarr Article Prize was given to David Fedman for his article on ““The Ondol Problem and the Politics of Forest Conservation in Colonial Korea.” (Click here for the full Tarr award citation.)

The Sunday workshop featured a series of lightning presentations by Mara Dicenta, Johan Gärdebo, Dolly Jørgensen, Finn Arne Jørgensen, David Pretel, Jenny Leigh Smith, and Eric Hardy. Presentations were followed by a discussion about how to broaden Envirotech’s reach, improve communication, and facilitate participation by those who aren’t able to attend SHOT or ASEH meetings in person — all things we will be working on as Envirotech enters its 20th year. (Our new Twitter account is a first small step).

Click here for the full Sunday workshop program, and see below for a few snapshots from the event.

2019 Tarr Article Prize awarded to David Fedman

The selection committee for the Joel Tarr Envirotech Article Prize is pleased to announce this year’s winner:

David Fedman, “The Ondol Problem and the Politics of Forest Conservation in Colonial Korea,” Journal of Korean Studies 23, no. 1 (March 2018), DOI 10.1215/21581665-4339053

Focusing on the ondol — the cooking stove-cum-heated floor system common in traditional Korean dwellings — David Fedman’s compelling article introduces readers to a little-studied technology whose history has broad implications for our understanding of the intersection of technology, environment, and identity. With the help of an impressive array of Japanese and Korean sources, Fedman shows that the ondol was a critical node in early-twentieth-century discussions about domestic energy efficiency, forest conservation, and the differences in culture and character that supposedly separated Koreans from their Japanese colonizers. The ondol’s legions of early-twentieth-century critics accused it both of wasting valuable timber and of encouraging indolence, but such criticisms did not lead to its abolishment. Instead, the article demonstrates, they drove forestry officials and others to encourage various methods of fuel conservation, some of which involved fundamental changes to the way Koreans designed their homes and prepared their meals. By combining the histories of technology, environment, and colonialism in innovative ways, Fedman’s examination of the ondol offers a model for scholarship linking quotidian technologies within the home to environments beyond it.

Tarr Prize Selection Committee:
Etienne Benson, University of Pennsylvania
Camille Cole, Yale University
Aleksandra Kobiljski, CNRS

Envirotech Sunday Workshop at the SHOT meeting in Milan, Oct. 27, 9:30-12:00

The Envirotech SIG will hold a special morning session on Sunday, October 27, at the Palazzo Delle Stelline (Strehler Room) as part of the annual meeting of the Society for the History of Technology.

What: Envirotech Workshop @ SHOT
Where: Palazzo Delle Stelline, Milan, Italy – Room: Strehler
When: 9:30-12:00, October 27, 2019


Program

9:30-11:15: Lightning Round (short 8-minute presentations followed by 7-minute Q&A)

  • Mara Dicenta (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY): “More-than-human Postindustrial Landscapes”
  • Johan Gärdebo (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm): “Environing Technology”
  • Dolly Jørgensen (University of Stavanger)
  • Finn Arne Jørgensen (University of Stavanger): “Wayfinding, Environment and Technology”
  • David Pretel (El Colegio de Mexico, Mexico City / Max Planck Institute): “The Nature of War: Technologies, Environments and Maya Resistance (c. 1847-1901)”
  • Jenny Leigh Smith (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong): “Sandbags: An Object in Envirotech”
  • Eric Hardy (Loyola University): “Dutch Dialogues”

11:15-12:00: State of the Union: Discussion of the future of Envirotech as the Envirotech SIG approaches its 20th anniversary


Workshop conveners: Etienne Benson (University of Pennsylvania) & Aleksandra Kobiljski (French National Research Center – CNRS)

Envirotech co-chairs: John Baeten (Indiana University) & Etienne Benson (University of Pennsylvania)

IMPORTANT: The Sunday Envirotech SIG workshop will be in addition to the traditional Saturday Envirotech breakfast.

For questions contact Aleksandra Kobiljski at aleksandra.kobiljski@ehess.fr

Envirotech Parr Travel award for SHOT in Milan, applications due August 15

The Joy Parr Envirotech Travel Award is a grant of $400 toward the costs of attending the annual meetings of the American Society for Environmental History (ASEH) and the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). The award is named in honor of the eminent Canadian historian of work, gender, and technology Joy Parr.

Eligibility for the award is limited to those presenting a paper or poster at the meeting addressing the interrelated histories of environment and technology. The grant is available to current graduate students, recent PhDs (within the past three years) and independent scholars. The winner will receive a check for $400 at the Envirotech breakfast meeting at the conference.

Applicants should complete the linked questionnaire and email it along with a 1-page CV to envirotechtravelaward@gmail.com.

Applications for the travel grant for the upcoming SHOT conference in Milan, Italy, on October 24-27, 2018, are due by August 15, 2019.

Call for proposals – Envirotech Workshop at SHOT in Milan, 27 October 2019

The Envirotech SIG invites proposals for lightning presentations (8 minutes followed by Q&A) at a special workshop session on Envirotech history to be held at the SHOT conference in Milan on Sunday, 27 October 2019, 9:30am-12:30pm. The workshop will also feature a roundtable discussion on the state of the art in envirotech history.

All subjects are welcome for the lightning presentations, but presenters are especially encouraged to focus on a particular primary source (text, image, object, etc.) that they deem useful for thinking about Envirotech in comparative or global perspective. 

Submissions for the lightning presentations should be sent in the form of a title and abstract (up to 200 words) to Etienne Benson (ebenson@upenn.edu) and Aleksandra Kobiljski (aleksandra.kobiljski@ehess.fr) by 15 August 2019. Presenters will be notified of decisions by 31 August 2019.


This special Sunday workshop will be in addition to the usual Envirotech breakfast, which will be held on Saturday morning. If you plan to attend both, be sure to check the boxes for both events when registering.