James Fleming encourages envirotech authors to contact him (jfleming@colby.edu) or Roger Launius (launiusr@si.edu) if they have manuscripts for Palgrave Studies in the History of Science and Technology.
For more information, see the series description.
The latest meeting of Envirotech was held during a lunch at the 2008 SHOT Lisbon conference. Twenty-five attendees enjoyed the company of fellow Envirotechies and a tasty bacalhau (Portuguese-style cod fish) lunch at Orizon restaurant in Parque das Nações near the conference hotel.
Just a small, technical note: We are moving the envirotech email discussion list over from Stanford’s servers to our own today. All subscribers should have received an email asking for confirmation of this move. I also sent out a reminder to the old mailing list. If, despite all these emails, you are a subscriber and have not received any emails, please visit http://envirotechhistory.org/organization-news/the-envirotech-mailing-list/ to sign up manually.
The Society for the History of Technology honored long-time envirotechie Joel Tarr with the Leonardo da Vinci Medal during the Lisbon Annual Meeting in October 2008. The Leonardo da Vinci Medal is the highest recognition from SHOT and is awarded to individuals for their “outstanding contribution to the history of technology, through research, teaching, publications, and other activities.”
The winner of the 2008 Envirotech Prize for the best article examining the relationships between technology and the environment is Paul S. Sutter’s “Nature’s Agents or Agents of Empire? Entomological Workers and Environmental Change during the Construction of the Panama Canal.” (Isis, 2007, 98: 724-754.) Sutter offers a path breaking analysis of the interplay between the physical environment, technological manipulation of nature, and scientific understandings of both natural and human-induced change. Continue reading
The ICOHTEC Prize is sponsored by the Juanelo Turriano Foundation and consists of 3,000 Euros. ICOHTEC, the International Committee for the History of Technology, is interested in the history of technology studies focusing on the technological development as well as its relationship to science, society, economy, culture and the environment. The history of technology covers all periods of human history and all populated areas. In addition, there is no limitation as to theoretical or methodological approaches. Eligible are original works in any of the official ICOHTEC languages (English, French, German, Russian or Spanish) in the history of technology (published or unpublished Ph. D. theses, monographs — no articles) written by scholars who, when applying for the prize, are not older than 37 years. For the ICOHTEC Prize 2009, please, send three copies of the work you want to submit and a summary of 4500 words in English to the ICOHTEC Secretary General, Professor Timo Myllyntaus, School of History, Kaivokatu 12, 20 014 University of Turku, Finland, by 31 December 2008.
We will have a lunch meeting during SHOT in Lisbon, on Monday. The winner of the Envirotech Article Prize will be announced at this meeting (and on the web page after the conference). Dolly Jørgensen will be arranging this event. There was a sign-up for the lunch on the SHOT registration form, so those of you who registered (there are 27 people signed up!) will be hearing from Dolly.
We have had very few submissions of news and other items lately. Please send me an email (or even better, register on the web site and post it yourself!) if you have anything relevant you want to share. This can be member updates, conference news and notes, new books, etc.
The Envirotech web site contains a section called “Envirotech Resources”, which is mostly based on old discussions from the mailing list. We plan to collaboratively overhaul this section (with envirotech-relevant essays, links, multimedia, publications, syllabi, excursions, novels, archives, etc.) over the next few years. We plan to have one of these topics as the theme for each of the two annual newsletters,. I, as the editor, will also solicit submissions from envirotechies.
For the Fall 2008 newsletter, I want to focus on Envirotech Syllabi. I know many of you have taught (or followed) courses on environment and technology. Please send me syllabi or share your experiences with teaching envirotech courses as comments below.
Currently, we only have 3 syllabi on the web page – you can see them here: http://envirotechhistory.org/envirotech-resources/syllabi/
A new book from envirotechie Jeffrey K. Stine: America’s Forested Wetlands: From Wasteland to Valued Resource
From the darkest, most forbidding swamp to the smallest soggy bog at the side of a housing development, wetlands provide invaluable ecological services to life on earth. Yet, prior to the 1930s, few people worried about the mounting loss of these essential landscapes.
America’s Forested Wetlands chronicles the history of American attitudes and actions toward the ambiguous transitional areas between dry land and open water. From the clear-cutting of cypress swamps and the wholesale filling and draining of marshes and bottomlands to the growing recognition of how these lands contribute to flood control, water quality, and biological diversity and on to today’s energetic political debates over “no net loss” policies designed to protect, enhance, restore, or recreate wetlands, the story involves increasing human understanding and appreciation of an important but limited resource.
America’s Forest Wetlands addresses one of the most persistent and contentious issues in natural resources management and offers an essential primer for landowners, teachers, students, journalists, and government decision makers and advisors.
To order, contact the Forest History Society at 919/682-9319, or order online at www.foresthistory.org.