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://envirotechweb.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.

Nina Lerman sent us a notice about a new database of potential interest to envirotechies: Documenting Louisiana Sugar 1845-1917 at http://www.sussex.ac.uk/louisianasugar/

“Documenting Louisiana Sugar provides historians and social scientists with an innovative tool for examining plantation economy and agrarian society in the American South. Utilizing exceptionally detailed annual crop returns and additional census records, Documenting Louisiana Sugar makes available two fully searchable databases that allow users to examine in micro and macro detail the evolution of one of America’s definitive plantation crops, namely cane sugar. These are available at the Download Center on this website.

For over seventy years, agrarian economists in Louisiana diligently recorded economic and production data on each sugar producing estate. These remarkable records provide an unbroken time series of data; indeed, no other plantation crop in the American South was so meticulously recorded for such a long period of time as was Louisiana sugar. This project makes these sources available for rigorous analysis and provides users with the query functions capable of tracing people and plantations through time. It enables users to study the economic performance of an entire industry, to consider business consolidation, capital acquisition, technology transfer, and the shifting dynamics of plantation land use. The built in search functions enable researchers to limit or expand their enquiries by year, parish, crop output, technology, and even gender. Users can track persistence and change among the plantation elite, trace landholding and economic performance among both large and small cane farmers, examine the effect of the American Civil War, and assess the transition from slave to free labor on Louisiana’s plantation economy. And for those interested in the late nineteenth century, the databases track the rise and fall of American sugar during U.S. imperial expansion.

Former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass described Louisiana’s sugar country as a “life of living death.” These databases do not tell the story of the hundreds of thousands of men and women who labored in the cane fields through the nineteenth century, but they tell the story of an industry where the exploitation of land, capital, and labor was central to business success.

Funding for this project was made available by research project grants awarded by The Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom, The Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and by the University of Sussex and the University of Toronto. Many of the images on the website are used with the permission of Shadows-on-the-Teche, a National Trust Historic Site, New Iberia, Louisiana.”

The Hal Rothman Research Fellowship was created to recognize graduate student achievements in environmental history research in honor of Hal Rothman, recipient of ASEH’s Distinguished Service award in 2006 and editor of Environmental History for many years. The fellowship provides a single payment of $1,000 for PhD graduate student research and travel in the field of environmental history, without geographical restriction. The funds must be used to support archival or other relevant project research and travel during 2009.

Students enrolled in any PhD program worldwide are eligible to apply. Applications will be accepted June 1 – September 30, 2008, and the recipient will be selected and notified in December 2008, for funding in January 2009. To apply, please submit the following three items:

1. A two-page statement (500 words) explaining your project and how you intend to use the research funds.
2. A c.v.
3. A letter of recommendation from your graduate advisor.

All items must be submitted electronically to Dolly Jorgensen, chair of the committee, by September 30, 2008 at dolly@jorgensenweb.net

Envirotech, a dynamic young interest group within the Society for the History of Technology and the American Society for Environmental History, invites nominations for the Envirotech Prize for Best Article on the Inter­play between Technology and the Environment from the past three years.  The Envirotech Prize recognizes the best essay, including both journal articles and book chapters, on the relationship between technology and the environment in history.  To be eligible the essay must be published between January 1, 2006, and June 1, 2008.  The prize committee is particularly seeking innovative publications that explore new ways of thinking about the interplay between technological systems and the natural environment.  Articles in any language are welcome, but applicants will need to provide a translation of non-English articles.  More junior scholars are especially encouraged to submit their publications.

The Envirotech Prize carries a cash award of $250 and will be conferred at the conference of the Society for the History of Technology in Lisbon, Portugal, October 11-14, 2008.  The deadline for submissions is June 1, 2008.  Self-nomination is encouraged.

Please send one copy of your article and a brief curriculum vitae to each of the committee members via either post or e-mail:

Timothy J. LeCain
Asst. Professor of History
Department of History & Philosophy
Montana State University
Bozeman, MT 59718
E-mail: tlecain@montana.edu

Dolly Jorgensen
Post-doctoral researcher
Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture
NTNU – Dragvoll
7491 Trondheim
Norway
E-mail: dolly@jorgensenweb.net

Martha B. Lance, Ph.D
History Department
Plattsburgh State University
101 Broad Street
Plattsburgh, NY 12901
lancemb@plattsburgh.edu

The Envirotech meeting at the ASEH conference in Boise will be a ninety-minute lunch meeting rather than a breakfast meeting. (The conference organizers wanted groups to have time for more substantial discussion than usual.) So the plan is to have a topic, maybe even a specific set of questions, ready for people to discuss over lunch.

But what topic? In the program, we indicate that the discussion would be on issues associated with using an “envirotech” approach to teaching and research. So we now have to narrow that topic to a more specific discussion question—and we welcome ideas. Please add a comment or suggestion below as to what you think might be useful/possible to discuss over lunch. A main goal, of course, is to facilitate conversation/discussion at the lunch meeting.

This request is, in part, a test of this website’s ability to receive comments on various news items, so please try adding a comment. And if you are planning to attend, don’t forget to register for the conference and to sign up for the Envirotech lunch on the registration form. (The early registration deadline is Feb. 15.) We’re looking forward to seeing you in Boise.

Hugh Gorman and Ann Greene

The deadline for submitting paper & panel proposals for SHOT 2008 in Lisbon, Portugal is March 14. The CFP is available online: http://shotnews.net/?p=401.

The deadline for booking hotels at the conference reduced rate is April 30, so don’t wait until the last minute to book! Information can be found at http://shotlisbon2008.com/

Sixth International Conference on the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T2M)

Ottawa, Canada
September 18-21, 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS
Mobility and the Environment

The International Association for the History of Transport, Traffic and Mobility (T2M) invites proposals for papers to be presented at its Sixth International Conference to be held in Ottawa, Canada from September 18th through the 21st, 2008.

Papers may address any aspect of the social, cultural, economic, technological, ecological and political history of transport, traffic and mobility. However, special consideration will be given to proposals related to the conference theme: Mobility and the Environment. The language of the conference is English.

Hosted by the Canada Science and Technology Museum, the 2008 conference coincides with a period of growing concern about the problematic relationship between the human desire and need for greater mobility, and the environmental consequences and challenges of this demand. Historical perspectives on this relationship offer the promise of greater clarity and understanding. To this end, we encourage proposals that explore all aspects of the issue across the full spectrum of modalities, systems, political contexts and environments. In addition, the conference theme is also intended to embrace philosophical, technical and cultural perspectives on the history of overcoming, or adapting to, the challenges of geography and climate. With respect to all of the above, the conference will also provide an opportunity to consider how important insights and ideas arising from historical research on the environment, and on issues of mobility in general, can best be shared with an interested general public.

Notwithstanding T2M’s natural affinity for the historical view, interdisciplinary approaches are greatly encouraged. Relevant proposals from the fields of geography, philosophy, cultural studies, sociology, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, engineering and others are most welcome. The participation of young scholars and doctoral students is especially desirable. T2M also invites professionals working in the areas of mobility or environmental policy and planning to contribute. Participants are encouraged, though not required, to organize and to propose panels on specific issues or ideas. As a rule, a panel should consist of a chair, a commentator and normally up to three speakers. Session proposals will also be considered.

The deadline for abstracts and a one-page CV (English only) is the 1st of March, 2008: maximum of one page for all individual papers or panel presentations, or one page per presentation within a session proposal. Session proposals should also include a one-page overview of the session. Please send proposals to: submissions@t2m.org.

Submitters will be notified by the programme committee during the first week of April, 2008 on the success
or status of their submission. The full paper of all accepted submissions must be delivered on or before August 1st, 2008. These will be copied onto a conference CD-ROM for distribution in advance to all conference participants. Individual presentations at the conference are therefore to be limited to a fifteen-minute summary to allow for debate and discussion within the session. Registration information and deadlines will be provided during the month of March.

For information about T2M and previous conferences, please visit our website at: http://www.t2m.org.
More information on the Ottawa conference will be posted at http://www.t2m.org/conference in due course.

Garth Wilson, Programme Committee Chair, T2M 2008