Call for Papers – History of Computing, AI, etc. in the European South – Tensions of Europe Digital Workshop Festival

 

Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Algorithms, Internet of Things, Social Media, Automation, Robotics and Cybernetics: Historical and STS Perspectives from Mediterranean/Southern/Southeastern Europe

 

Part of the ‘Tensions of Europe Digital Workshop Festival’, 28 June-2 July 2021 (https://shtwebinars.nl/)

The workshop aims to advance scholarly research and discussion on the appropriation, localization, adaptation, adjustment, maintenance, repair, use and reconfiguration in use of computing and related technologies in the context of Mediterranean, Southern and Southeastern Europe. We are interested in contributions that rely on historical and STS perspectives in order to address issues of relevance to the discourses and materialities of computing technology and science. Especially welcomed are: papers that address critically the rhetoric of universalism surrounding computing and related technologies; papers on the co-shaping of technology and society, from angles that take into account issues of relevance to work, leisure, gender, race, ethnicity, disability and borders/migration;  and papers on the public history of computing and related technologies, which are in conversation with fields like Cultural and Media Studies, Cultural Heritage, Museum Studies,  Digital History, Science Communication, Digital Heritage and Digital Humanities.

Submissions may relate (without being limited) to the following topics:

·       Histories of computing, from mainframes to microcomputers (home and personal)

·       The emergence of the internet, the web, email and the social media in the European South

·       Historical and STS perspectives on the technologies associated with the so called ‘4th Industrial Revolution’: Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Algorithms, Internet of Things

·       Historical and STS perspectives on Automation, Robotics, Cybernetics

Deadline for abstract submissions (250 words, plus a brief author CV): May 2nd 2021. Workshop participants will be invited to contribute to a special journal issue and an edited volume, which will focus, respectively, on historical and STS perspectives. Details on all of the above will be provided through the workshop website, which will become available together with the Second Call for Papers later in the spring of 2021.

Initial Workshop Committee (to be completed by interested scholars from other countries):

Aristotle Tympas, Professor, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Maria Roussou, Assistant Professor, Department of Informatics and Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens / Vice-Chair, Greek ACM-Women Chapter / Museum of Informatics and Telecommunications, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Giorgos Zoukas, Postdoctoral Fellow, Greek State Scholarships Foundation / Department of History and Philosophy of Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Abstract submissions: gzoukas@phs.uoa.gr

For any inquiries, please contact: Giorgos Zoukas (gzoukas@phs.uoa.gr)