[SIGCIS-Members] CFP: SHOT 2012 Conference, 4-7 Oct in Copenhagen. Deadline 31 March.

[Deborah Douglas]

Dear Catherine,

I'm very sorry for that impression as the Society has been an exceptionally warm and stimulating intellectual home for me for more than a quarter-century.  The conferences are small (300-400 participants) and extremely welcoming of scholars from all disciplines as well as many who do not call themselves historians.  I've listened to awesome presentations as well as some incredibly dull ones but I've never failed to go home without the sense that at least one or two Roman Candles have been set off in my mind.   One of the most important parts of these conferences are the field trips, which have taken me atop of dams, over bridges, inside steel mills, and onto auto assembly lines over the years.  Last year's plenary on the events following the tsunami in Japan was exceptionally helpful.  

The lesson from Thomas' note is that great sessions take work to create and put together.  Like most things in life, there is not a guarantee that a slot can be found but the Program Committee tries to balance many things to make the program as diverse as possible.  (As the chair of the Albatross Special Interest Group (Aviation and Space History), some in that group would love to have an "all-aviation and space conference" but, obviously, it's good to have some sessions on computing, etc.    In general, I've often found that I've learned the most from sessions wholly outside my area of expertise.  

So I'm a bit less cynical than Thomas and would like to suggest you come to Copenhagen next fall or to Portland in 2013.  Perhaps others might share there impressions of the Annual Meeting as I'm sure the conversation would benefit the Society greatly.

Regards,

Debbie Douglas

On Feb 16, 2012, at 4:34 PM, Catherine Lathwell wrote:

> Dear Thomas,
> 
> The SHOT conference sounds dreadful however I am so happy to be receiving your mails that hardly matters.
> 
> Thank you for letting me into your group.  I very much appreciate the collegiality.
> 
> Best Regards,
> Catherine Lathwell
> 
> 
> http://www.aprogramminglanguage.com
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Deborah G. Douglas, Ph.D. • Curator of Science and Technology, MIT Museum, Room N51-209 • 265 Massachusetts Avenue • Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 • http://web.mit.edu/museum  •  http://museum.mit.edu/150 • ddouglas at mit.edu •  617-253-1766 phone  •  617-253-8994 fax
					
Spring Semester 2012 • Research Associate, Program in Science, Technology, and Society • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room E51-179B • 77 Massachusetts Avenue • Cambridge, MA 02139-4307 • 617-452-3545 phone








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