March 2023 - Members - lists.sigcis.org

PhD Position: History of Public/Political Cybernetics
by Jacob Ward 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

Dear colleagues, I’m pleased to announce that I have an open, fully-funded PhD position in the history of public and/or political cybernetics. The PhD project will investigate how cybernetics influenced new ideas and practices regarding public and/or political institutions in the post-1945 period. Beyond this, the successful candidate will be free to shape the scope and focus of the project (geographical, chronological, etc.). You can read more about the position here: https://www.academictransfer.com/en/325445/phd-candidate-in-the-history-of-… . The application deadline is April 5th, and the preferred starting date for the position is September 1st. I will be the lead supervisor and the promoter/co-supervisor will be Prof. Cyrus Mody. Please forward this to any interested candidates, who can contact me on my work e-mail ( j.ward(a)maastrichtuniversity.nl) if they have further questions about the position. Apologies for cross-posting, and thank you for reading. Best wishes, Jacob *Jacob Ward * *Assistant Professor (tenured) in History and STS* *Department of History/MUSTS Research Cluster* *Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences* *Maastricht University* j.ward(a)maastrichtuniversity.nl https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/j.ward <https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.maast…> Visiting address: 2.031, Grote Gracht 80-82, 6211 SZ Maastricht Mailing address: FASoS/History Maastricht University P.O. Box 616 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands

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PhD Position: History of Public/Political Cybernetics
by Ward, Jacob (HISTORY) 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

Dear colleagues, I'm pleased to announce that I have an open PhD position in the history of public and/or political cybernetics. The PhD project will investigate how cybernetics influenced new ideas and practices regarding public and/or political institutions in the post-1945 period. Beyond this, the successful candidate will be free to shape the scope and focus of the project (geographical, chronological, etc.). You can read more about the position here: https://www.academictransfer.com/en/325445/phd-candidate-in-the-history-of-…. The application deadline is April 5th, and the preferred starting date for the position is September 1st. I will be the lead supervisor and the promoter/co-supervisor will be Prof. Cyrus Mody. Please forward this to any interested candidates, who can contact me (j.ward(a)maastrichtuniversity.nl<mailto:j.ward@maastrichtuniversity.nl>) if they have further questions about the position. Apologies for cross-posting, and thank you for reading. Best wishes, Jacob Jacob Ward Assistant Professor (tenured) in History and STS Department of History/MUSTS Research Cluster Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences j.ward(a)maastrichtuniversity.nl <mailto:j.ward@maastrichtuniversity.nl> https://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/j.ward<https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.maast…> Visiting address: 2.031, Grote Gracht 80-82, 6211 SZ Maastricht Mailing address: FASoS/History Maastricht University P.O. Box 616 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands

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EVENT: Preserving and Analyzing Digital Texts [Online]
by James A Hodges 20 Mar '23

20 Mar '23

Greetings all, and please excuse the cross-promotion: I'm running a free online event April 21, sponsored by Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School Preserving and Analyzing Digital Texts Date: 21 April 2023 Time: 3:00-4:30 p.m. ET Location: Zoom Join us for a virtual symposium exploring the materiality and historical value of digital texts, with special attention paid to methods for preservation and analysis. Everyone is welcome to attend this free event. Advance registration is required: https://bit.ly/digitaltextsSJSU Emily Maemura is Assistant Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on data practices and the activities of curation, description, characterization, and re-use of archived web data. She is interested in approaches and methods for working with archived web data in the form of large-scale research collections, considering diverse perspectives of the internet as an object and site of study. She previously worked as an academic librarian at Ryerson University in Toronto. Her work has been published in the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology and the International Journal of Digital Humanities. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information, with a dissertation exploring the practices of collecting and curating web pages and websites for future use by researchers in the social sciences and humanities. Ryan Cordell’s scholarship seeks to illuminate how technologies of production, reception, circulation, and remediation shape the meanings of texts within historical communities, as well as how the complexities of historical texts pressure modern scholarly infrastructure. He is currently Associate Professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Before joining the UIUC iSchool, Ryan Cordell was Associate Professor of English at Northeastern University and a core founding faculty member in the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks. Cordell primarily studies circulation and reprinting in nineteenth-century American newspapers, but his interests extend to the influence of digitization and computation on contemporary reading, writing, and research. He collaborates with colleagues in English, History, and Computer Science on the Viral Texts project, which uses robust data mining tools to discover borrowed texts across large-scale archives of nineteenth-century periodicals. He is also a practicing letterpress printer who explores intersections between historical and contemporary information technologies through the lens of maker culture. Cordell is a Senior Fellow in the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School and serves as the Delegate Assembly Representative for the MLA’s Forum on Digital Humanities. Benjamin Charles Germain Lee is a Ph.D. candidate in the Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington, where he works with Professor Daniel Weld and is a member of the Lab for Human-AI Interaction. Previously, he was a 2020 Innovator in Residence at the Library of Congress. He is currently pursuing research toward a dissertation at the intersection of machine learning and human-computer interaction, with application to cultural heritage and the digital humanities. His Ph.D. research is supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship in machine learning. Before beginning his Ph.D., he was the inaugural Digital Humanities Associate Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as well as a Visiting Fellow in Harvard’s History Department. Benjamin also writes essays, which have appeared in Current Affairs, Gawker, Real Life, and GoldFlakePaint. James A. Hodges is Assistant Professor in the San José State University School of Information, where he studies digital archives and preservation with a particular focus on the history of computing. His current book project uses digital forensics to uncover the technical legacy of 1960s counterculture in early multimedia software. Prior to joining SJSU, James was Bullard Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Texas at Austin School of Information. He is also a Junior Fellow in the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at Rare Book School as well as Senior Book Reviews Editor for Information & Culture. He earned his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in 2020, and his work has appeared in journals such as Journal of Documentation, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Internet Histories, New Media & Society, and Information Research. -- *JAMES A. HODGES, PH.D. *(he/him/his) Assistant Professor San José State University School of Information http://www.jameshodges.net Senior Book Reviews Editor Information & Culture <https://infoculturejournal.org/> Member, Committee on Publication Ethics <https://publicationethics.org/> (COPE) Junior Fellow, Rare Book School Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography <https://rarebookschool.org/admissions-awards/fellowships/sofcb/>

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CFP: "Engineering Events: Technologies of Performance" (SHOT 2023 Open Session—Abstracts 3/20)
by Scott Kushner 13 Mar '23

13 Mar '23

Dear SIGCISians, As Paul Ceruzzi reminded me over the weekend, I'm proposing an open session for the SHOT 2023—and the date is drawing nigh! It may be of interest to scholars working on the computerization of performance infrastructures and other topics related to theater, music, dance, and other forms of performance and exhibition. Feel free to be in touch with any inquiries. See below or visit https://tinyurl.com/shot-performance-tech. Abstracts by March 20 to scottkushner(a)uri.edu. ENGINEERING EVENTS: TECHNOLOGIES OF PERFORMANCE Organizer: Scott Kushner, University of Rhode Island (scottkushner(a)uri.edu) Accounting, amplifying, autotuning, broadcasting, concealing, crowd controlling, designing, displaying, fencing, filming, lighting, loading-in, marketing, monitor mixing, rigging, simulcasting, sound engineering, staging, striking, surveilling, ticketing, transporting, wayfinding: performance events are inseparable from technological interventions. These technologies all have their own histories, and each conspires with other technologies, practices, and discourses to form an assemblage of technical operations. This SHOT session will explore the histories of technologies that support and surround performance—music, theater, sport, and other cultural formations where large groups of people watch small groups of people do things. Technologies of performance can dazzle audiences or hide in plain sight, but they all structure the possibilities of entertainment and the social parameters of performing or audiencing. How have technical instruments of performance interacted with familiar social divides such as gender, race, class, and ability? How have technologies shaped who may perform or attend, whose labor is valued or devalued, whose financial or political interests are served or sidelined? The significance of this work to the history of technology lies in concentrating discussion about the ways that technological interventions have shaped the production, consumption, and possibilities of cultural performance. Scholars at various career levels (graduate students through senior scholars, and all throughout the various dimensions of the academic-labor dominion) working on projects at all stages of development (new ideas, works-in-progress, magna opera) may propose papers exploring technologies of performance from the perspective of innovators, implementers, users, performers, audiences, and/or excluded parties. Proposals engaging with any era and geographic context are welcome. Procedure: Those interested in proposing presentations for potential inclusion in this session will kindly prepare one-page abstracts and a one-page CVs with current contact information. Please submit materials to Scott Kushner (scottkushner(a)uri.edu) by March 20, 2023. If you will be a first-time SHOT presenter, do not hold a tenure-stream position, are a graduate student (or no more than two years from receipt of a terminal academic degree), and wish to be considered for the Robinson Prize, please indicate as much in your abstract. (Find information about the Robinson Prize at the Robinson Prize page at the SHOT website: https://www.historyoftechnology.org/about-us/awards-prizes-and-grants/joan-… ) -- Scott Kushner Associate Professor Department of Communication Studies Harrington School of Communication and Media University of Rhode Island 312 Davis Hall 10 Lippitt Rd. Kingston, R.I. 02881 +1 (401) 874-5223 scottkushner(a)uri.edu

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CfP: After Post-Photography 8 (June 1-3, 2023)
by Friedrich Tietjen 13 Mar '23

13 Mar '23

Dear SIGCIS, find below the call for papers for the After Post-Photography conference I'm happy to co-organize. If any of you does research on the history of digital cameras, scanners, AI-based image generation, photorealism in video-games or similar subjects we'd be delighted to receive your papers. And if you happen to know colleagues in that line of research, please fwd the CfP to them. Any questions, drop me a line. Many greetings Friedrich ---snip--- CFP: After Post-Photography 8 - Presence and Absence International conference on visual studies, history and theory of photography Deadline for submissions: 30 March 2023 Conference date: 1-3 June 2023, European University (St. Petersburg, Russia // online) Presence, as a category, is crucial for understanding photography. Since its early days, photography’s specificity as a medium and as a form of visual experience has been described in terms of presence. The first exuberant accounts of daguerreotype, aside from praising detailed and accurate representation, highlighted a peculiar viewer’s feeling of being present in the depicted space. Further on, viewing a stereophotograph was experienced as an almost physical immersion, a stereoscope and a pair of images being a “portal” into an imaginary world. The experience of presence associated with photography is at the intersection of the rational and the magical, the material and the visual. The mystical ideas related to pseudoscience: that of “grasping” physical emanations, shadows, invisible energies – stem from rationalistic understanding of photography as a tool for cognition, documentation of real world phenomena, and photographic images as directly connected with objects. The feeling of presence of people and objects depicted in the photograph is also mystical to an extent. The practice of wearing photographic portraits of loved ones in wallets, pendants, and, more recently, on the screensavers of mobile phones secures a symbolic presence and connection at a distance - not only through sight, but also through touch. The category of “presence” is productive in relation to the photographer's figure as well: especially in the mid-XX century documentary photography, physical presence in the vicinity of an event was regarded as a sort of confirmation of authenticity and authority, and to witness something in-person meant gaining stronger grounds in debates concerning ethics and social responsibility. As institutional and social histories develop, researchers question forms of visual agency: what are the conditions of becoming visible and gaining presence in the general picture of the world? Photographic presence and absence can happen in a lot of different ways. Photographic images can be applied to highlight, generate, select and obscure persons, objects, events and relations; they can render them special, ordinary, normal or boring. While society treats photographic image as a valid representative of someone or something absent, the notion of presence is of high social and political importance. And the practices of selection, composition, contextualizing and fragmenting performed by artists, curators or algorithms are far from neutral and directly impact our life. In light of the events of 2022-2023 it is most valid to interpret “presence” as a form of political pressure, an impact on the balance of power, and, on the other hand, as a bizarre form of participation-at-a-distance in the life of a family or community. Presence and absence can be understood both positively and negatively: presence could mean both representation and imposition of one's will, and absence can signify vital omissions, as well as indifference. We invite potential speakers to reflect on these and many other questions related to these two categories. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: • The image is the real thing: Photographic replacements • Skype and Zoom: Visual telepresence and other panoptical experiences • This can't be me: Non-representation through photography • Mobile presence: The smartphone as representation of the self • Photographic decay: What do faded photographs tell? • Technical blindness - what photography can't see or show • Photographic media and their audiences • You'll only see this once: Technical ephemerality • Photographs of what never has been: Retouching, rendering and other technologies of photo-realism As it was the case with previous conferences however, After Post-Photography is driven by a general curiosity in subjects of photography. Thus, there is only ground rule for submitting a paper to After Post-Photography: If you‘re doing Sociology, Nuclear Physics, Ethnology, Computer Sciences, Gender Studies, Meteorology, Law, Memory Studies, Criminology, Architecture, Archaeology, Botany, Mathematics, Numismatics, Astronomy, Game Studies, Oenology, Art History or any other discipline from science and humanities and your research involves photography in the broadest sense, we are happy to receive your paper. Please submit your application, including a short summary of your paper (250-400 words) only in English no later than March 30, 2023. Use the following link: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=app8 ; do not send submissions per eMail. Note that you need to register at the Easychair website in order to submit your application. Should you like to get in touch with us prior to your submission, please write to app(a)mur.at. There is no participation fee for the conference, neither for speakers nor for guests; should you like to support the conference however, let us know. Within the current situation, traveling options are impossible to predict which is why we plan for a hybrid conference. The working languages of the conference are Russian and English, and during the conference, both papers and discussions will be translated. For programs of After Post-Photography conferences since 2015, please see www.after-post.photography We would sincerely appreciate it if you would circulate the call to your own networks and other mailing lists. Organizing committee After Post Photography 8: Maria Gourieva, Olga Davydova, Daria Panaiotti, Friedrich Tietjen

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History courses in CS departments
by Evan Koblentz 13 Mar '23

13 Mar '23

Hi everyone, I've been teaching a special topics course in computer history for three semesters here at NJIT. The university policy is three semesters maximum, then the course must be made permanent or cancelled. So I'm going through the process of trying to make it permanent. The department administration supports it, but it has to be voted on by the rank-and-file faculty, many of whom don't seem to understand the value of a history course -- or at least not of a history course in a technical department, rather than through our humanities college. It would help if I can show them other examples. Can anyone point me existing examples of history courses in CS, EE, or other technical departments at U.S. universities? -- Evan Koblentz New Jersey Institute of Technology - Senior Writer, Office of Strategic Communications - Adjunct Instructor, Ying Wu College of Computing - Faculty/Staff Advisor, NJIT Lego Club evank(a)njit.edu (973) 596-3065 https://web.njit.edu/~evank

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CfA Funding for Research Sabbaticals and Cooperations at CAIS
by Esther Laufer 13 Mar '23

13 Mar '23

The Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) funds innovative projects that deal with the social opportunities and challenges of the digital transformation. We support individual researchers and groups. You want to spend a sabbatical in a vibrant interdisciplinary research community? Become a fellow at CAIS! A fellowship at the Center for Advanced Internet Studies (CAIS) releases you from your regular work obligations and opens up new perspectives. As a fellow, you can spend either six or three months in Bochum, Germany. During this period, we will finance your sabbatical leave from work through compensation (e.g. for a substitute). Alternatively, we will pay grants of up to 2.000 € per month. You can invite guests for collaboration and will receive financial support for research expenses. Individual offices and meeting rooms with modern facilities offer optimal working conditions. In addition, we will provide comfortable apartments free of charge. Find out more at https://www.cais-research.de/en/cais-college/fellowships/ You want to boost your collaboration? Bring your group together at CAIS! Working groups bring together experts from different locations to work on joint projects in an inspiring environment. We provide modern meeting facilities for working groups of up to twelve members. In addition, we will cover travel and accommodation expenses. You can spend up to three weeks in Bochum or get together for several shorter meetings. Find out more at https://www.cais-research.de/en/cais-college/working-groups/ Application The next deadline for applications is 30 April 2023. The earliest possible starting date for new fellowships is April 2024. The earliest possible starting date for new working groups is January 2024. You can also combine both programs. Please use the application forms provided on our website. The funding program is open to excellent scholars and practitioners, to all career stages, disciplines and areas of investigation, as well as to pure research and to projects that are more applied in orientation. Further questions? Please contact esther.laufer(a)cais-research.de mailto:esther.laufer@cais-research.de.

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Podcast review Cortada "Birth of Modern Facts"
by Bernardo Batiz-Lazo 12 Mar '23

12 Mar '23

I had a good chat with Jim Cortada about his latest book and ideas of the importance of information. Follow the link below to the podcasts. Best wishes Bernardo (Anahuac / Northumbria) https://overcast.fm/+QQk6sipk Sent from my iPhone. Please excuse my brevity.

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SHOT "Unconventional" session
by Ceruzzi, Paul 11 Mar '23

11 Mar '23

I got some encouragement from several members, and I will respond to them separately rather than clutter up the listserv. The SHOT description of the sessions is found here: https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2023-shot-annual-meeting… [https://s0.wp.com/i/blank.jpg]<https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2023-shot-annual-meeting…> 2023 SHOT Annual Meeting – Unconventional sessions<https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2023-shot-annual-meeting…> Preparing and submitting an unconventional session proposal. Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) Annual Meeting – Long Beach (California) www.historyoftechnology.org I see my contribution as what we used to call a "Poster Session." I don't have the desire to do a formal paper presentation. No guarantee that it would be accepted.. Best, Paul Ceruzzi

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SHOT 2023 Long Beach
by Ceruzzi, Paul 10 Mar '23

10 Mar '23

Hello: I wonder if any SIGCIS members (other than Scott Kushner) are planning to propose a session at SHOT in Long Beach. I have an idea for an "Unconventional Session" (see the SHOT web page), but it would be a long shot. Deadline is April 1. Best, Paul Ceruzzi

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