Forwarded on behalf of James Sumner, who is having trouble posting to the list: ______________________ -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Possible panel: BSHS, St Andrews, Scotland, 3-6 July Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:58:27 +0000 From: James Sumner <james.sumner@manchester.ac.uk> To: members@sigcis.org Dear SIGCIS listmembers I am looking at putting together a panel on "representations of the computer" (or similar) for the upcoming British Society for the History of Science meeting in St Andrews: http://www.bshs.org.uk/conferences/annual-conference/2014-standrews Following a couple of years working on some all-consuming projects in other areas, I'm now picking up on plans to look at the long-term history of computer use and promotion in the UK, looking in particular at the cultural trends and policy agendas that informed the discourse. I've recently been in contact with Hannah Grenham (http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/postgrad/postgraduates/hannahgrenham. html), a PhD student at the University of St Andrews -- the host institution -- who turns out to be working on conveniently similar material for the USA. The BSHS's directions for panels specifically encourage bringing together researchers at different career stages, so this looked like an obvious basis to try to build a panel. The deadline is fairly close: Monday 10 February. I'd therefore be very interested to hear soon from anyone who might be interested in contributing to a panel. Something based on another national context would be ideal, but we can be flexible. I'm also interested to hear from potential chairs or commentators: all details of format are given in the "Guidelines for Themed Panel Organisers" provided at the link above. For those who don't know the series, I can heartily recommend BSHS as a smallish (3 to 4 parallel tracks, usually somewhere between 100 and 200 attendees) and distinctly friendly meeting: those who visited the huge International Congress in Manchester last summer, and appreciated the range of social events and entertainments, were for the most part experiencing approaches first developed at BSHS and blown up to larger proportions. The Society's remit covers the histories of technology and medicine, and both are always well represented on the programme. St Andrews is an interesting and quiet (though not remote) location: for details and links, see the BSHS website as above. I'd be happy to help out if you have any questions. All best James