The Society for the History of Technology (SHOT) is the primary professional society for historians of
technology
Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
. SHOT was founded in 1958 in the United States, and it has since become an international society with members "from some thirty-five countries throughout the Americas,
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
,
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
, and
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
." SHOT owes its existence largely to the efforts of Professor
Melvin Kranzberg
Melvin Kranzberg (November 22, 1917 – December 6, 1995) was an American historian, and professor of history at Case Western Reserve University from 1952 until 1971. He was a Callaway professor of the history of technology at Georgia Tech from 1 ...
(1917–1995) and an active network of engineering educators. SHOT co-founders include John B. Rae,
Carl W. Condit,
Thomas P. Hughes
Thomas Parke Hughes (September 13, 1923 – February 3, 2014) was an American historian of technology. He was an emeritus professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting professor at MIT and Stanford.
He received his Ph.D. ...
, and
Eugene S. Ferguson.
SHOT's flagship publication is the journal ''
Technology and Culture
''Technology and Culture'' is a quarterly academic journal founded in 1959. It is an official publication of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), whose members routinely refer to it as "T&C." Besides scholarly articles and critical ...
'', published by the
Johns Hopkins University Press. Kranzberg served as editor of ''Technology and Culture'' until 1981, and was succeeded as editor by Robert C. Post until 1995, and John M. Staudenmaier from 1996 until 2010. Suzanne Moon then took over, from 2010 to 2020. The current editor of ''Technology and Culture'' is Ruth Oldenziel at the Eindhoven University of Technology. SHOT is an affiliate of the
American Council of Learned Societies and the
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
and publishes a book series with the
Johns Hopkins University Press
The Johns Hopkins University Press (also referred to as JHU Press or JHUP) is the publishing division of Johns Hopkins University. It was founded in 1878 and is the oldest continuously running university press in the United States. The press publi ...
entitled "Historical Perspectives on Technology, Society, and Culture," under the co-editorship of
Pamela O. Long and
Asif Azam Siddiqi
Asif Azam Siddiqi is a Bangladeshi American space historian and a Guggenheim Fellowship winner. He is a professor of history at Fordham University. He specializes in the history of science and technology and modern Russian history. He has writ ...
. Pamela O. Long is the recipient of a
MacArthur Foundation "Genius Grant" for 2014.
The history of technology was traditionally linked to economic history and history of science, but its interactions are now equally strong with environmental history, gender history, business history, and labor history. SHOT annually awards two book prizes, the Edelstein Prize and the
Sally Hacker Sara "Sally" Lynn Hacker (''née'' Swank, September 25, 1936 – July 24, 1988) was a feminist sociologist who investigated cultures surrounding technology. She was interested in how changes in technology affected gender stratification.
Biograp ...
Prize, as well as the Kranzberg Dissertation Fellowship and the Brooke Hindle Postdoctoral Fellowship. Its highest award is the
Leonardo da Vinci Medal
The Leonardo da Vinci Medal is the highest award of the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT), and was first given in 1962. In general this award is granted annually to scholars who have contributed outstandingly to the history of technology ...
. Recipients of the medal include
Kranzberg
Kranzberg is a Municipalities of Germany, municipality in the district of Freising (district), Freising in Bavaria in Germany.
At Bernstorf, a part within the municipality of Kranzberg, a Bronze Age fortification was found in 1904 by local hi ...
, Ferguson, Post, Staudenmaier, Bart Hacker, and Brooke Hindle. In 1968 Kranzberg was also instrumental in the founding of a sister society, the International Committee for the History of Technology (
ICOHTEC). The two societies complement each other.
The Society for the History of Technology is dedicated to the historical study of technology and its relations with politics, economic, labor, business, the environment, public policy, science, and the arts. The society now numbers around 1500 members, and regularly holds annual meetings at non-North-American venues. SHOT also sponsors smaller conferences focused on specialized topics, often jointly with other scholarly societies and organizations.
Special Interest Groups
* The Albatrosses (technology of flight)
* SIGCIS: Computers, Information and Society
* Early Career Interest Group (ECIG)
* EDITH: Exploring Diversity in Technology's History
* Envirotech (technology and the natural environment)
* The Jovians (electrical technology)
* The
Lynn White, Jr. Society: Prior to the "Industrial Revolution"
* The Mercurians (communications technology)
* SMiTInG (military technology)
* The Pelicans (chemical technology)
* The Prometheans (engineering)
* SHOT Asia Network
* TEMSIG: Technology Museums Special Interest Group
* WITH: Women in Technological History
Annual meetings
* 2007 −
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
− October 17–21
* 2008 −
Lisbon
Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...
, Portugal − October 11–14
* 2009 −
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
, Pennsylvania − October 15–19
* 2010 −
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, Washington, Olympia, and northwest of Mount ...
− September 29 - October 4
* 2011 − Cleveland, Ohio − November 2–6
* 2012 −
Copenhagen
Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, Denmark − October 4–7
* 2013 −
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropol ...
- October 10–13
* 2014 −
Dearborn, Michigan - November 6–9
* 2015 −
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...
- October 7–11
* 2016 −
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
- June 22–26
* 2017 −
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
, Pennsylvania - October 26–29
* 2018 −
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
- October 10–14
* 2019 −
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, Italy - October 24–27
* 2020 −
- originally scheduled October 7–11
[See announcement https://www.historyoftechnology.org/annual-meeting/2020-shot-annual-meeting-7-11-october-new-orleans-louisiana/]
References
Further reading
* David A. Hounshell, "Eugene S. Ferguson, 1916-2004," Technology and Culture 45 (2004): 911–21
DOI*
ttps://doi.org/10.1353/tech.0.0380 Robert C. Post, "Chance and Contingency: Putting Mel Kranzberg in Context," Technology and Culture 50 (2009): 839-72. (DOI)Robert C. Post, "'A Very Special Relationship': SHOT and the Smithsonian's Museum of History and Technology," Technology and Culture 42 (2001): 401-35. (DOI)
External links
*
Sally Hacker PrizeEdelstein Prize
{{DEFAULTSORT:Society For The History Of Technology
History of science organizations
History of technology
Historical societies of the United States
Organizations established in 1958
Science and technology studies associations
1958 establishments in the United States