Jan 18, 2007 - Claremont, Calif. -

Technology and the Colony
February 8 - 9, 2007
Harvey Mudd College

This workshop explores the ways that colonial history changes traditional narratives in the history of technology, providing a way to offer a more truly global perspective on the social, cultural and political meanings of technological change.

Over the last thirty years, the study of technology in colonial and post colonial settings has expanded, giving us greater insights into the processes and practices of technological change as well as the social, political and cultural meanings of technology in parts of the world that historians of technology had previously ignored. Many studies have given us profound insights into the significance (and insignificance) of technology in colonies, but what is the broader significance of the colony for the history of technology?

We will discuss the state-of-the-art in current scholarship on technology, colonialism, and the post-colonial experience and collectively reconceptualize the still largely Eurocentric narratives that frame the history of technology.

Participants
Michael Adas, Rutgers University
David Biggs, UC-Riverside
Libbie Freed, SUNY- Potsdam
Daniel Headrick, Roosevelt University
Prakash Kumar, Colorado State University
Eun-Jeong Ma, Cornell University
Suzanne Moon, Harvey Mudd College
Ian Petrie, St. Joseph's College
Suman Seth, Cornell University
Esha Shah, University of Sussex

Thursday, Feb. 8, 5:30 p.m.
Galileo Hall

Keynote Address “The Challenge of the Colony in Technology History” by Michael Adas and Daniel Headrick

Michael Adas is Abraham E. Voorhees Professor of History and Board of Governors’ Chair at Rutgers University and is the author of the 2006 book “Dominance by Design: Technological Imperatives and America’s Civilizing Mission” and the award-winning book “Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology and Ideologies of Western Dominance.”

Daniel Headrick is Professor of Social Science and History at Roosevelt University and the author of two seminal works on the history of technology in colonial settings: “The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century” and “The Tentacles of Progress: Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism, 1850-1940.” He is currently working on a book about environment and technology in the colony.

Friday, Feb. 9, 9:30 a.m.–5:15 p.m.
Hixon-Riggs Room, Linde Activities Center
Workshop on Technology and the Colony (RSVP requested)

9:30–11:30 a.m.
"Environment and Technology in the Colony"
David Biggs– Machines in Colonial Gardens: Paths of Disruption, Destruction, and Invention in Vietnam’s Modern Past
Libbie Freed– Roads in French Central Africa: Networks of (Colonial) Power?
Daniel Headrick– Imperialism, Technology, and Environments

11:30 a.m.–noon
Lunch

1:00–3:00 p.m.
"De-centering the State"
Ian Petrie– Seeing Past the State: Social and Cultural Histories of Technology in 19th and 20th century India
Prakash Kumar– Colonial State and Science in South Asia: The Multivalent Genealogy of the Pusa Institute (est. 1905)
Esha Shah– Construction of Pre-colonial in Post-colonial History of Science and Technology: Tank Irrigation Technology of South India in Historical Perspective

3:00–3:15 p.m.
Break

3:14–5:15 p.m.
"Plural Societies: Configuring the Colony and the Post-colony"
Suman Seth– The Accursed String: Technology, Race and Violence in Colonial India
Pauline Kusiak/Suzanne Moon– Religion, Technology and Post-colonial Societies
Eun-Jeong Ma– Medicine in the Making in Postcolonial Korea: Controversies between Western pharmacists and Oriental physicians

The events are free and open to the public, and will be held on the Harvey Mudd College campus, 301 Platt Blvd., Claremont, Calif.

Those planning to attend the workshop on Feb. 9 who would like to stay for lunch should RSVP by sending an e-mail to moon@hmc.edu.

The lecture and workshop are sponsored by the The Hixon Forum for Responsive Science and Technology. For more information please contact Suzanne Moon at 909/621-8022 or send an email to moon@hmc.edu.