What were the “new media” of the 18th-century, and how might Enlightenment practices of science, artistry, design, communication, surveillance, and fabrication speak to contemporary theories of media ecologies and media technologies? We are especially interested in comparative approaches to technologies of empire in the 18th-century. Possible lines of inquiry include: the relationship between techne and technology; how European scientific and artistic innovations borrowed from indigenous or non-European cultures; types of cross-cultural borrowings that led to intentional or accidental misunderstandings; divergent uses of technological practices.
We invite abstracts from scholars working in and across the history of race and empire, art and material culture, media studies, literary studies, science studies, and history of material texts.
Old Media/New Media: Comparative approaches to technologies of empire in the 18th-century, including scientific and artistic innovations that borrowed from indigenous or non-European cultures. 300-word abstract and one-page c.v. by 15 March 2017: Natania Meeker (nmeeker@usc.edu) and Paul Kelleher (pkelleh@emory.edu).
Fabrications, Old/New: Comparative and transhistorical approaches to 18th-century modes and technologies of fiction and fabrication, design, speculation, utopic projection, falsehood, untruth, libel, and slander. 300-word abstract and 1-page CV by March 15 to: Chi-ming Yang (cmyang@english.upenn.edu) and Sunil Agnani, sagnani1@uic.edu.
New Philology, Media Ecology: Papers engage Medienphilologie and/or media ecology in relation/application to 18th-century literary texts. How are these approaches, and their results concerning this period, related or distinct? 1 page abstract by 15 March 2017: Nicholas A. Rennie (nicholas.rennie@rutgers.edu) and Birgit Tautz (btautz@bowdoin.edu).