 |
 |
| |
 | |
| |
| |
 | |
     
|
|
WITH
What is WITH?
Women in Technological History (WITH) is a Special Interest Group (SIG) within SHOT whose membership includes both men and women interested in gender issues. WITH has a two-fold purpose: to serve as a support group to encourage and energize women working within the profession and as an activist group that seeks to foster and promote gender analysis within the history of technology. As founding member and current SHOT President Daryl Hafter has written, WITH's goal is to nurture "the subject and the people."
Recent News and Activities
At the 1997 annual meeting held in Pasadena, WITH celebrated its twenty-first anniversary. The occasion was marked by recalling more than two decades of astonishing accomplishments and the recognition that there remains much work yet to be done. Since that meeting, the newsletter has been revived under the guiding hand of Debbie Douglas, and a WITH listserv has provided a forum for discussion and announcements on-line. On an administrative level, the group's leadership position was recast into a three-member executive board, with a European liaison. Through discussions held on the listserv, Amy Bix organized a WITH plenary panel for the Baltimore meeting in 1998, "WITH An Eye to the Future: Reassessing Directions in History of Technology," posing questions concerning ways to broaden the field, to be more inclusive of race, gender, and class issues, and to suggest future avenues for study. In October 2000 the conference "WRITING THE PAST, CLAIMING THE FUTURE: WOMEN AND GENDER IN SCIENCE, MEDICINE, AND TECHNOLOGY" at St. Louis University, St. Louis, MO allowed WITHniks to open conversations with scholars in related fields, exploring overlaps and differences in subject matter and central questions.
At the 2000 SHOT meeting in Munich, US-WITH and Euro-WITH members had a chance to meet and exchange ideas at a business meeting and garden buffet lunch arranged by Martina Blum of the Deutches Museum. Debbie Douglas not only compiled but imported many copies of the 2000 Newsletter for the event, and several new people joined the listserv. Ruth Oldenziel of Euro-WITH arranged for a WITH exhibit table, and WITH members lent copies of publications for an impressive collective display of the work we've all been doing.
WITH at SHOT '01 in San Jose
WITH is planning a business meeting and a social for the October 2001 meeting; details will be posted here as we proceed with plans. Several members have begun session planning on the listserv as the Call for Papers deadline approaches. In the fall any announcements and other agenda items for the meeting should be sent to Molly Berger.
Administrative Details
Membership in WITH is open to all members of SHOT. Dues are $5 collected at the annual meeting. Information for the newsletter should go to Dave Morton, who will issue pleas as usual for the 2001 edition. Requests to join the listserv (which is not limited to SHOT members) should be sent to Nina Lerman (please include a few sentences introducing yourself and your interests), as should corrections and comments about this web page.
WITH Executive Board 2000-2001:
Please feel free to contact any of us with questions about WITH or about gender issues in the history of technology.
Molly Berger, Case Western Reserve University: molly@rmrc.net European Liason: Should anyone wish to send correspondence, please do so to Molly W. Berger at |
|
|