The Mobility in History Blog invites researchers and advanced graduate students to submit proposals for contributions to an online exhibit on the theme of “People-Works: The Labor of Transport.” The online exhibit explores the role of human labor in the powering of transport throughout history and across area contexts. It aims to illuminate the central role that human labor has played (and continues to play) in transport, despite our grand historical narratives of automation and mechanization, and to move the history of transport away from studies of disembodied networks to studies of the people who make the networks actually “work.” Each module will explore the history of one kind of transport labor, either over time or in a particular time and place.
We envision that each exhibit module will include around 1,000 words of text and several images and/or other media. We aim for it to appeal to a general, educated audience beyond specialists in transport history. Modules will be peer-reviewed. The exhibit will appear online at the Mobility in History Blog in November 2018.
We encourage scholars of all periods and area contexts to apply. Abstracts for proposed modules should be 150-250 words long, and should include a tentative list of media that the module might include. The deadline for proposals is February 15, 2018. Acceptances will be sent out by March 1, 2018.
Contact Info:
Please send inquiries and abstracts to Kate McDonald, Online Exhibit Guest Editor (kmcdonald@history.ucsb.edu), and Michael K. Bess, Mobility in History Blog Editor-in-Chief (michael.bess@cide.edu).