Call
for Proposals
The
Second International Drive History Conference: Putting Automotive Heritage on
the Road
Date: April 12-14, 2018
Location:
Historic Vehicle Association, National Laboratory, Allentown, PA, USA
The Second International Drive
History Conference on the preservation of automotive heritage, April 2018, as part
of Automotive Heritage Month, organized by:
·
The
Historic Vehicle Association (HVA)
·
College
of Charleston (Historic Preservation and Community Planning Program)
·
Society
of Automotive Historians
·
The
NB Center for American Automotive Heritage
·
The
Revs Institute®
Are pleased to announce the
following call for papers.
During the twentieth-century,
heritage preservation primarily focused on immobile objects. This is
significant when we consider how much of our global economy, landscape, built
environment, culture, and way of life has been affected by the automobile and
associated infrastructure. Automobiles have been purposefully designed as
much as any modern building. Therefore, we must engage the broader cultural
phenomena of cars in order to answer the difficult questions pertaining to
human needs and desires that are inseparably intertwined with time and place.
Furthermore, cars have been interpreted and re-interpreted in complex ways that
often go beyond the original intentions of their designers. Automobiles are a material
cultural objects not only of broad and powerful social, economic and political impact,
but also of great complexity, and as such they must be contextualized in
cultural research if they are to be understood.
Studying automobiles within the
field of heritage studies raises questions related to heritage management as
since motor vehicles are deeply embedded in identity formation within many
societies. Since UNESCO has declared heritage as a human right; therefore, by
extension the automotive past requires consideration, evaluation, and
stewardship. Automobile history is also all about the present and future, in
addition to the past. Therefore, this aspect of heritage applies to cultural
policy makers and practitioners as well as those engineering the future of
transportation and the built environment. Comprehensive stewardship of the
automotive past also entails recording, interpreting, and documenting the
experience of using and being transported in a motor vehicle, as well as the
trades skills and craftsmanship of automobile design, assembly, and
maintenance; besides the physical conservation interventions of cars. Hence the
creation of National Historic Vehicle Register (NHVR), which is a tool that can
be used to carefully and accurately study and honor the most historically
significant automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, and commercial vehicles, as well
as recognize the dynamic relationship between people, culture, and their means
of transportation. The NHVR was developed by the Historic Vehicle Association
(HVA) in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Library
of Congress in March 2013 to explore how vehicles important to American and
automotive history could be effectively documented (https://historicvehicle.org/national-historic-vehicle-register/).
In
a manner of speaking, the heritage studies of automobiles is a parallel if not
conjoined field with studying the immovable built environment, and thus
provides an opportunity to reflect and refract on the way tangible preservation
is conducted, as well as relationships with intangible heritage traditions.
Conference
presentations will be organized according to three thematic tracks, which are:
1. Preserving
the Artifact
2. Interpretation
and Documentation
3. Education,
Media, and Sharing
Conference
presentations will be organized according to three thematic tracks, which are
Preserving the Artifact; Interpretation and Documentation; and Education,
Media, and Sharing. Suggested presentation topics may include, but are not
limited to:
·
Case studies of best practices related to
preservation, conservation, restoration, adaptive reuse, and reconstruction of
automobiles and associated material culture.
·
Innovative ways to add the preservation of automotive
heritage to the educational curriculum within colleges/universities, high
schools, and technology schools, especially using an interdisciplinary approach
(Museum Studies, Public History, Preservation Practice, Ethnography, etc.).
·
Case studies of regional and local automotive culture
and heritage, including those viewed through the lens of ethnic/regional
studies (American studies, Women’s studies, material culture studies, studies
of nomadic peoples, etc.)
·
Considering if there is a world automotive heritage, and
whether UNESCO or ICOMOS should be encouraged to get involved, and the role of
FIVA (Fédération Internationale des
Véhicules Anciens) as part of this.
·
Reevaluating listed historic places and sites, as well
as considering new places where buildings and landscapes (etc.) are tied with
vehicles and people, in a more comprehensive designation that ties together the
NHVR and NRHP, where both building/structure and car/vehicle elements are
equally contributing.
·
The role of motor sport as an element of
international, national sport and regional sport and its history.
·
The impact and role of the automobile in leisure and
recreation during the industrial era and into the technetronic age.
·
Automobility and the environment, such as the
rehabilitation of historic automobiles, and its relationships with energy
efficiency, embodied energy and so forth in transportation (“is the greenest car one that has already been
built?”)
·
Analyzing the contributions of automotive preservation
heritage events, auto shows, museums, etc. to the economy and tourism –
information that is not always fully included in Main Street programs and other
economic development initiatives related to preservation planning.
The
program committee invites proposals from people of all backgrounds and
professions to participate – from senior professionals to students with
innovative ideas – for the following:
1. Paper Session: We prefer to receive proposals
for complete three to four paper sessions but will consider individual
presentations as well. You are welcome to include a chair and/or moderator or
the conference committee will appoint a chair. The entire panel presentation
should span no more than 60 minutes.
2. Individual Papers: If accepted, we will place
your individual presentation on a panel or roundtable selected by the
committee. Paper presentations should span no more than 20 minutes.
3.
Roundtables: Discussions facilitated by a moderator with three to five
participants about a historical or professional topic or issue. Roundtables
should span no more than 60 minutes.
Please
submit proposals of no more than 500 words and a brief CV/resume (two pages
maximum) in a PDF or MSWord format to Barry L. Stiefel at stiefelb@cofc.edu. Proposals
will be reviewed on a rolling basis between November 1, 2017 and January 5,
2018. Proposals should include the name(s) of presenters, affiliation/position,
and contact information. While the Historic Vehicle Association is based in North
America, we desire this to be an international conference and encourage international
participation. English is the official language of the conference. From the conference,
we anticipate publishing a special edition of an academic journal.
A
registration fee will be required for the conference ($350 early bird/$450 late
registration), which will include three lunches, two dinners, and
snacks/beverages at the conference, as well as a one-year membership with the
HVA. For currently enrolled students traveling more than 100 miles to
Allentown, Pennsylvania assistance with travel and accommodations for the
conference will be considered. Please provide documentation of your current
course schedule, a budget of what you need assistance with in your proposal, as
well as what other resources from which you anticipate receiving support.
Conference
Organizers:
Mark
D. Gessler, President, Historic Vehicle Association
H.
Donald Capps, Society of Automotive Historians
L.
Scott George, The Revs Institute
Review
Committee:
Robert
Casey, Society of Automotive Historians
Ed
Garten, Society of Automotive Historians
Amanda
Gutierez, McPherson College
John
Heitmann, Society of Automotive Historians
Bruce
Judd, Goucher College
Casey
Maxon, Historic Vehicle Association
Richard
O'Connor, Chief, National Park Service Heritage Documentation Program, Dept of
the Interior
Michael
Shanks, Stanford University
Fred
Simeone, Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum
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