T2M Newsletter
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T 2M Newsletter International Association for the History of Transport, Trafc and Mobility T2M’s Executive Committee gathered for its traditional Mid-Year meeting in Helmond. and toured around Helmond on antique Solex mopeds. This photograph was taken in front of Helmond Castle In the background is one of two pigeon towers. See “Solex tours” inside May 2007 Number Contents: 2 EDITORIAL: EC elections President’s Page: T2M 2007 Volume IV Cartoons Solex Tours The Meeting Room View from the Street: Russia Conference News EDITORIAL Executive Committee Nominations Needed long with the election for President-elect, this if we do not get the requisite candidates coming Afall’s meeting in Helmond will also host elec- forward. Of course this does not mean that men tions for the Executive Committee (EC). should not apply; it does mean, however, that on election day a woman may be preferred irres- This year, up to six places are open on the EC pective of number of votes cast. To put this and members are strongly encouraged to con- another way, we will not know how the quota sider standing, or to put forward names of col- will be applied until after the election, but places leagues they would like to stand. will be awarded on the basis of satisfying the gender quota rst, and then lling other places There will be two separate elections: one will as necessary. be for up to four, four-year places; the other will be for two, two-year student places, set aside for Members probably don’t need reminding how Doctoral candidates. important the EC is, acting as a “cabinet” for the dissemination of ideas and, importantly, their Due to the association’s Internal Regulations – execution. A dynamic organization needs a which reect a concern for equity and justice dynamic EC, so, please feel free to put yourself – a heavy emphasis is being placed on recrui- – or other people – forward. ting women in order to maintain a required mini- mum one-third membership from each gender. Please send any names of nominees to either The EC is unfortunate in losing the services of Dick Van Den Brink, Gijs Mom or Drew White- Maggie Walsh, Michele Merger and – this year – legg. Should you wish to discuss informally what Heike Wolter in quick succession. These are big is involved in serving on the EC, please get in shoes to ll, but ll them we must. touch with Gijs Mom. According to the Internal Regulations, the six EC Drew Whitelegg places set aside for women will remain unlled Newsletter Editor Meanwhile send any news and items of interest to: Drew Whitelegg, MARIAL Center, Emory University, Briarcliff Campus, Atlanta GA 30306, USA. E-mail: [email protected] T2M Community Got any good T2M photos you’d like to Meanwhile, the T2M website continues to share? Another new aspect of the news- take shape, but we need your feedback. letter will be a regular photography feature Take a look and drop us a line at the news- where members can exhibit pictures they letter about things you like - and don’t like - have taken on their travels that would be about teh website, located at www.t2m.org. of interest to the T2M community. Obvi- We still aren’t hearing from enough mem- ously we don’t want holiday snaps but bers about their publications. Has no one pictures that document published anything anything at all in the different and perhaps unusual transport last 2 months? Let us know and help us modes and structures would be very wel- build a more interactive T2M community. come. E-mail: [email protected] T2M Newsletter, Volume IV, number 2, May 2007 2 President’s Page T2M 2007 t the end of last month, just tors of our secretariat ECMD at coming elections for new EC mem- Abefore Dutch Queen’s Day a dinner in the garden of a heri- bers and for a president-elect at (when the country’s latent monar- tage brick factory turned restau- noon, and in the afternoon two chism invaded the squares, pubs rant toasting on their hospitality in-depth discussions on the jour- and city councils in an outburst of and generosity. The mayor toas- nal situation (should we have a community celebration) T2M’s Exe- ted, too, welcoming, through us, new journal or should we stick with cutive Committee gathered for its all participants of the coming con- JTH?) and the state of the art in traditional mid-year meeting in the ference. ‘We are looking forward our eld of scholarship. On the city of Helmond, hotel West Ende, to receiving you,’ he said, insisting journal, we decided to continue location of our jubilee conference of that his town was rapidly beco- searching for an attractive publis- next October. ming one of the European centers her at least until the next meeting. of automotive research and deve- Regarding the state of the art the On antique Solex mopeds and lopment, design and heritage. He EC decided to continue and inten- under a summery sun, the com- offered us the city’s twelfth-cen- sify the debate, started at our mee- mittee toured the town and its sur- tury castle, now the municipal ting in York of two years ago, on roundings, and after the meeting museum, as the place to have where we stand in relation to adja- it hosted the mayor and his alder- our welcoming reception at the cent elds such as tourism history, man of Economic Affairs, as well start of the conference. transport policy and planning, and as members of the Board of Direc- In-between, we had a long, long public history. Our evaluation of meeting, a lot of burocratic stuff last year’s venue in Paris, where The canal in Helmond in the morning, a review of the Vincent Kaufmann and Vanessa T2M Newsletter, Volume IV, number 2, May 2007 3 Schwarz rounded up the main role in and outside academia, buil- in the making. And your presen- themes of the conference, led to ding conceptual bridges towards tations, during Friday to Sunday, the recommendation to continue planners and policy makers, engi- reach from design and heritage to this tradition during the next annual neers and museum curators, enri- socialist tourism and the cars in events. And we discussed the Cul- ching general history with a James Bond movies, from moto- tural Turn our eld is currently narrative and analysis of moving risation in Africa to tourism in engaged in, asking ourselves how things, knowledge and people, Bangkok, from Foucaultian trafc to keep the transition process transgressing modal and national regulation in Belgium to belletristic going, and how to further enhance boundaries, and bringing to center literature as historical source, from the quality of our presentations and stage those methodologies and world mobility heritage to âneries debates on this topic, as well as approaches that have hitherto been over the internet, from women pilots the submissions to our journal. We lingering at the fringes of our eld. to the design of nineteenth-century decided to include a special ple- By now, all submitters of abstracts railroad timetables, and from the nary session dedicated to these and sessions must have received design of horses to terrorism and issues involving all interested par- a message from the local Pro- mobility. ties so as to enable the EC to gramme Committee (if not, please Here, in the Netherlands, we are make its decisions upon a much contact the secretariat immedia- busy setting up a social programme broader basis of engagement of tely): like in Paris, we have nearly for whomever you wish to invite as T2M’s members. a hundred presentations, including a companion, to join us in celebra- The EC’s eighth meeting made keynote speaches by Victoria de ting the fth event this association one thing perfectly clear: now that Grazia and David Gartman, and a is about to realise. Soon, we will the construction of our organisation special plenary session on design open registration on our website. comes to a close after four years of in the history of mobility. On the We will let you know. hard work, it is about time to Thursday just before the ofcial dedicate our energies fully to the start of the conference, we will have Gijs Mom goals we started this association a Heritage Day where we hope for in the rst place: giving trans- to build an international network port and mobility history its proper around our Virtual Mobility Museum T2M 2007 Fifth Annual Conference of the International Association for the History of Transport, Trafc & Mobility HELMOND, THE NETHERLANDS (1.5 hours from Amsterdam via train) 25 – 28 October 2007 Victoria de Grazia and David Gartman keynote speakers Victoria de Grazia, author of Irresistible Empire; America’s Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe will speak about: MARKETING CONSUMER CULTURE GLOBALLY: A HUNDRED YEAR PERSPECTIVE David Gartman, author of Auto Opium: A Social History of American Automobile Design will speak about : THE HISTORY AND FUTURE OF AUTOMOTIVE FETISHISM. This conference is organized by the European Centre for Mobility Documentation supported by the city of Helmond. Information about the conference, the venue, accommodation and a preliminary programme can be found at the T2M Website ( www.t2m.org ). T2M Newsletter, Volume IV, number 2, May 2007 4 CARTOONS PAUL Van HEESVELDE DELVES INTO THE WORLD OF CARTOONS AND COMES UP LAUGHING. One of my favoured comic series still is “the adventures of comics series Nero albums have a lot of clichés in it. But as Nero and co”; although Nero has parsley behind both his he travels all over the world and abroad, Nero is in urgent ears instead of a laurel wreath and is dressed up in the need of performing transportation systems; sometimes, rst album in a Roman tunique, there is no further resem- these magnicent machines are copies of so called vehicles blance with the Roman emperor.