Biennial Report 2015
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Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment KTH Royal Institute of Technology Report 2015 – 2016 Transformative Humanities Contents Letters 4 Foreword 10 Eventful Years 12 Looking Back 14 A Diverse Division 16 Transformations – Directional Change 22 KTH EHL 24 Staff 28 Publishing – Patterns and Trends 34 Outreach – Communication – Collaboration 40 Funding Patterns 46 Undergraduate Teaching 52 PhD Training 54 Events 58 Division Colloquia 68 Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment Awards, Boards, Commissions of Trust, and Prizes 72 with KTH Environmental Humanities Visiting Scholars 75 Laboratory Projects 77 Editing and design Publications 103 Sverker Sörlin and Sofia Jonsson (editors), Staffan Lundgren (design) Postal address KTH Royal Institute of Technology SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden Visiting address Teknikringen 74D, 5th floor, Stockholm Internet address Bits & Pieces https://www.kth.se/en/abe/inst/philhist/ 18, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27, 38, 39, 42, historia 43, 44, 45, 49, 50, 51, 56, 57 Email address [email protected] Printed by US-AB, 2017 Foreword The previous report from the Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment at KTH covered the years from “We have called the 2012 to 2014. It followed a sequence of annual reports since the report Transformative early 1990s. This shift in the reporting period was unintended. The changes at the Division were profound enough to divert our Humanities. This attention from making an annual report, and we also changed our style of reporting to give more flavor to what is actually going on is to indicate that in our environment for research and PhD training, societal collab- oration and undergraduate teaching. In this report we have man- the humanities are aged to reduce the period to two years: 2015 and 2016. These have been years of intellectual excitement, consolidation of established undergoing major fields and continued expansion into new areas. changes not just in New to this report is that the parts on funding and publishing rely on work that we have done internally to compile and analyze Sweden but also in databases on funding streams and publications. The report is or- ganized into three sections: first, a set of spine texts presenting many countries in the general patterns of change in the Division; second, a section on the central dimensions of performance including a presentation of our world.” staff; and, third, a set of lists including events, visitors, projects, awards, commissions, publications, etectera (divided by colour for tent also support for the kind of humanities that we do seem to overview). Distributed across the volume are a number of miscella- be on the rise. neous comments, letters, images and “bits & pieces” that highlight It has been a privilege to put this report together. We would some of our activities. like to thank all contributors – literally everyone in the Division We have called the report Transformative Humanities. This – for sharing their materials with us and for sending new texts, is to indicate that the humanities are undergoing major changes data and illustrations. We hope that the reader will find the result not just in Sweden but also in many countries in the world. The useful. Division is very much part of these changes, and we have tried to influence them and give direction to them. These changes are also Stockholm in May 2017 affecting us, we believe largely for the better. It is also to state that Sofia Jonsson, Senior administrator the humanities are in themselves transformative – they are part Sverker Sörlin, Co-Head of Division of changing the world we live in, hopefully also for the better. We are part of this transformative work and we embrace that, which is a seminal point of departure for our strategy and thinking as a Division. For us in the humanities, these are challenging times but also exciting times, when societal recognition and to some ex- 10 11 Participants at the Undisciplined Environments conference, organized Eventful Years by the EHL in 2016. The intensity of academic work does not always allow for reflec- tion. Writing an annual report is therefore a welcome time to revis- it the near past. The years 2015 and 2016 were filled with events, scholarship, training, collaboration and strategic thinking. We grew both in numbers of employees and in turnover, and we expanded in scope with new research projects and international PhDs. In the Poles that was awarded to us in 2016 with several new hir- 2015, we were awarded or were part of project funding worth over ing’s at doctoral and post-doctoral levels. Finally, the programme 100 MSEK – a sum that will last for years to come and which is ex- Making Universities Matter (MUM), with funding from Vinnova ceptional and beyond all expectations. To consciously manage this and in close collaboration with Lund University, has invigorated growth in relation to other ambitions, like maintaining an intimate research policy as a core area of investigation at the Division. work environment and continuing to mind each other’s business, is Mats Benner was appointed Guest Professor of Research Poli- a central challenge for the revision of the Division’s strategy, a work cy in 2015. Eric Paglia and Daniel Svensson both successfully de- that began in 2016 and will be finalized in 2017. fended their PhDs in 2016. Marco Armiero was hired as an associ- Notable events during 2015 and 2016 included the hosting ate professor of Environmental History. Erik Arnold, Chairman of of two large international conferences in Stockholm. In Septem- the Board of the European consultant firm Technopolis, became ber 2015, we hosted the 7th Tensions of Europe conference un- Adjunct Professor of Research Policy. After serving for six years, der the theme “Technology – Nature – Environment” with 130 Nina Wormbs stepped down as head of division in mid-2016. Sa- participants from 25 countries, gathering in central Stockholm. bine Höhler took over as head of division with Sverker Sörlin as In March 2016, we arranged “Undisciplined Environments,” the co-head while Nina replaced Sabine as director of graduate stud- final conference of the Marie Curie ITN ENTITLE European Net- ies. As 2016 drew to a close, we opened a position for a second ad- work of Political Ecology, which drew more than 500 participants ministrator. Emilia Rolander has joined forces with Sofia Jonsson from all over the world to the campus at KTH. to help run an expanding organization, the first signs of which are Four important grants have been making a substantial impact the boost of our homepage and, not least, this report. At the outset on the Division and its Environmental Humanities Laboratory of 2017, we can be confident that we are well-positioned to meet (EHL). In 2015, we were awarded a Marie Curie ITN in the En- the challenges ahead. vironmental Humanities, Environmental Humanities for a Con- cerned Europe (ENHANCE), together with Leeds University and Nina Wormbs, Head of Division 2010-2016 the Rachel Carson Centre and the Deutsches Museum in Munich. Sabine Höhler, Head of Division since 1 July 2016 As a result, we hired four PhD candidates. The Division also be- came the hosting partner of a Nordic Centre of Excellence in Arctic research, funded by Nordforsk (Oslo) and in collaboration with 14 other partners in the Nordic countries. Apart from funding facul- ty, the grant gives the Division ability to hire two PhD candidates. Intellectually connected to the Division’s growing Arctic cluster is the European Research Council (ERC) starting grant on Greening 12 13 Looking Back When I joined the Division for the History of Science and Tech- outset we have been very actively engaged in international soci- nology – as it was the called – in 1991, the Division consisted of eties in our subfields attending and organizing conferences and a professor, Svante Lindqvist, and a secretary. But this tiny Di- taking on societal duties. We also have a long tradition of PhD vision had a long prehistory. Already in the mid-1960s, Torsten exchanges with MIT and other universities and we have also had Althin – the founder of the Technical Museum in Stockholm – many guest researchers staying shorter or longer periods. More- began to give courses in history of technology at KTH. There was over we have been deeply engaged in international research net- thus a 25 year long tradition of undergraduate teaching. works and projects. Since 2010 many of our new colleagues have In 1991 there were a handful of talented students who had a non-Swedish background and English has gradually become our completed a Master’s thesis and were eager to start PhD studies daily language. in history of technology. So Svante and I wrote a proposal for a The third characteristic is a culture of collective leadership doctoral program, which was soon approved. Within three years and generous cooperation. When Svante, Marie and I suddenly we had recruited twelve doctoral students and we had also been became PhD supervisors in the early 1990s, none of us had pre- joined by Marie Nisser, who had received a personal professor- vious experience of this and we chose to have a close cooperation ship in Industrial Heritage Studies and chose to place it at the in our supervision. We also cooperated closely in writing research Division. We had now reached a critical mass as a research envi- grants to finance our PhDs. Also our PhD students took much ronment which has gradually evolved into the current Division. I responsibility both in teaching and administrative matters. This believe that three characteristics have been crucial for the devel- culture of collective generosity has prevailed as the Division has opment in this quarter century.