cfp.english.upenn.edu

Topic: Technology and Development: The Human Benefits and Burdens

The sustainable use of technical and natural resources makes it possible to alleviate world hunger, eliminate illiteracy, deliver basic health care services, and raise living standards worldwide. Yet, we still face significant political, economic, environmental, and social challenges in reaching the United Nations Millennium Development Goals of eliminating extreme poverty in all its forms by 2015. Some of these challenges evoke questions about the use and abuse of technologies with regard to development. What have been the human benefits and burdens of the introduction of new technologies in the past and what are the challenges facing both the developed and developing countries today? Paper submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

1. The response of the arts to the issue of technology and development
2. Technology, development, and the environment, including land and water use, mining, and the burden of
mitigating greenhouse gases
3. New technologies and the impact on workforce development
4. Agricultural revolution, industrial revolution, other issues in the history of technology
5. Country studies of the interface between technology and development
6. Theories of economic development in light of new technologies
7. North versus South: the benefits and burdens of development
8. The politics of access to technology: gender, race, and class
9. Hunger, technology, and development
10. Religion, technology, and development
11. Health care, technology, and development
12. Biotechnology and human nature
13. Net neutrality

Submission Guidelines: Papers should be designed for a twenty-minute presentation. Submit a two-to-three page proposal by May 28, 2010 to Dr. George Sochan, Conference Chairman, Department of History and Government, Bowie State University, via MSWord attachment, to gsochan@bowiestate.edu. Notification of acceptance or rejection of proposals will be sent by email by June 4, 2010.