President’s Letter

When exactly does it start? How far into the future do the multiple legacies of profound change endure? With an end of the covid-19 pandemic in sight, and recognising the significant uneven geography of its effects, I write this message against a background of news media reports around the world on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. By 2 March 2022, the UN reported that over 675,000 people have crossed the Ukrainian border into Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova. They have done so in fear for their lives and seeking safety. ‘Prior to this 2022 crisis’, the UN Refugee Agency reports, ‘almost 3 million people were already facing humanitarian need in Ukraine, including 850,000 internally displaced Ukrainians and 5,000 refugees from other countries.’ The very constitution of Europe, the return of the latent fears of nuclear war, and historical comparisons between Russian artillery strikes and the Battle of Britain have been cited as a means of making sense of the narrative of the conflict of which we are witness to unfolds. The 2013 T2M conference crossed the border between Finland and Russia, with proceedings starting in Kouvola and ending in Saint Petersburg. The theme of the conference was Transport and Borders. Transport, Andrey Vozyanov remarked in his conference report, must accommodate ‘the fact that the world is full of borders […] borders are sometimes what mobility needs – to boost new ideas and developments.’ What new ideas and new developments might emerge out of the current crisis in Ukraine is a hopeful prospect; a counterbalance to the human tragedy escalating there every day. The theme Disruptions and Reconnections of the 2022 conference jointly organised by T2M and the Centre for Advanced Studies in Mobility and Humanities (MoHu) of the University of Padua, gives us a fitting opportunity to reflect on the meanings, reasons, factors and legacies of moments of crisis. Crises which include those affecting nearly everyone as the covid-19 pandemic has, and crises somewhat localised and instigated by the prospect and reality of war. What is a disruption to some, may escalate to become a tragedy to others. Forced reconnections inspired by selective readings of the past may ignite the kind of unity that was previously unthought. Our annual conference, which in 2022 aims for a hybrid online and in-person format, provides a fitting forum to reflect on whether and in what ways do moments of crisis have entered our lives, and including the role that transport and mobility may have played in them. Raising the question of what disruptions and which reconnections take shape in the process is a powerful analytical lens to reflect on where crises fit into history and our future. The T2M team, the local organising committee of the University of Padua and the MoHu Centre, look forward to receiving your contributions to this year’s conference in whichever format suits. Collective reflection is always welcome and it feels that, against the events of the past 2 years including the first quarter of 2022, there couldn’t be a more fitting time to insist that we all do. With all best wishes, Carlos López Galviz Lancaster University, UK.   10 March 2022

President’s Letter 

11 December 2015

Dear Members and Friends of T²M,

During this week of COP21 climate talks in Paris our thoughts turn to the history of transportation: how did we arrive at the current carbon-intensive system — in which at least one quarter of CO₂emissions are attributed to transportation — and how might we transition out of it? Will this transition proceed in different ways in different parts of the world, and where are the most encouraging developments? Based on our understandings of transport history, how can we contribute to the post-automobility transition?

At the same time, our world at present seems disturbed by the dark mobilities brought about by various kinds of violence: the cloaked mobility of terrorism and terrorists; the deathly maneuvers of drones and aerial warfare; the rapid-fire circulation of guns, violent ideologies, and social media recruitment campaigns; the persistent threats to the black body in public space in America; and the resurgence of xenophobic, populist, nationalist movements and attacks on minorities. How can our field also contribute to public deliberations about borders, security, migration, and the power relations of mobility and immobility?

Yet amidst this December darkness there is always also some light. Some public leaders are reiterating the values of protecting refugees, interfaith dialogue, and open communication. World leaders may reach an agreement on reducing CO₂  emissions. The emergence of ‘disruptive’ technologies based on sharing and fractional use may well undermine the 20th century system of automobility, and new policies for urban planning are beginning to limit car use in many major cities.

All of these changes are the bread and butter of historians of transport, traffic, and mobility, linked to our field’s deep and abiding interests in complex socio-technical systems, the making and unmaking of infrastructure, local and global change, urban form and policy mobilities, and the differentials of power and justice that inform all of these. So I remain hopeful for our ability to move forward in 2016 toward more sustainable and socially just systems of mobility, and I trust that members of T²M will play an important part in bringing these about around the world.

In line with these hopes we look forward to many important developments within T²M itself. First, we warmly anticipate (and are busy readying for) our 13th Annual Conference in Mexico City in 2016 on “Mobilities: Space of Flows and Friction.” The Call for Papers has been circulating – be sure to spread the word far and wide. The conference will take place in the beautiful Chapultepec Park from October 27-30th, with an Opening Address from Mexico’s Secretary of the Environment, Tanya Müller Garcia, and several exciting Keynote Speakers whom we will be announcing soon.

Second, we are delighted to be moving forward with the complete redesign of the T²M website, along with a new conference management system, both of which we hope to launch in January. So please look out for the announcement, and once online, please spread the news far and wide.

Third, we are taking great strides with our journals, making online access and fully searchable back issues available for the Journal of Transport History, which has just moved to a new publisher, Sage; online access to our Yearbook, Mobility in History, now available from Berghahn, along with the option of discounted subscriptions to Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies; as well as the option for discounted subscriptions to Mobilities, published by Taylor and Francis.

All of these options for those either joining T²M or renewing membership will be clearly laid out on the new website. For current members, if you were expecting a mailing of JTH, we will instead be sending out instructions for opening your new online subscription with our new publisher Sage.

I want to thank all of you who are volunteering your work on our Executive Committee, our Local Organizing Committee and Program Committee for the conference, and the many other committees that keep T²M going behind the scenes throughout the year. Finally, I want to wish you all a light of hope for this December and a Happy New Year for 2016.

Best wishes,

Mimi Sheller

President, T²M

President’s Letter – Mimi Sheller

September 2016

Dear T²M members,

It is just a little over a month until our annual conference meets in Mexico City! Registrations are complete and if you have not already done so be sure to book your travel and accommodation and submit your final paper. We look forward to a rich array of panels on topics such as Mobility Justice, Politics and Hope, Mobility in Transition, Trans-Border Mobilities, Gendered Mobilities, Tourism, Placemaking, and sessions on various aspects of automobility, cycling, railways, and aviation history. We are also looking forward to keynote addresses by Brazilian historian of automobility Guillermo Giucci, cultural geographer of mobilities Tim Cresswell, and museum curator Debbie Douglas. I want to thank our Local Organizing Committee for their tireless efforts to prepare the conference: Víctor Márquez (Chair), Dhan Zunino Singh, Tomás Errázuriz, and Maximiliano Velázquez.

This has been a year of many developments in the realm of transport, from the ongoing expansion of car-sharing or ride-on-demand services to the arrival of self-driving cars in some cities; the expansion of the Panama Canal and the crisis of over-supply in the freight shipping industry; the spread of urban bike-sharing programs and growing number of bicycle commuters in many cities; the continuing ‘automobilization’ of mega-cities in Asia and Africa, and the continuing efforts at a renewable energy shift in many countries. All of this, and more, is at the heart of transport history and mobility studies: What do these social, economic and cultural changes mean for how people organize their lives and societies? How do we understand the past in new ways in light of present challenges? And how can re-thinking this history help us steer towards a better future?

We hope you have been enjoying our refreshed website launched this year with a new format featuring a special section for conference announcements and events; Recent News items including publication announcements, View from the Street stories, and In the Spotlight interviews; and new convenient access to our range of publications: the T²M Yearbook: Mobility in History, the Journal of Transport History, and specially priced subscriptions for members to Transfers: Interdisciplinary Journal of Mobility Studies, and Mobilities. I especially want to thank our website committee for advancing this wonderful transformation, including Julia Hildebrand, Hiroki Shin, and Andrey Vozyanov.

As our excellent Yearbook editor Kyle Shelton points out in his Preface to Vol. 8, we have decided with our publisher Berghahn to shift the T²M Yearbook: Mobility in History to a digital format, allowing for the use of color photos and graphics and online access to all back issues, as well as great cost savings. Publishing is transforming these days into new accessible online formats. With the move of the Journal of Transport History to a new publisher with SAGE, it is also now being published digitally. With these changes we will be publishing engaging shorter state of the field pieces, interviews, commentaries and discussion pieces on our own website platform. Please note that you can now also sign up for our T²M Newsletter which will be delivered electronically – please register from the t2m.org website. We also invite all members to send in items to our busy team of Newsletter editors Robin Kellermann, Andrey Vozyanov, and Thiago Allis.

Over the last few years T²M has successfully expanded to include not only historians of transport and mobility, but also sociologists, geographers, anthropologists, media studies scholars, and other disciplines. We have cemented our relationship with the Cosmobilities Network through hosting conferences together at Drexel (2014) and Caserta, Italy (2015) and at our Annual Members Meeting this year we will hear a proposal to host our 2017 conference in association with the Centre for Mobilities Research and the Institute for Social Futures at Lancaster University in England. It is a period of building connections and linking institutions across our dynamic interdisciplinary field, which is drawing greater international recognition.

I want to thank our Vice Presidents whose terms are coming to a close this year: Marie-Noëlle Polino, Massimo Moraglio, and Sven Kesselring. We look forward to electing new Vice Presidents and members of the Executive Committee during our Annual Member’s Meeting, and electronic balloting will also be available next month. If there is anyone else who would like to be nominated to run for the EC please submit your name right away to Ralf Roth, chair of the elections committee, or by contacting secretary@t2m.org.

I look forward to seeing those of you who will be joining us in Mexico City, and for those who cannot make the transatlantic crossing this year, we look forward to seeing you in Europe next year, as we continue to rotate our conference location on a biannual basis.

Best wishes,

Mimi Sheller

President, T²M