T2M 19^th Annual Conference

2-5 November 2021

NOVA School of Science and Technology/Faculty of Sciences of University of Lisbon, Portugal

The conference is currently planned as an online event. Depending on the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is the possibility of organising the conference on site. Please check regularly for updates on the conference website https://t2m2021.ciuhct.org/.

Call for participation

Transport and mobility have long been associated with the circulation of people/bodies, goods/matter, elements/microorganisms, and ideas/thoughts within and across territories. As some authors claim, we live in an age of movement, or, what Thomas Nail calls the Kinocene. In recent years, scholars engaging with the mobilities paradigm have analysed how those fluxes are moulded by or create new patterns of power, identities, and everyday micro-geographies. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the Kinocene with the restrictions to mobility that ensued, but it has also provided an opportunity to open up the discussion about the next historical transition of transport and mobility: will it be a transition to individual, less frequent and slower movement? Will it encourage increased sedentarism? What will its impact be on the challenge of global warming?

The COVID-19 pandemic also provides a telling example of the circulation of a microorganism using the human body as a vehicle, and forcing societies to face the edges of a possible future: taking us back to, for example, a car-oriented mobility; inserting a renewed aversion to public transport; making permanent severe restrictions to the circulation and mobility of those most in need; restricting tourism and leisure activities, which in the last decade provided important sources of revenue for developing and developed countries alike; and increasing our dependency on online delivery and teleworking. Central to this possible future is the question of who and what is allowed to circulate within and across geopolitical regimes, in turn, a question inviting transdisciplinary discussions on issues around border controls, trade agreements, gender, social, environmental, and mobility justice, as well as the role that investment in large transportation systems plays in and through the circulation of goods, people, ideas that are either encouraged or blocked.

These circulations promote a frequent and constant use of sundry territories by certain groups – what Matthias Kärrholm calls territorial appropriation. This appropriation is infused by a distinct integration into wider spatial units, their re-territorialization and de-territorialization, as well as the convergence of centre(s) and periphery(ies). However peripheral, remote areas get integrated into larger markets through a process that is often accompanied by a centre’s administrative grasp, of whatever kind, which can be subsequently amplified. Peripheries, in turn, strive to overcome the perception of their demeaning status as being technologically backward. The modernisation of transport infrastructures has close links to socioeconomic development. Conversely, favouring modern transportation infrastructures often involves the risks of overlooking the real needs and rights of people and goods to move. The relatiosnhip between centres and peripheries is too one involving questions around colonial pasts, of colonies efficiently and unevenly included in imperial systems, later extricating themselves from the colony-metropole clutch.

The unevenness and inequality of mobilities due to globalization have increased. Contrasting the experiences of mobility in the global North/South, and from the perspectives of women, racialized groups, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with different degrees of physical and mental abilities – amongst others – require further critical reflection. Cross-border flows at a global scale are linked to the rise of nationalism trying to restrict undesirable movements and protect those originating from within national borders. Brexit, in the UK, is a reminder of the significance of understanding what people perceive to be limiting about global circulation and the extent to which these perceptions may or may not serve the interests of different governments.

The 19^th T2M conference seeks to promote a debate around historical transitions, focusing on the interrelation of circulation, appropriation, and globalization. Questions and approaches studying the many agencies of transitions, the main actors, impacts, relationships with the state, the connections with notions like nationalisms, diplomacy, identity, race, finance, capital, labour, and more, are both encouraged and welcome.

We encourage young scholars and researchers, as well as PhD candidates to participate, debating these topics and/or expanding on the reflexivity and historiography of transport and mobility fields.

In light of the European Commission’s recognition of 2021 as the European Year of Railways, we are especially interested in papers that analyse past, present, and future transitions of mobility by rail. We also welcome interdisciplinary, transnational, artistic, design-led, emprirical or theoretical approaches that combine methodologies from history, geography, economy, science and technology studies, international relations, digital humanities, sociology, anthropology, gender studies, as well as empirical studies from the global South and the global North.

Topics may include, but are not restricted to:

• Traffic, transport, mobilities and power
• Epidemics, transportation and mobilities
• Transport, traffic and mobilities in the Anthropocene/Kinocene
• Sociotechnical construction of transport and mobilities
• Circulation, appropriation, and globalisation in travel literature
• (Techno)Diplomacy, transport and mobilities
• Relations between history of knowledge and transport/mobility
• Ontologies for transport history
• Urban, rural, digital mobilities
• Intergenerational mobilities
• Mobility justice
• Pasts, presents and futures of tourism
• Reconceptualisation of the concept of vehicle (human body, photography, media as vehicles)
• Transportation and state-building/empire-buildings
• Globalisation vs. the nation-state/nationalistic political projects
• Transportation grids as critical infrastructures
• Transportation, mobility, circulation and museums/archives/libraries

In addition, proposals may address any aspect of the history, and social, cultural, economic, technological, ecological and political aspects of transport, traffic and mobility.

Proposals can be for individual papers, panels, artworks, posters, and other creative formats as outlined below. We welcome relevant contributions from any academic perspective or discipline, contributions from professionals, policy makers and practitioners in the field of transport, traffic and mobility, as well as artists and creative professionals, designers, and engineers.

The conference language is English. Panels in Portuguese/Spanish may also be accepted.

Important Dates

Submission formats

Papers: Individual submission of a paper consists of an abstract (300 words) and a brief biography (100 words) including contact information. Papers will be grouped thematically by the programme committee and may become part of a 7/7, debate, or, panel session.

Sessions: A full, pre-organized 7/7, debate, or, panel session. A session submission should include a title, summary of the session theme and the method chosen for facilitating discussion (300 words), as well as abstracts for each contribution/presentation (300 words). A short biography of each presenter is also required (100 words), with contact information.

7/7 sessions: This means seven slides and seven minutes for each presentation. The sessions will have plenty of time for discussion. This will be supported by having a chair who might also act as discussant. Presenters shall focus on their main argument in order to avoid overly-complex presentations.

Debate sessions: Debate sessions have a maximum of five presenters. Each gives a five minutes focused input to the topic and this should be followed by discussion involving the audience. Led by a chair.

Panel sessions: Panels consist of a chair and three to four paper presenters and one discussant (optional). Panels should include time for audience discussion. Each presenter has 20 minutes (15 min + 5 min for questions); papers are grouped thematically.
Posters: This is a great way to discuss early or exploratory work and present it as a Poster at the conference. Submission consists of an abstract (300 words) and a brief biography (100 words) including contact information. The full poster is due 1 September.

After Acceptance all abstracts will be published on the conference website. You also have the opportunity to submit a Full paper (5000 words). We strongly encourage the submission of full papers, which will be shared with all conference delegates. Authors whose contributions are accepted will have until 1 September 2021 to submit their full paper. Papers may be published in a restricted area for conference participants on the conference website, and/or as part of the T2M archive. Consent from authors will be sought in all cases.

To submit your proposal please complete your form at: https://forms.gle/qEfVKnc1NLiBAPDD7 

Alternatively, send your proposal to submissions@t2m.org. 

Registration

All participants must register and pay the registration fee via the conference website (details to follow), only one submission per person.

Travel Grants

Graduates and doctoral students and participants from developing countries whose submissions have been accepted may apply for travel grants of up to £250. A limited number of grants are available. Applications should detail the cost of travel, and the amount applied for in an email to (tbc). Applications must be received by 5 June, decisions will be made by 19 June.

Conference Committee

Conference Committee Chairs

Hugo Silveira Pereira (University NOVA of Lisbon)
Carlos López Galviz (University of Lancaster)
Ana Duarte Rodrigues (University of Lisbon)
Isabel Amaral (University NOVA of Lisbon)

Programme Committee

Aparajita Mukhopadhyay (University of Kent)
Carla Fraga (Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro)
Darina Martykánová (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)
Dhan Zunino Singh (CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes)
Irene Anastasiadou (Independent scholar)
Luísa Sousa (University NOVA of Lisbon)
Mathieu Flonneau (Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)
Pierre Barrieu (Université de Montreal)
Stefano Maggi (University of Siena)

Local Organising Committee

Hugo Silveira Pereira (University NOVA of Lisbon)
Ana Duarte Rodrigues (University of Lisbon)
Isabel Amaral (University NOVA of Lisbon)
Maria Paula Diogo (University NOVA of Lisbon)
Cristina Luís (University of Lisbon)
Ana Cardoso de Matos (University of Évora)
Javier Vidal (University of Alicante)
André Pereira (University NOVA of Lisbon)
Joao Machado (University NOVA of Lisbon)