Event Details

End: December 1, 2018
Contact: mdyer@whalingmuseum.org

CALL FOR PAPERS
Whaling History 2019: A Biennial Symposium
Gaps in Analysis and New Perspectives on Whaling, World Cultures, and Contemporary Issues

April 27-28, 2019 | New Bedford Whaling Museum

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is accepting proposals for Whaling History, 2019 - A Biennial Symposium, addressing the theme: “Gaps in Analysis and New Perspectives on Whaling, World Cultures, and Contemporary Issues.”

Whaling history, particularly American whaling history, has largely proceeded along familiar pathways including voyage events, technology, genealogy, race and gender, social history, and the arts. The groundbreaking book by James A. Estes, et al., Whales Whaling and Ocean Ecosystems (Los Angeles, 2006) examined the effects of whaling on ocean ecosystems through the rigorous processes of the hard sciences with 31 chapters devoted to the ecological impact of whaling and its contemporary ramifications. Likewise, the Whaling and History Symposium hosted periodically by the Kommandør Chr. Christensens Hvalfangstmuseum in Sandefjord, Norway provided a rich variety of historical perspectives and published the proceedings in handsome hardbound formats. The annual Whaling History Symposium held at the Kendall Whaling Museum and later at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, also took a broad-based look at multiple aspects of world whaling history although the proceedings were never published.

With the Biennial Whaling History Symposium we will conduct a conference with similar goals to these cross-disciplinary formats, presenting broad-ranging, but highly focused scholarly insights, addressing important, but often overlooked, historical perspectives, and producing a publication.

Submission details:
Deadline for submission: December 1, 2018
Notification of acceptance: by January 15, 2019
Final symposium schedule: by March 1, 2019
Please submit a 300 word abstract by December 1, 14 point type, single-spaced, including the title of the paper, your name, institutional affiliation if any, contact information including an email address, a one-page CV, and any anticipated technical needs.

Submit to: Michael P. Dyer, Curator of Maritime History
mdyer@whalingmuseum.org

Eligibility:

In addition to professionals in the field, graduate student proposals are encouraged. Advanced undergraduate presentations will be considered with a letter of support from an advisor. Proposals featuring an in-depth exploration of some aspect of the Whaling Museum’s collections will also be considered for tutorial sessions. 

Submissions may represent different stages of research including: finished major research, unfinished but ongoing research, and tutorial overviews for breakout sessions. As this symposium is biennial, unfinished research may be considered for minor presentations in 2019 with the possibility to present as a major paper at a future symposium. Abstracts of the proceedings of the symposium will be published in both print and digital formats.

We will accept proposals for papers that examine the following topics:

• Markets for whale products. Probably the least understood topic in whaling history is the production and retail distribution of whale products and the economic value of these products to local economies.
• Case studies of the business strategies of whaling merchants and agents. Seldom have merchants been the focus of analysis in whaling history and yet theirs is the driving motivation behind every other topic of analysis or discussion.
• Techniques in the use and analysis of business and accounting records. What do the bookkeeping records of whaling merchants reveal about their success, failure, partnerships, risks, and other financial details and how can the business records elevate a fuller understanding of the industry?
• The decline of the American whale fishery. The discovery of petroleum has long been identified as the driving element in the decline of American whaling, however many other business considerations came into play and these have seldom been highlighted.
• The development of modern whaling. As American whaling went into decline, modern whaling escalated with alarming impacts to ocean environments all around the world. What motivated European commercial whalers as Americans faded from the scene?
• Comparing and contrasting subsistence and commercial whaling cultures. These are radically different concepts, especially in regard to the health of whale populations and an overall awareness of divergent cultural values between industrialized and non-industrialized human populations.
• Overviews of whaling collections. How can historical collections aid in developing better understanding of ocean environments and the large mammals that live in those environments?
• Examinations of technical innovations in whaling across cultures, time, and geographic regions. The twentieth century whale fishery saw unprecedented developmental changes.
• Current issues on the world stage. Whaling continues in the world today at both subsistence and commercial levels with new technologies in use including improved harpoons, improved catcher boat and factory designs as well as new markets for whale products. Likewise, whales remain endangered in ocean habits influenced by climate change, species reduction, and the increased stresses of physical pollution, noise, and in the case of certain species of whales, ship strikes and other habitat disturbances.