Annual Meeting of the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC)

8-11 October 2026, Alexandroupolis (Greece)

Engaging the History of Technology
Bridging Disciplines and Perspectives for Global Challenges

The 53rd annual meeting of the International Committee of the History of Technology (ICOHTEC) will be held at Democritus University of Thrace, in collaboration with the Laboratory of Technologies, Research & Applications in Education/ School of Humanities and the Ethnological Museum of Thrace in Alexandroupolis, Greece.

Climate change, environmental injustice, political polarisation, and artificial intelligence present challenges that are at once historical, cultural, ethical, environmental, and technological. In offering vital insights into how societies have imagined progress, structured power, exchanged knowledge, and engaged with environments, the history of technology can help foreground its importance in addressing contemporary challenges at a moment when humanities disciplines face shrinking resources and pressures to justify their value.

The theme of this conference, “Engaging the History of Technology”, invites critical reflections on how history of technology can engage with evolving methodologies, theories and pedagogies, and other branches of historical study to demonstrate that understanding technologies’ pasts are essential to navigating contemporary challenges. The conference, therefore, seeks contributions across spatial and epistemic boundaries: from the everyday and local to the geopolitical and planetary; from archival practice to classroom teaching and public engagement; and from discipline-specific research methods to interdisciplinary collaborations.