Postdoctoral Fellowship: Jennifer Lieberman: "Power Lines: the Electrical Network in American Life, 1882-1950"

这个博士后奖学金是为了支持研究和培训，使博士后研究员能够扩大她的论文研究路线，并最终将她的论文转化为一本书的手稿。《电力线：美国生活中的电力网络，1882-1950》（Power Lines：The Electrical Network in American Life，1882-1950）在电气化史、工程史、技术使用者史等方面的专家指导下，进行研究和培训，培养对跨学科研究的浓厚兴趣。学术价值研究员的研究探索了1882年至1950年间电气工人如何创造和争论电气网络的社会意义。通过追踪一系列技术文献中对网络的描述，本研究将调查随着配电系统从中央电站发展到不断扩大的区域网络，对网络的理解如何变化。在研究了行业领导者如何促进，挑战和制度化的电力网络后，该项目将质疑种族动态如何使电力系统的区域和国家概念复杂化。该项目的这一部分将涉及档案研究的早期电气工程计划在塔斯基吉大学和霍华德大学，以及进一步调查的作用，农村电气化发挥了日常生活中的非洲裔美国人。潜在的更广泛的影响这项研究的结果将被广泛传播，以加强科学和技术在社会中的研究。该项目培养的技能和研究不会随着书稿的完成而终止;相反，它们将帮助博士后成为一名更有效的教师，导师和研究人员，他们将继续为科学和技术研究领域做出贡献。

IntroductionThis post-doctoral fellowship is to support research and training to enable the postdoctoral fellow to expand her line of dissertation research and eventually to transform her dissertation into a book manuscript. The book is tentatively titled Power Lines: the Electrical Network in American Life, 1882-1950. It will help the fellow to optimize her deep interest in interdisciplinary inquiry by engaging in research and training under the direction of a mentor (the PI), who is an expert in the history of electrification, engineering, and users of technology.Intellectual MeritThe fellow's research explores how electrical workers created and debated the social meanings of the electrical network between 1882 and 1950. By tracing descriptions of networks across an array of technical literatures, this study will investigate how understandings of the network changed as power distribution systems evolved from central-power stations into expanding regional networks. After researching how industry leaders promoted, challenged, and institutionalized electrical networks, this project will question how racial dynamics complicated regional and national conceptions of electrical systems. This component of the project will involve archival research about the early years of the electrical engineering programs at Tuskegee University and Howard University, as well as further inquiry into the role that rural electrification played in the daily lives of African Americans.Potential Broader ImpactsThe results of this research will be disseminated broadly to enhance the study of science and technology in society. The skills and research fostered by this project will not terminate with the completion of the book manuscript; rather, they will help the postdoctoral fellow to become a more effective teacher, mentor, and researcher, who will continue to contribute to the field of Science and Technology Studies for the rest of her career.