Veranstaltung: Embattled Heavens (Berlin)

For much of the twentieth century, outer space has been envisioned as not only a site of heavenly utopias, but also the ultimate battlefield. Concentrating on weapons, warfare, and violence, this conference explores the military dimensions of astroculture in the period between 1942 and 1990. By highlighting the militarization of extraterrestrial frontiers and conquest in politics and popular culture alike, ‘Embattled Heavens’ addresses the complex processes that oscillate between peaceful and aggressive characteristics of human endeavors in outer space. While the Space Age is usually associated with Cold War history, this conference complicates established narratives by integrating Western European and global perspectives. Examining astropolitics, technoscientific practices, and science fiction, the goal of this conference is to reconceptualize the history of outer space with a view towards its military dimensions.

Freie Universität Berlin
Henry Ford Building
Garystraße 35
14195 Berlin-Dahlem


THURSDAY, 10 April 2014

09:00 Registration

10:00 Welcome and Introduction

Alexander C.T. Geppert, Daniel Brandau, Tilmann Siebeneichner (Berlin): Heavenly Utopias and Ultimate Battlefields. The Dark Side of Global Astroculture
10:30 Feature Presentation I

Alex Roland (Durham): The Cold War in Space
11:45 Panel I: Angst

Chair: Markus Pöhlmann (Potsdam)
Christopher Gainor (Sidney, Canada): The Nuclear Roots of ICBMs
Greg Eghigian (Philadelphia): Flying Saucers, America, and the Specter of War in Postwar Germany, 1946–1960
13:00 Lunch

14:00 Panel II: Territories

Chair: Katherine Boyce-Jacino (Baltimore)
Dierk Spreen (Lüneburg): Global Security and Spatial Revolution
Danilo Flores (Berlin): Envisioning Infiltration. Epistemic Border Disputes of Militarized Astroculture
15:30 Panel III: Evolutions

Chair: Jana Bruggmann (Berlin)
Jordan Bimm (Toronto): Simulating Mars in the 1950s and the Military Origins of Astrobiology
Patrick Kilian (Zurich): Darwin vs. Cyborg. Cold War’s Struggle for Evolutionary Fitness in Space
17:00 Panel IV: Plots

Chair: Daniel Brandau (Berlin)
Jörg Hartmann (Karlsruhe): “Weltraumschiff I startet.” The Dual-Use of a Spaceflight-Science-Fiction-Film between Fact and Fiction, V-2 and Sputnik
Matthias Hurst (Berlin): “Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffs Orion.” Defending Earth in a German Spaceship

FRIDAY, 11 April 2014

09:00 Feature Presentation II:

Chair: N.N.
Michael Sheehan (Swansea): Star Wars – Mars against Venus. Strategy, Science Fiction, and Contrasting Visions of Space Security
10:15 Panel V: Infrastructures

Chair: Eva-Maria Silies (Berlin)
Regina Peldszus (Darmstadt): Architecture of Command. Dual Use Legacy in Mission Control Cen­ters of Civilian Space Operations
Isabell Schrickel (Lüneburg): The Geopolitics of Space Mirrors
11:45 Panel VI: Domination

Chair: Tilmann Siebeneichner (Berlin)
Cathleen Lewis (Washington, DC): Space Spies in the Open. Military Space Stations and Heroic Cos­monauts after the Moon Race, 1971–1975
Paweł Frelik (Lublin): War Play. Space Combat and Galactic Conquests in Arcade and Computer Games
13:00 Lunch

14:00 Panel VII: Depictions

Chair: Tobias Becker (Berlin)
Colleen Anderson (Cambridge, MA): The Militarization of Outer Space in East and West German Satirical Cartoons, 1957–1989
Oliver Dunnett (Belfast): C. S. Lewis and the Moral Threat of Space Exploration
15:30 Panel VIII: Utopias

Chair: Thore Bjørnvig (Copenhagen)
Simon Spiegel (Zurich): Utopian Soldiers. Robert Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers" as Utopian Novel
Philipp Theisohn (Zurich): The Suits of Invasion. Extra-Terrestrial Warfare and the ‘Clothing’ of the Body Politic in Twentieth-Century Fiction

SATURDAY, 12 April 2014

09:00 Panel IX: Strategies

Chair: N.N.
Anthony W. Enns (Halifax): Satellites and Psychics. The Militarization of Outer and Inner Space
Diethard Sawicki (Paderborn): Heating up the Ionosphere and Owning the Weather? High Power Auroral Stimulation in Defense Scenarios and Conspiracy Theories
10:30 Panel X: Surveillance

Chair: Robert Poole (Manchester)
Patryk Wasiak (Wrocław): Visual Imagery and the Public Life of Anti-Satellite Weapon Systems
Paul E. Ceruzzi (Washington, DC): The Global Positioning System. Military Origins, Civilian Applica­tion, and the Culture of Precise Positioning
12:00 Snack

13:00 Panel Discussion: Reconfigurations

Chair: Alexander C.T. Geppert (Berlin)
David Edgerton (London) / Bernd Greiner (Hamburg) / Michael Neufeld (Washington, DC)
15:00 Final Discussion

16:00 End

Website der Tagung