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Roland Wittje
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Roland Wittje
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Roland Wittje
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- PublicationEngineering Education in Cold War Diplomacy: India, Germany, and the Establishment of IIT Madras**(01-12-2020)The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT) was set up with assistance of the Federal Republic of Germany between 1956 and 1974. It became the largest, and finally, a successful techno-scientific education project undertaken by the Federal Republic outside of Germany. In this paper, I argue that the engagement of the Federal Republic at IIT Madras has to be understood primarily as a project of Cold-War science and technology diplomacy, which on the German side was aimed at preventing an Indian recognition of the German Democratic Republic as a sovereign nation. In aiding the establishment of IIT Madras, the Federal Republic came into direct competition with the Soviet Union, which supported IIT Bombay but also with the United States of America, which supported IIT Kanpur. The assistance to establish IIT Madras and its governance followed mainly political guidelines, to which educational and scientific aspects were rendered subordinate. When the project was in a crisis after the first State Treaty to establish IIT Madras expired in 1963, the political flagship project of the Federal Republic was not allowed to fail. Instead, the cooperation was reorganized and support increased.
- PublicationRelocating education in the history of science and technology(01-01-2023)This paper reviews the current position of the history of education within the existing historiography of science and technology, and argues for the relocation of education from the periphery of the history of science and technology to its centre. It claims that it is essential to study science education in its entirety and complexity if we want to understand the generation, reproduction, circulation and transformation of scientific and technological knowledge, practices, practitioners and objects inside and outside of scientific institutions and communities. Four relocations are proposed: first, placing the history of education at the centre of our understanding of history of science and technology; second, acknowledging the diversity and heterogeneity of science and technology education; third, placing material culture at the centre of our histories of science and technology education; and, finally, provincialising Europe and North America in the history of science and technology education.