{"655630":{"#nid":"655630","#data":{"type":"event","title":"PhD Defense by Mario Bianchini","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ESchool of History and Sociology presents:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EDissertation Defense for Mario Bianchini\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003E\u0026ldquo;\u0026lsquo;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EReal Existing\u0026rsquo; Utopia: Creating a Technological Culture in the GDR 1945-1989\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFriday, March 18, 2022, 10:00 am EST BlueJeans Link, \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/bluejeans.com\/614593765\/6539\u0022\u003Ehttps:\/\/bluejeans.com\/614593765\/6539\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAbstract\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThis dissertation explores the creation of a technological culture in the German Democratic Republic in order to entice its citizens to not only become state engineers, but also to work toward a state sponsored vision of the future. \u0026nbsp;The result was a promised stateless technological utopia, in the face of sustained state power. \u0026nbsp;This dissertation terms this paradoxical situation a \u0026lsquo;real-exiting\u0026rsquo; utopia, and explores both its genesis and consequences. \u0026nbsp;To do this, the dissertation focus on three cultural nodes: education, sport, and hobbies, sites where the state sought to directly intervene in visions of the future and impart technical consciousness.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe education segment of the project explores the technological influence on curricula, education practices, and youth ceremonies. \u0026nbsp;East Germany replaced Christian Conformation with the \u003Cem\u003EJugendweihe\u003C\/em\u003E, where children pledged themselves not in service to god, but rather to the promises of science and scientific textbooks focused on a gleaming technological future. \u0026nbsp;The investigation of hobbies focuses mainly on model trains, chemistry sets, and building toys. \u0026nbsp;The state saw modeling as a way to nurture budding technical talent, as modeling introduced the geometrical, spatial, and physical reasoning necessary for an engineer. \u0026nbsp;Furthermore, the packaging, marketing, and instruction booklets of technological toys served as sites for state companies to extoll the virtues of the technological future. \u0026nbsp;The chapter on sports investigates the technological influence on sport. \u0026nbsp;Sport offered a tangible medium to trumpet the victory of East German technoscience. \u0026nbsp;Specifically, I argue that between 1960 and 1990 the East German ruling party treated sport as a pure science, one amenable to strict regulation, measurements, and experimentation, while treating athletes as scientific subjects ready to be improved by technology, culminating in the doping of their Olympic athletes.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETaken together, these case studies elucidate the GDR as a \u0026lsquo;real-existing\u0026rsquo; utopia. \u0026nbsp;The GDR remained in a constant state of becoming, never seeking to settle on a fixed idea of perfection lest the state lose its rhetorical claim to be working for a better future. \u0026nbsp;By recruiting the population through the cultural nodes of hobbies, sports, and education, the central party could retain state power while shifting criticism to the future, a time when all current problems would be supposedly solved.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECommittee:\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EKristie Macrakis, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EKenneth Knoespel, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ERobert Rosenberger, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EEric Schatzberg, Professor, Georgia Institute of Technology\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EChristopher Neumaier, Professor, Leibniz-Zentrum f\u0026uuml;r Zeithistorische Forschung Potsdam\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"\u201c\u2018Real Existing\u2019 Utopia: Creating a Technological Culture in the GDR 1945-1989\u201d"}],"uid":"27707","created_gmt":"2022-02-21 14:18:11","changed_gmt":"2022-02-21 14:18:11","author":"Tatianna Richardson","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","field_event_time":{"event_time_start":"2022-03-18T11:00:00-04:00","event_time_end":"2022-03-18T13:00:00-04:00","event_time_end_last":"2022-03-18T13:00:00-04:00","gmt_time_start":"2022-03-18 15:00:00","gmt_time_end":"2022-03-18 17:00:00","gmt_time_end_last":"2022-03-18 17:00:00","rrule":null,"timezone":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"221981","name":"Graduate Studies"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"100811","name":"Phd Defense"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[{"id":"1788","name":"Other\/Miscellaneous"}],"invited_audience":[{"id":"78761","name":"Faculty\/Staff"},{"id":"78771","name":"Public"},{"id":"78751","name":"Undergraduate students"}],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}