Under the aegis of the Plastics Heritage European Association (PHEA), the Portuguese Center for the History of Science and Technology (CIUHCT) will host the Plastics Heritage Congress 2019. History, Limits and Possibilities, the congress’ general theme, is the fifth in a series of international Plastics Heritage Conferences and will be held in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, at Museu da Farmácia, from 29th to 31st May 2019.
This congress aims to address plastics history and heritage by encouraging papers that contribute to a deeper understanding of the socioeconomic culture and material culture of historic polymeric materials (HIPOMS) in their various representations and functions in society. The main theme embraces the concepts of history, limits and possibilities of plastics heritage as organizing principles, thus perceiving their impact on the consumer and their technical and scientific developments.

The programme committee suggests the following non-exhaustive sub-themes for contributors of individual papers, and posters:

• Plastics history (historic polymeric materials [Hipoms] manufacturing, engineering, companies)
• Plastics heritage (Hipomsin art, design, everyday use, technical objects and architecture)
• Collecting Hipom objects
• Conservation of Hipoms (artefacts, technical heritage, material characterization)
• Documentation and reproduction (archives, data bases, digital scanning, 3D-printing etc.)
• Plastics limits (degradation, waste problems, environmental impacts, history of social interactions)
• Plastics and emotions: impact on consumers and design personalisation.

Historic polymeric materials (Hipoms) comprise:

• The large group of natural polymeric materials (amber, birch pitch, bitumen, natural rubber, gutta-percha, natural fibers, natural lacquers and varnishes, vegetable and animal glues, linoleum, shellac and Bois Durci etc.).
• Chemically modified biopolymers like cellulose nitrate, cellulose acetate and casein-formaldehyde masses.
• Historic synthetic polymeric material like phenolics, urea and other early thermosets, thermoplastics, elastomers, fibers, lacquers, glues etc.

The call for papers is open for session proposals until 30th August 2018 23.59GMT and for individual paper proposals until 15th November 2018 23.59GMT. The acceptance/rejection of session proposals will be announced on 15th November 2018 for session proposals and on 07th January 2019 for individual paper proposals.

All proposals must be in English. For advice on preparing your submission and the conference presentation, please consult the guidelines. Proposals should be sent electronically (as a pdf or Word file, Times New Roman, 12, single space) to Guenter Lattermann (guenter.lattermann(at)uni-bayreuth.de), the chair of the programme committee or Maria Elvira Callapez (mariaelviracallapez(at)gmail.com), co-chair.