ConIH: Empires and Imperial Control
The fourth annual Harvard graduate student conference in international history (ConIH) will take place next semester, March 19-20. The theme for this year's conference is "Empires and Imperial Control in Comparative Perspective". This year, the conference is imposing neither temporal or geographic restrictions on applications but is instead seeking a functional specificity. Leading experts on the issue of imperial control, including Dominic Lieven and Niall Ferguson, have already agreed to participate in the conference.
On behalf of the organizing committee, I'd be grateful if you could encourage any graduate students who might be interested in this conference to apply. Two of the past the past three conferences have spawned published volumes. This could be an excellent opportunity for graduate students working in imperial histories to present work publicly, with the possibility of future publication.
If you have any questions about the conference, please do not hesitate to get in contact (sargent@fas.harvard.edu). The conference website is available at <http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~conih>.
The CFP is attached below.
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The Department of History invites graduate students to submit proposals
For the Fourth Annual Harvard Graduate Student Conference on International
History (ConIH) to take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts on 19-20 March
2004.
The theme for this year's conference is "Empires and Imperial Control." This theme is concerned with the mechanisms of domination, subordination, and accommodation that have linked peoples and societies in world history. We welcome papers that consider the issue of imperial control in its multiple dimensions, from formal militarized rule to informal hegemony. Discussions of "imperial control" could focus on culturally alien governance, relations between dominant and subordinate elites, imperial legitimacy and sovereignty, and patterns of local resistance, collaboration, and autonomy. The emphasis on control is unabashedly political. We welcome papers dealing with aspects of cultural and economic expansion, but would expect specific discussion of the mechanisms of imperial control therein.
There are no temporal or geographic limits. The conference aims for a wide diversity of topics, to include: continental and overseas empires; colonial, non-colonial, and post-colonial societies; Western and non-Western populations; and ancient, early modern, modern, and contemporary contexts. Papers will be selected and assigned to panels on the basis of their strength and their utility as a basis for historical comparison.
ConIH welcomes innovative research approaches and agendas. Particular attention will be given to papers developing comparative perspectives and utilizing multi-archival research bases. We actively encourage students to reach beyond the immediate conclusions of their research to consider "empire" as a conceptual tool in international and world history. The conference will conclude with a plenary session, at which several leading scholars in the fields of international and imperial histories will discuss these broad issues.
Commentary on papers will be provided by specialists from Harvard and beyond. Faculty participants in previous years have included: Bernard Bailyn, Sven Beckert, Sugata Bose, Daniel Botsman, Mark Bradley, Joyce Chaplin, Lizabeth Cohen, Matthew Connelly, Nick Cullather, Bruce Cumings, Jorge Dominguez, Judith Ewell, Seth Fein, Niall Ferguson, Paul Gootenberg, Patrice Higonnet, Akira Iriye, Fred Leventhal, Michael McCormick, Charles Maier, Patrick Manning, Terry Martin, Ernest May, Frank Ninkovich, Susan Pedersen, Richard Pells, Daniel Rodgers, Emily Rosenberg, and Bin Wong.
Graduate student presenters who must travel from outside New England will receive a small stipend to help defray expenses. Details will be available in the weeks ahead on the conference website <http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~conih>.
Graduate students who are interested
in participating in the conference should submit a one-page paper proposal
and curriculum vita (in Word, RTF, or PDF format) to conih@fas.harvard.edu.
Proposals must be received by October 31, 2003 in order to be considered.
Notification of acceptance will be made by November 30, 2003. For additional
information about the conference, please contact conih@fas.harvard.edu
or visit the conference website.