Latest issue of Historically Speaking Now Online

Randall Stephens

The latest issue of HS is now up on the Project Muse site.  It is a longer issue than normal, featuring two forums, five essays, and four interviews.  Readers might be especially interested in our forum on Geoffrey Parker’s Global Crisis: War, Climate Change and Catastrophe in the Seventeenth Century (Yale University Press, 2013), one of the most important history books of the last year.  As Don Yerxa puts it in the intro to the forum: "It has been widely heralded as an extraordinary scholarly achievement. Parker makes the case for a link between climate change and the worldwide catastrophe that occurred 350 years ago. We asked Parker to begin our forum with an account on the book’s long gestation. Then three prominent scholars, Kenneth Pomeranz, J.R. McNeill, and Jack Goldstone, comment on Global Crisis, followed by Parker’s rejoinder."

This issue, as many of our readers know, also marks an important transition for HS.  We are suspending publication for the remainder of 2014 as we forge a more sustainable operational framework. We are hopeful that some very promising developments will enable us to resume publishing a new and improved Historically Speaking in 2015.

TOC, Historically Speaking (November 2013)

"Silver and Segregation"
Wyatt Wells

"Winston Churchill and the Literary History of Politics"
Jonathan Rose

"Winston Churchill and Almighty God"
David Reagles and Timothy Larsen

"Liberal Protestantism in 20th-Century America: An Interview with
David A. Hollinger"
Conducted by Randall J. Stephens

"Catastrophe 1914: An Interview with Max Hastings"
Conducted by Donald A. Yerxa

Digital versus Printed Historical and Literary Editions: A Forum

"Television Is Not Radio with Pictures"
Holly Cowan Shulman

"Pouring Old Editorial Wine into New Digital Bottles"
Constance Schulz

"The Changing Production and Consumption of Historical and Literary Texts: The View from the Simms Initiatives"
David Moltke-Hansen

"The Invention of the American Meal: An Interview with Abigail Carroll"
Conducted by Donald A. Yerxa

"Global Crisis: A Forum The Genesis of Global Crisis"
Geoffrey Parker

"Weather, War, and Welfare: Persistence and Change in
Geoffrey Parker’s Global Crisis"
Kenneth Pomeranz

"Maunder Minimum and Parker Maximum"
J.R. McNeill

"Climate Lessons from History"
Jack A. Goldstone

"Response"
Geoffrey Parker

"A Combat History of the Great War: An Interview with Peter Hart"
Conducted by Donald A. Yerxa

"Jewish History and Education: A Review Essay"
Philip T. Hoffman

"Töchter of Feminism: Germany and the Modern Woman Artist"
Diane Radycki

American Studies Research Seminar at Northumbria University

Randall Stephens

Excuse a little promotional material. Here's the lineup for our American Studies research seminar here in Newcastle Upon Tyne for the first semester, 2013.  The new American Studies program is up and running with our first cohort of undergrads.

Remembering World War I in the Northeast of England

Randall Stephens

The Response by Sir William
Goscombe John. Unveiled by
the Prince of Wales in 1923.

Ernest Hemingway didn't mince words.  The author of A Farewell to Arms claimed that World War I "was the most colossal, murderous, mismanaged butchery that has ever taken place on earth. Any writer who said otherwise lied. So the writers either wrote propaganda, shut up, or fought."  Seeing the ravages of war up close, he served with distinction as an ambulance driver in Italy.  Gertrude Stein coined the phrase "lost generation," which applied to Hemingway and other wayward souls like T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

What accounts for the gap between Hemingway's tone and the gallant, heroic one of war memorials?  Did region have a role to play in war remembrance?  How do we make sense of the conflict now that the last veterans have passed away?

As we near the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I Don Yerxa has been conducting a series of interviews on the subject in the pages of Historically Speaking.  Watch for other essays, forums, and interviews in the coming months.

Here at Northumbria University my colleague in the History Programme, James McConnel has put together a stellar series of lectures to commemorate the war in the northeast of England.  This region responded in greater numbers, per capita, than any other.  So, the memories of the war take on a special meaning here.  Below is the full list of the lectures and the dates.

CFP: “Soundscapes: Music from the African Atlantic, 1600-present,” March 7-9, 2014

The Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program (CLAW) at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina invites paper proposals addressing the transnational and transcultural impacts of music throughout the Atlantic World for a conference to be held

March 7-9, 2014.  We are especially interested in twentieth and twenty-first century music and cultural exchange, but the conference is open to any work that examines the movement of music in the Atlantic World from the 1600s to the present. We welcome a broad range of submissions, but especially encourage submissions that utilize an interdisciplinary approach.  Proposals may address any area of music in the Atlantic World. We invite scholars to submit proposals for individual papers and panels that address such questions as:

* Tradition and modernity in popular and indigenous music in Latin America, the Caribbean and West Africa
* Music, Race, and Empire
* Jazz in a global context
* Trans-Caribbean identities in Salsa, Reggae, and Calypso music
* Pan-African Rhythms
* Caribbean beats and protest music in the 1970s
* The British Invasion and Rhythm and Blues in the United Kingdom
* Hip Hop and political activism in Africa and the Caribbean
* Race and Beach Music on the American Atlantic Coast
* Musical culture and diaspora studies

Proposals Due:  Friday, December 6, 2013

All Presenters will be notified if their paper or panel has been accepted by December 22, 2013.  Presenters and participants are expected to register for the conference by February 7th, 2014.  Registration will open in October 2013.

As with previous successful CLAW program events the conference will be run in a seminar style: accepted participants will be expected to send completed papers to the organizers in advance of the conference itself (by February 28th, 2014) for circulation via password-protected site. At the conference itself presenters will talk for no more than ten minutes about their paper, working on the assumption that everyone has read the paper itself. This arrangement means that papers may be considerably lengthier and more carefully argued than the typical 20-minute presentation; and it leads to more substantive, better-informed discussion. It also generally allows us to move quite smoothly toward publication of a selection of essays with the University of South Carolina Press.

Proposals for individual papers should be 200 words, and should be accompanied by a brief one-page biographical statement indicating institutional affiliation, research interests, and relevant publishing record for each participant, including chairs and commentators. Please place the panel proposal, and its accompanying paper proposals and vitas in one file. Please submit your proposal electronically with CLAW conference in the subject line to the conference chair, Dr. John White at WhiteJ@cofc.edu by December 6, 2013.

If you wish to send a proposal for a 3 or 4 person panel, please send a 300 to 500 word proposal describing the panel as a whole as well as proposals for each of the individual papers, along with biographical statements for each of the presenters. The organizers reserve the right to accept individual papers from panel proposals, to break up panels, and to add papers to panels. Notification of acceptance will be sent by December 22nd, 2013.

Tom Watson Brown Book Prize, Society of Civil War Historians

The Society of Civil War Historians is soliciting nominations for the Tom Watson Brown Book Prize for books published in 2013.

All genres of scholarship on the causes, conduct, and effects, broadly defined, of the Civil War are eligible. This includes, but is not exclusive to, monographs, synthetic works presenting original interpretations, and biographies. Works of fiction, poetry, anthologies, and textbooks will not be considered. Jurors will consider nominated works’ scholarly and literary merit as well as the extent to which they make original contributions to our understanding of the period.

Thavolia Glymph, Associate Professor of African and African-American Studies at Duke University, will chair the prize jury. The other members are Alice Fahs, Professor of History and Director of the Humanities Honors Program at the University of California – Irvine, and Kenneth Noe, Alumni Professor and Draughon Professor of Southern History at Auburn University. Tad Brown, President of the Watson-Brown Foundation, Inc., will serve as a non-voting member of the jury.

Publishers are asked to send nominated books (only those published in 2013 will be considered) directly to the four jurors no later than January 31, 2014. The winner will be announced by August 1, 2014. The award will be presented at the SCWH banquet at the Southern Historical Association meeting, where the winner will deliver a formal address that will be published in a subsequent issue of the Journal of the Civil War Era. 

More information>>>

History Conferences at Northumbria University, July 2013

Randall Stephens

The Tyne Bridge

It will be a busy summer at Northumbria University (Newcastle Upon Tyne).  My new colleagues in History and American Studies are bringing two large conferences to the university. Come mid-summer the campus will be abuzz with historians, foreign policy experts, economists, sociologists, and likely more tweed and elbow patches than you can shake a stick at.

First, the university will host the annual meeting of the Historians of Twentieth Century United States (HOTCUS).  HOTCUS, according to the organizations website, promotes "scholarship in the field of twentieth century American history. It has strong links with the British Association for American Studies and is the major academic organization for historians of modern America." Professor Wesley Hogan (Virginia State University) will deliver the plenary lecture: "'You Have to Stand Up, You Don't Have to Survive:’ Civil Rights and Memory in the United State." (The proposal deadline has passed, but booking is still open.)

Not long after the HOTCUS meeting, the annual conference of Transatlantic Studies Association (TSA) will convene at Northumbria from 8 - 11 July 2013.  A little more about it:
 

The TSA exists to provide focus for transatlantic area studies and bring together scholars from different disciplines in order to further research and understanding of transatlantic relations. It has strong links with the US Embassy, British Academy, Failte Ireland, and NATO attracting members from North America, Europe, and Asia. The TSA is also the societal body responsible for publishing the Journal of Transatlantic Studies.*

Plenary Speakers will be Donna Alvah (St Lawrence University, New York) and Michael Clarke (RUSI).

The deadline for proposals is April 30, 2013.

No Person Shall Bee Any Wise Molested: Religious Freedom, Cultural Conflict, and the Moral Role of the State

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A conference planned for October 3 - 6, 2013, in Newport and Providence, Rhode Island, organized by the Newport Historical Society, the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Policy, Salve Regina University, the George Washington Institute for Religious Freedom, the John Carter Brown Library, Brown University and the Rhode Island Historical Society to mark the 350th anniversary of the 1663 Rhode Island Charter.

What is religious toleration? What are its functions, effects, and limits in society? How has it manifested (or not) around the world in human history?

The 1663 Rhode Island Charter stipulated that no person "shall bee any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any differences in opinione in matters of religion." This charter famously ignited the "lively experiment" that both reflected and shaped religious and political developments in the early modern world and has continued to influence global conversations about the role of toleration and religious freedom. The 350th anniversary of this charter provides a timely point of entry into a thoughtful consideration of a far larger set of questions about religious freedom in particular historical and present day contexts.

Humanities and Social Sciences under Fire in Florida

William A. Link

In the coming days Florida Governor Rick Scott’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on State Higher Education Reform will submit its final report. At its center are recommendations that state-determined “accountability” metrics shall determine university funding and that Florida adopt a new funding model of differential tuition rates that favor “strategic programs” (mostly science, technology, engineering, and math, STEM disciplines) also to be determined by the state legislature. Students will potentially pay much higher tuition rates for "non-strategic programs" (mostly humanities and social sciences).

A group of concerned faculty from the Department of History at the University of Florida has drafted a letter to Governor Rick Scott opposing the task force’s recommendations and calling on him to incorporate faculty input into reforms to the state university system.  (See the petition here.)

For more, see:

Jordan Weissmann, "Should Science Majors Pay Less for College Than Art Majors?" Atlantic, November 5, 2012

Elizabeth Popp Berman, "More STEM Majors Won’t Solve Higher Education’s Problems," Chronicle, November 1, 2012

William A. Link, Richard J. Milbauer Professor, History Department, University of Florida

Popularizing Historical Knowledge Conference, University of South Carolina

Randall Stephens

On the fence about whether or not to attend the Historical Society's 2012 conference?  We have extended the deadline for early registration.  So, head over to the Historical Society site and sign up.  The PayPal setup makes it a cinch to register.

Also, check out the program, with many of the papers now on-line.

Here's a sampling of what will be on offer:

"Popularizing Historical Knowledge: Practice, Prospects, and Perils," University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, Mark Smith, Program Chair

THURSDAY MAY 31

7:30-9:00PM - Belk Auditorium
INTRODUCTION
Lacy K. Ford, Jr., University of South Carolina

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
"Whose History Is It Anyway? Reaching Real People"
Walter Edgar, University of South Carolina

FRIDAY JUNE 1

8:30-10:00am

Session IIB - Room JK
RELIGIOUS HISTORY AND THE PUBLIC IMAGINATION

Chair: John Fea, Messiah College

“Jonathan Edwards Redivivus: Contemporary Reformed Evangelical Uses of Popular History”
Adam S. Brasich, Florida State University

“Rob Bell, News Media, and the Role of Historians”
Charles A. McCrary, Florida State University

“Popularizing the Sacred: Religious History and the Public Imagination”
Jason Wallace, Samford University

1:00-2.30pm

Session IIIB - Room JK
LISTENING IN: MUSIC AND AMERICAN HISTORY

Chair: TBA

“Remixing the Master: Music, Race, and the Central Theme of Southern History Revisited”
Michael T. Bertrand, Tennessee State University

“A Song Is Born (The Public Intellectual)”
Jeff Pennig, Austin Peay State University

Session IIIC - Room 855
POPULARIZING JACKSONIAN AMERICA AND “FRONTIER” HISTORY

Chair: Heather Richardson, Boston College

“Old Hickory Just Got All Sexypants: History and Politics in Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson”
Mark R. Cheathem, Cumberland University

“Moving West: Migrations of a Yankee Family across the Old Northwest, 1780-1869”
Dan Allosso, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

3:00-4:30pm

Session IVC - Room 855
TEXTBOOKS AND THE POPULARIZATION OF HISTORY

Chair: Linda K. Salvucci, Trinity University

“A Most Successful Case of Historical Popularization: R. R. Palmer’s A History of the Modern World”
James Friguglietti, Montana State University, Billings

“Ideology and Education: Economic Education in Texas Public Schools, 1945-1970”
Jeff Hassmann, Lakeview College

SATURDAY JUNE 2

8:30-10:00am

Session VB - Room JK
LEGAL HISTORY AS POPULAR HISTORY

Chair: Deborah Beckel, Joel Williamson Visiting Scholar, Southern Historical Collection

“Abraham Lincoln’s Suspensions of Habeas Corpus in Public and Scholarly Memory”
Robert Faith, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

“Between Evidence, Rumor, and Popular Perception: Marshal Lamon and the “Plot” to Arrest Chief Justice Taney”
Phillip W. Magness, George Mason University

“The Politics of Habeas during the Civil War and Reconstruction”
Justin J. Wert, University of Oklahoma

“General Thomas Ewing’s Infamous Actions Hostile to Civil Liberties: General Order Numbers 10 and 11”
Timothy C. Westcott, Park University

Session VC - Room 855
POPULAR HISTORY, WOMEN’S HISTORY

Chair: Chris Beneke, Bentley College

“Traveling from the 18th to the 20th Century with Dorothy Quincy Hancock, Margaret Fuller, Sally Baxter Hampton, and Edith Nourse Rogers”
Marcia Synnott, University of South Carolina

“Knowledgeable Human Capital and Education in the Eisenhower Administration: The Role of Women”
Erwin V. Johanningmeier, University of South Florida

3:00-4:30pm

Session VIIIB - Room JK
THE POPULARIZATION OF HISTORY IN BRAZIL

Chair: Martin J. Burke, CUNY Graduate Center

“The Magazine Revista de História: A Brazilian Model of Scientific Spreading”
Luciano Figueiredo, Universidade Federal Fluminence

“The TV Show/Youtube Channel Leituras da História as an Example of Scientific Accountability”
Oldimar Cardoso, University of Augsburg


Session VIIIC - Room 855
LITERATURE AND THE WRITING OF HISTORY

Chair: TBA

“Links in the Chain: William Styron and the Creation of History”
R. Blakeslee Gilpin, University of South Carolina

“The History Behind the Poetry of Natasha Trethewey”
Daniel Littlefield, University of South Carolina

“Confronting and Correcting the ‘Cheap, Popular Edition’: Hemingway, Dorman-Smith, and the Chivalrous Quest for Historical Truth”
Ken Startup, Williams Baptist College

6:00-7:30pm - Top of Carolina
RECEPTION

7:30-9:00pm - Belk Auditorium
CHRISTOPHER LASCH LECTURE
"The Politics of Dead Knowledge: What If the Death of History Is a Suicide?"
Jane Kamensky, Brandeis University

Timothy Snyder Lecture, April 10, 2012

Gilder Lehrman History Scholar Award - Application Open Through March 15th

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The History Scholar Award administered by The Gilder Lehrman Institute, honors outstanding graduating college seniors who have demonstrated academic and extracurricular excellence in American History or American Studies. The Institute recognizes the outstanding achievements of Phi Alpha Theta undergraduate members. We are contacting you to invite the graduating seniors in your Phi Alpha Theta Chapter to apply for this honor.

Highlights of the Gilder Lehrman History Scholar Award include:

• Four-Day trip to New York City, June 8-11, 2012.

• Special meetings with eminent history scholars.

• Exclusive behind-the-scenes tours of historic archives.

• Celebratory awards dinner.

Recipients will be reimbursed for up to $600 for travel expenses to New York, and room and board will be provided during the award weekend.

Application Deadline: March 15, 2012
Notification Deadline: April 16, 2012

To apply, or for more information, visit: www.gilderlehrman.org/historyscholaraward.

If you have questions about the award, please email scholars@gilderlehrman.org.

Conference on Public Intellectuals, Harvard, 2012

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Third Annual Conference on Public Intellectuals
History of Science Department
Harvard University
April 12-14, 2012

Call for Papers

Since the 1950s, American writers and thinkers such as Irving Howe, Kenneth Clark, Russell Jacoby, Thomas Bender, bell hooks, Richard Posner, Toni Morrison, Thomas Sowell, and Cornel West have debated the meaning and purpose of public intellectuals. Many have openly criticized what they call the increasing corporatization of public intellectual life within the academy. Increasing specialization and narrower disciplines, some argue, has led to a growing paucity of radical ideas and a growing obsession with a mass media-infused culture. Others on the ideological right maintain that leftist public intellectuals do not pay enough attention to market forces and are too protected by and safely ensconced in tenured ivory towers, writing and teaching only to indoctrinate their students.

This conference seeks to bring together scholars and researchers in all disciplines whose work focuses on public intellectuals. We hope to engage these issues while moving beyond past debates into new questions on the role of public intellectual life in the 21st century. Paper topics on all global areas as well as the U.S. are welcome. The conference also seeks to provide a forum for self-reflection by public intellectuals in the past and present. The conference format will include individual presentations organized into workshops of 3-4 presenters and three special roundtable sessions.

Proposals of 300 words or less must include your identifying information including name, title, institution, email, and phone number. Please send two copies to the co-organizers, Larry Friedman (ljfriedm@indiana.edu) and Damon Freeman (dfreeman@sp2.upenn.edu).

Deadline for paper and panel proposals: Wednesday, November 30.

Nominations for Cliopatria's 2011 Awards

Randall Stephens

It's that time of year again. Head over to the HNN Cliopatria blog to nominate your favorite blogs, writers, posts, and more. The more nominations Cliopatria gets, the better!

The word from Cliopatria:

Nominations are open for the Cliopatria Awards, 2011. Until 30 November, you can nominate candidates for Best Group Blog, Best Individual Blog, Best New Blog, Best Post, Best Series of Posts, and Best Writer. This year, for the first time, there will be Awards for Best Twitter Feed and Best Podcast Episode. . . .

Nominations will be open through November; judges will make the final determinations in December. The winners will be announced at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting in early January 2011; winners will be listed on HNN and earn the right to display the appropriate Cliopatria Award Logo on their blog.

Lecture on Writing Op Eds at Eastern Nazarene College on November 8

Randall J. Stephens

Just a little plug for a lecture and discussion we'll be hosting next week at Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Mass. Eileen McNamara and Maura Jane Farrelly, both at Brandeis University, will be talking about writing op eds for print and radio. (Farrelly, a historian of Revolutionary America, has spoken to my history students in the past about the differences between and similarities of history and journalism.) From the ENC's website:

The History Department will present a free lecture on writing op-eds by Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Eileen McNamara and fellow Brandeis University Professor Maura Jane Farrelly at 6:00pm Tuesday, November 8 in the Mann Student Center Auditorium as part of its Fall Lecture Series.

McNamara is a professor of the Practice in Journalism at Brandeis University. In addition to receiving the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1997, she has received numerous honors including the Yankee Quill Award (2007) and Distinguished Writing Award (1997), among others. Courses she has taught vary from Race and Gender in the News to Political Packaging in America to Media and Public Policy. Her published works include: The Parting Glass: A Toast To The Traditional Pubs of Ireland (2006), Breakdown: Sex, Suicide and the Harvard Psychiatrist (1993), and Eye on the President George Bush: History in Essays & Cartoons (1994).

Farrelly is assistant professor of American studies and director of the Journalism Program at Brandeis University. She holds a Ph.D. in history from Emory University, with an emphasis on the colonial and early-American periods, and on American religious history. She worked as a full-time reporter for several years at Georgia Public Radio in Atlanta and for the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. and New York. She has also freelanced for National Public Radio, Public Radio International and the British Broadcasting Corporation. She is the author of the forthcoming: Papist Patriots: The Making of an American Catholic Identity (Oxford University Press, 2011).

Submit a Paper or Panel for the 2012 Historical Society Conference

Randall Stephens

It's not too late to submit a paper or a panel proposal for the 2012 Historical Society Conference in Columbia, SC, Thursday, May 31st - Saturday, June 2nd, 2012.

But the deadline, December 1, will soon be upon us! Here's the CFP:

Professional historians in the United States are increasingly being called upon to produce more “popular,” more accessible history. How do and how should academic historians reach popular audiences? How and to what extent is “popular” history written around the world? Does the meaning of and audience for “popular history” vary from place to place? Along with professional historians, states, elites, and a variety of interest groups have long had an interest in sponsoring, supporting, and generating historical knowledge for popular and other audiences. We seek paper and panel proposals that will consider “popular” history in its various guises and locales. How and to what extent is the interest in “popular” history genuinely new? How do and how should historians interact with television and movie production or write op-ed pieces or blogs or serve as expert witnesses? Is there such a thing as a truly “popular” history? Do we need a distinctive “popular” history and are historians properly equipped to write it?

We especially encourage panel proposals, though individual paper proposals are welcome as well. And our interpretation of “panel” is broad: 2 or more presenters constitute a panel—chairs and commentators are optional. As at past conferences, we hope for bold yet informal presentations that will provoke lots of questions and discussion from the audience, not presenters reading papers word-for-word from a podium followed by a commentator doing the same.

Please submit proposals (brief abstract and brief CV) by
December 1, 2011 to Mark Smith and Dean Kinzley,
2012 Program Chairs, at jslucas@bu.edu

Exhibits, Shows Roundup

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A Day in Pompeii, Nichols Gallery, Boston Museum of Science, through Feb 12, 2012

Get a glimpse of daily life in Pompeii, one of Imperial Rome's most cosmopolitan cities. Hundreds of artifacts —

including body casts of the volcano's victims — bring to light the vibrancy of this bustling resort town, but the darkening skies ahead and violent sounds of Vesuvius spewing ash and debris signal imminent danger.>>>

Passages, Oklahoma City Museum Of Art, through Oct 16, 2011

Passages is a 14,000-square-foot interactive, multimedia exhibition for all ages. It features some of the most exquisite and rare biblical manuscripts, printed Bibles, and historical items in the world. These cultural treasures include a Dead Sea Scroll text, ancient biblical papyri, beautifully illuminated manuscripts, early printed materials, including a portion of the Gutenberg Bible, and multiple first editions of the English Bible through the King James Version.>>>

Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt, Milwaukee Public Museum, Opens October 14

Cleopatra: The Search for the Last Queen of Egypt features nearly 150 artifacts from Cleopatra’s time and helps visitors experience the present-day search for the elusive queen, which extends from the sands of Egypt to the depths of the Bay of Aboukir near Alexandria.>>>

1968 Exhibit, Minnesota History Center, Opens October 14
The Vietnam War, protests and assassinations were on the news. Peace signs, love-ins and psychedelic rock were on the scene. From the darkest hours to the incredible highs, the year 1968 comes alive in this extraordinary new exhibit.>>>

Celebrate TV, National Media Museum, Bradford, UK

This half term we're celebrating television. Journey back in time to see how TV began, what it looked like, and watch a selection of programmes we all loved. Fast forward to the future and see crystal clear images with our Super Hi-Vision TV.>>>

2012 Southern Historical Association Meeting

Randall Stephens

The 78th Annual Meeting of the Southern Historical Association will be in Mobile, Alabama, November 1-4, 2012. The deadline for submitting a proposal for the 2012 meeting of the Southern Historical Association is about one month away. There's still plenty of time to submit a paper or a session. Program directors Marjorie Spruill and Don Doyle hope to "create a rich and broad program for 2012 by soliciting exciting proposals."

Here's the general note about the Mobile conference:

The Program Committee for 2012 invites proposals on all topics related to the history of the American South from its pre-colonial era to today. In addition, for the 2012 meeting in Mobile, it extends a special welcome to proposals relating to:

~ Mobile and the Gulf South

~ International, transnational, or comparative approaches

~ 2012 as an anniversary of major historical events, publications, etc.

The Program Committee accepts proposals for single papers but encourages session proposals that include two or three papers. Individuals interested in using the SHA website to organize a session with complementary papers may send an e-mail to Sheree Dendy with their name, e-mail address, and proposed paper topic. She will post this information on the SHA website, which others seeking compatible co-panelists may consult. Click to view current postings of those seeking related proposals.

According to SHA policy, no one who appeared on the previous two programs, those at Charlotte and Baltimore, can be part of the program in Mobile.

Note: A New Policy for the 2012 Program Committee: Those submitting proposals should include suggestions of people who would be appropriate as commentators/chairs but not issue invitations. The Program Committee will select and invite a chair and usually two commentators. No two people from the same institution can be on the same session.

All 2012 proposals must be submitted online.

If you are interested in submitting a session for the Latin American and Caribbean Section, please visit their web site.

Calling All Grad Students

Dan Allosso

Part of the title of my last blog post was “Notes from Grad School.” This is the tentative title of a series of posts by me and other graduate students, about our thoughts and experiences as we prepare to become professional historians. We’re hoping some of these posts will come from grad students who read this blog, whether or not they have posted with us before.

Graduate students in history face a series of challenges and opportunities. Some of these are similar to those faced by all grad students, some of them are shared primarily with grad students in the humanities, and some of them are ours alone. Among the topics we might cover in this series of posts:

Why did we enter a Masters or PhD program in history?

What do we hope to do and what do we expect to do when we complete our programs–especially if those two things differ?

How do we see and how does society seems to see the role of historians in our culture–especially if those two things differ?

How will changes in economics, technology, academic standards, and the nature of the historical profession impact our career choices and opportunities?

What is our sense of mission, and do the changes going on all around us signal new opportunities?

These are just a few of the topics on which it might be interesting to see the perspective from graduate school–there are probably many others that will occur to us as contributors come forward, and as the column develops. Contributors need not be experts in order to venture their opinions (as my prior post demonstrates), but in general this is envisioned as a place where criticisms are paired with suggestions for change, and the overall direction is toward solutions.

The perspective of the graduate student, of course, is the perspective of someone who is relatively new to the profession and seeing it with fresh eyes. Naturally, there will be some degree of “reinventing the wheel,” as a new generation of budding historians makes discoveries that may already be well known to older members of the profession. But, since every generation encounters a unique set of circumstances, and since our generation enters the profession during a period of remarkable technological change, we hope these notes will be fresh and interesting for the blog’s general readers.

If you are a grad student interested in sharing your observations about these or other issues, please contact me at dan@danallosso.com. Even if you have just a brief idea or a reaction to something, and you don't want to put together a blog post, drop me a line. I may be able to add your reaction to those of others, and say something more general about what people think as a result. And, if you're not a grad student but have some ideas you really want to get off your chest, fire away! The world is changing all around us--what does it mean for historians?

The Historical Society Announces a Competitive RFP-Based Research Program

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Religion and Innovation in Human Affairs: Exploring the Role of Religion in the Origins of Novelty and the Diffusion of Innovation in the Progress of Civilizations

With generous funding from the John Templeton Foundation, the Historical Society is launching a major interdisciplinary grants program in September 2011. It will provide $2.0 million in research support for empirical, conceptual, and interpretive work exploring the role religion may play as a driving force of innovation in human affairs.

The competitive RFP-based research program will award approximately 15 two-year grants of $100,000 each and a few larger grants of $250,000 to support archaeological fieldwork and traditional social science and historical investigation, as well as conceptually-oriented analysis.

Donald A. Yerxa will serve as the Program Leader for Religion and Innovation in Human Affairs. And a distinguished board of advisers will be announced this summer.

A request for proposals will be forthcoming later this summer. For more information, visit the RIHA website (under construction) at www.bu.edu/historic/riha

The John Templeton Foundation (www.templeton.org) serves as a philanthropic catalyst for discoveries relating to the Big Questions of human purpose and ultimate reality. The Foundation supports research on subjects ranging from complexity, evolution, and infinity to creativity, forgiveness, love, and free will. It encourages civil, informed dialogue among scientists, philosophers, and theologians and between such experts and the public at large, for the purposes of definitional clarity and new insights. The Foundation’s vision is derived from the late Sir John Templeton's optimism about the possibility of acquiring “new spiritual information” and from his commitment to rigorous scientific research and related scholarship. Its motto, "How little we know, how eager to learn," exemplifies its support for open-minded inquiry and our hope for advancing human progress through breakthrough discoveries.

Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition

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The Legal History and Rare Books Section (LH&RB) of the American Association of Law Libraries, in cooperation with Cengage Learning, announces the third annual Morris L. Cohen Student Essay Competition.

The competition is named in honor of Morris L. Cohen, late Professor Emeritus of Law at Yale Law School. Professor Cohen was a leading scholar in the fields of legal research, rare books, and historical bibliography.

The purpose of the competition is to encourage scholarship in the areas of legal history, rare law books, and legal archives, and to acquaint students with the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and law librarianship.

Eligibility

Students currently enrolled in accredited graduate programs in library science, law, history, or related fields are eligible to enter the competition. Both full- and part-time students are eligible. Membership in AALL is not required.

Requirements

Essays may be on any topic related to legal history, rare law books, or legal archives. The entry form and instructions are available at the LH&RB website: http://www.aallnet.org/sis/lhrb/

Entries must be submitted by 11:59 p.m., March 15, 2011. The winner will be announced by April 15.

Awards

The winner will receive a $500.00 prize from Cengage Learning and up to $1,000 for expenses associated with attendance at the AALL Annual Meeting.

The runner-up will have the opportunity to publish the second-place essay in LH&RB’s online scholarly journal Unbound: An Annual Review of Legal History and Rare Books.

Please direct questions to Robert Mead at libram@nmcourts.gov or Sarah Yates at yates006@tc.umn.edu.