Calls for Papers
- 2010 Conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR)
- The 2010 SHAFR Summer Institute (in Madison, Wisconsin), Co-sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University’s Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, June 18-23
- 2010 Program on Conducting Archival Research, Washington DC
- CFA: Effective FOIA Requesting for Researchers, 8 March 2010
- CFA: The Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research, June 7-11, 2010
- GSNAS 3rd International Conference: “States of Emergency – Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Dynamics of Crisis,” June 11-12, 2010
Call for Applications: The 2010 SHAFR Summer Institute (in Madison, Wisconsin), Co-sponsored by the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University’s Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs, June 18-23
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations will hold its third annual summer institute, in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 18-23, 2010. Designed for advanced graduate students and early-career faculty members researching all aspects of international history, the program will place particular emphasis on exploring and expanding each participant’s research, preparing early career scholars for the job market, and helping first-time authors prepare their work for publication. Each participant will receive travel, accommodations, and an honorarium of $500.
Jeffrey A. Engel of Texas A&M University and Mark A. Lawrence of the University of Texas at Austin will co-direct the institute, which will focus on the ways historical narratives are used in policy debates. Whether it is the supposed “lesson” of appeasement’s folly which motivated policymakers after World War II, or the more recent received wisdom that Ronald Reagan actively won the Cold War through military strength fused with inviolable principle, history is more than merely academic for many decision-makers. Policymakers and pundits alike employ particular readings of the past in order to understand their contemporary world and, more importantly, to buttress support for their particular choices about the future. For those faced with difficult decisions, history is often prescriptive.
Because studying the way decision-makers understood their past and thus their range of acceptable policy options improves an historian’s understanding of the past, participants in the 2010 institute will engage moments in which particular readings of the past directly informed policy debates. They will discuss such moments with scholars of this genre of international history, and with practitioners who employed history during the policy debates of their own careers.
The goals of the institute are mentorship, intellectual development, and professional fellowship. Participants will discuss assigned readings during the institute’s core sessions. Participants will also present their current research for discussion and critique in preparation for completing their dissertations and enhancing their subsequent employment prospects. Participants will also be exposed to entertainment and culture. The institute schedule is designed to enable participants to remain in Madison to attend the 2010 SHAFR annual meeting at the University of Wisconsin, on June 24-26.
The deadline for applications is February 1, 2010. Applicants should submit a cv along with a one-page letter detailing how participation in the institute would benefit their scholarship and career, to Griffin Rozell, Assistant Director of the Scowcroft Institute, at grozell@bushschool.tamu.edu. Additional information may be found at http://bush.tamu.edu/scowcroft/. Questions may be directed to jaengel@tamu.edu or malawrence@mail.utexas.edu.
CFA: 2010 Program on Conducting Archival Research, Washington DC
George Washington University is running two events through its Program on Conducting Archival Research (POCAR) in spring and summer 2010. The information on these programs is pasted in below and can be found on POCAR’s website: http://www.gwu.edu/~ieresgwu/academics/pocar.cfm . Even though this is run out of an area studies center (IERES), the programs are for research on any part of the world and from any discipline.
The Program on Conducting Archival Research has three components:
* a Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in contemporary history.
* a one day workshop on conducting Freedom of Information Act requests; and
* a week long summer institute on archival research;
CFA: Effective FOIA Requesting for Researchers, 8 March 2010
On March 8, 2010, the National Security Archive and George Washington University will join forces for a day-long workshop on “Effective FOIA Requesting for Researchers.” This session will offer a unique opportunity for graduate students to learn the fundamentals of the Freedom of Information Act and how to use it. The deadline to apply is February 1, 2010. The workshop will take place at the Elliott School in Washington, D.C and will be limited to 20 participants. GWU will cover overnight accommodation when necessary and accepted students may apply for subsidized travel.
Applications should include the appropriate form (see website) as well as:
1. a two-page proposal indicating how the workshop is important for your dissertation research
2. a curriculum vitae
Please send applications via e-mail to sicar@gwu.edu by February 1, 2010 with the subject line reading “FOIA Workshop.”
CFA: The Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research, June 7-11, 2010
SICAR is a five-day seminar in which Ph.D. students receive training in conducting archival research. Although archival research is an integral part of many academic disciplines, it is virtually never taught at the graduate level. In an effort to address this deficiency, the George Washington University began the Summer Institute in 2003. SICAR welcomes students working on dissertation topics related modern history and international affairs. In 2010, the Summer Institute will continue to welcome participants from various disciplines including history, government and politics, international relations, sociology, anthropology, and public policy, as well as area and regional studies.
SICAR will be limited to 20 participants, and preference is given to students who have defended their dissertation proposal and are about to embark on dissertation research. Applicants must submit the application form (see website), a two-page proposal indicating how they would benefit from participation in SICAR, a CV, and one letter of recommendation from a faculty member in their department.
The deadline for applications is February 25, 2010 and decisions will be announced by the end of March. Please send applications via e-mail (ATTN: SICAR APP) to sicar@gwu.edu. Letters of recommendation can be sent via email or by regular mail to:
The Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies
ATTN: SICAR
1957 E St. N.W., Suite 412
Washington, DC 20052.
GWU will cover the costs of housing and meals and may in some cases help with transportation.
The Summer Institute is directed by the faculty of the GW Cold War Group and researchers at both the National Security Archive and the Cold War International History Project. SICAR is generously funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
For more information on all of the above, please contact Elidor Mehilli, elidor@gwu.edu.
GSNAS 3rd International Conference: “States of Emergency – Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Dynamics of Crisis,” June 11-12, 2010
International Conference June 11 – 12, 2010, at John F. Kennedy Institute of the Freie Universität Berlin, organized by the Graduate School of North American Studies (GSNAS).
The attacks on the World Trade Center and the ensuing War on Terror stand as images that mark the 21st century’s fall into a permanent state of emergency, manifest in the suspension of civil liberties, preemptive and irregular warfare, and a disregard for international law. As we now recognize, other precarious potentials such as financial speculation and climate change have long been gaining momentum, erupting into acute states of crisis in the recent past. The tumultuous beginning of the new century has heightened our sensitivity to exceptional states and emerging instabilities, questioning the applicability of established modes of control.
States of emergency magnify pre-existing lines of conflict, shaping clear-cut enemy images. These may vary from Al-Qaeda to brokers on Wall Street or multinational enterprises, to name but a few. But times of crisis also demand new forms of agency for the emergence of new orders. If the US is indeed part of a world community, does a permanent state of emergenc(e)y become the new basis of governance and politics?
The annual conference at the Graduate School of the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies (GSNAS) of the Freie Universität Berlin is hosted by the graduate students. The third in a series of international conferences is designed to bring together leading scholars and top graduate students from around the world to discuss current issues in American Studies.
Panels may include, but are not restricted to:
- The crisis of representation and the representation of crisis
- The 2008 economic crisis and the crisis of neoliberalism
- Crisis as an organizational principle in international politics
- Terror and responses to terror/ irregular warfare
- Governmentality and Governance
- Responses to mass migration
- Climate change and natural disasters
- Pandemics and transnational biopolitics
- Crisis of Empire: The end of the American Century?
- The history of crisis and the “end of history”
- Transnational American Studies: another crisis in American Studies?
We invite scholars to submit abstracts of max. 500 words. Papers should include name, contact details, institutional affiliation and research interests.The deadline for submissions is February 28, 2010. Please refer to our website for recent updates and further information: http://www.jfki.fu-berlin.de/graduateschool/en/conference/2010/index.html .
Proposals should be submitted by email to gsnas.conference2010@gsnas.fu-berlin.de