Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations

Call For Proposals to Host the 2013 SHAFR Summer Institute

The SHAFR Summer Institute Oversight Committee welcomes proposals to host the 2013 SHAFR Summer Institute.

The SHAFR Summer institute (SI) ideally takes place in the five days prior to the annual SHAFR meetings in June. (In 2013, the SI should ideally run on June 14-19, preceding the annual meeting in Arlington VA, on June 20-22). The SI is intended to provide advanced graduate students and/or junior faculty with the chance to engage in intense discussion with senior scholars on topics and methodologies related to the study of foreign policy and/or international history. The Institute also serves as an opportunity for all participants, senior scholars included, to test out ideas and themes related to their own research. To underwrite the Institute, SHAFR provides $45,000, which includes a $5,000 stipend for each of the two co-organizers; a small stipend, travel, and room expenses for the participants; and other costs. Organizers are encouraged to seek additional funding, either by subsidies or in-kind support, from their home institutions. Prior Institutes and their themes have been: “War and Foreign Policy: America’s Conflicts in Vietnam and Iraq in Historical Perspective;” “Turning Points in the Cold War;” “Decisions and History;” “Freedom and Free Markets: The Histories of Globalization and Human Rights;” and, forthcoming, “Does Culture Matter? The Emotions, the Senses, and Other New Approaches to the History of US Foreign/International Relations.”

Those interested in applying to host in 2012 should prepare a proposal including (1) title of the Institute they wish to conduct; (2) brief description (one paragraph) of the themes to be pursued during the Institute; (3) preferred audience (grad students or junior faculty); (4) a statement on funding secured from home institutions, if any; and (5) contact information and c.v. of the co-organizers. Proposals should be sent to shafr@osu.edu by May 1, 2012. Questions can be directed to Peter L. Hahn, Executive Director, at Hahn.29@osu.edu.

Results from SHAFR 2011 Election

December 2011

The results of the SHAFR 2011 election:

President: Thomas Zeiler

Vice President: Mark Philip Bradley

Council Members:

Carol C. Chin
Mary L. Dudziak
Sarah B. Snyder

Graduate Student Member of Council:

Chris Dietrich

Nominating Committee:

Michael Allen

* * ** * * * **
The membership ratified the referenda on revisions of Article II, Section 5(a) and Article II, Section 5(d) of the By-Laws.

Fed Up with Washington’s Endless Wars and Political Gridlock?

October 2011

Then come to SHAFR 2012 in Hartford! The conference (on June 28-30, 2012) won’t foment a revolution but study “revolutionary aftermaths” from 1776 to the Reagan Revolution and beyond. The conference itself will be at the Marriott in downtown Hartford, with the post-conference reception in the Old State House, site of the Hartford Convention of 1814. The hotel is on the bank of the Connecticut River, which boasts a new riverside walkway and park.

Getting around Hartford is easy. A free bus service, the Star Shuttle, runs every 15 minutes to 11 pm. It stops at the Marriott and at 14 other stops in a downtown loop that passes by restaurants and other attractions. CT Transit (www.cttransit.com) offers the 30-Bradley Flyer route, an hourly semi-express bus service from Bradley (Hartford-Springfield) airport to the Marriott, with a one-way fare of only $1.25. Megabus(http://us.megabus.com/) provides fast, cheap service to Hartford from New York City and Boston. A major art museum, the Wadsworth Atheneum (http://www.thewadsworth.org), and the Bushnell Theater (http://www.thewadsworth.org) are both just a few blocks from the Marriott. Also accessible by city bus are the Mark Twain House and Museum (http://www.marktwainhouse.org/visitor/hours_directions.php) and the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center (http://www.harrietbeecherstowecenter.org/about/).

While most of the conference will be in the Marriott, the Thursday evening reception and plenary session will take place on the campus of the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Free bus service will transport SHAFR-ites from the Marriott to UConn and back.

Major archival collections are located at Yale (an hour from Hartford), at Harvard and at the John F. Kennedy Library (2 hours distant) and at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (2 ½ hours away). The American Antiquarian Society in Worcester (an hour away) boasts the second largest collection of pre-1876 printed matter in North America. There are also archival materials in the Connecticut Historical Society and in the libraries of the Five Colleges around Northampton/Amherst.

For pre- or post-conference fun the Mystic Seaport, Mystic Aquarium, and Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos are all about an hour’s drive from Hartford. Forty minutes away is the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat (http://www.essexsteamtrain.com/steam.html).

SHAFR Summer Institute, June 22-27, 2012–Does Culture Matter? The Emotions, the Senses, and Other New Approaches to the History of U.S. Foreign/International Relations

October 2011

The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations will hold its fifth annual Summer Institute in Storrs, Connecticut, June 22-27, 2012. Designed for advanced graduate students or early career college teachers interested in exploring the cultural approach, broadly defined, to the history of U.S. foreign/international relations, the program will invite participants to enhance their own training and preferences for new ways of thinking about the field, or to entertain such ways of thinking for the first time. The Institute will feature wide-ranging conversation about assigned readings and the presentation and discussion of the work of each seminar member. Our hope is to nudge participants toward fresh ways to think about standard topics or toward new topics altogether, now or in the future. Sessions will also help prepare participants for the job market and offer hints about publication in scholarly journals and with academic presses.

The Institute co-directors are Frank Costigliola of the University of Connecticut and Andrew Rotter of Colgate University. Costigliola has recently finished a book on emotions, World War II, and the origins of the Cold War; Rotter is at work on a project concerning the American and British empires and the five senses. Both historians have in the past explored the influence on U.S. foreign relations of gender, race, religion, language, and other factors that could be understood as being shaped by culture. Several leading historians have tentatively agreed to speak at Institute sessions. The program will also include free time for research and at least one off-campus excursion.

Each participant will be reimbursed for travel, be provided free accommodation in air-conditioned University of Connecticut housing, and receive an honorarium of $500. The Institute schedule is designed to enable participants to remain in Connecticut for the 2012 SHAFR conference, to be held in Hartford and Storrs June 28-30.

The deadline for applications is February 1, 2012. Applicants should submit a c.v. along with a one-page (single-spaced) letter describing how participation in the Institute would benefit their scholarship and career, to Rachel Traficanti at Rachel.traficanti@uconn.edu. Send questions to Rachel, Frank Costigliola < frank.costigliola@uconn.edu>, or Andrew Rotter . Preference for admission to the Institute will be given to members of SHAFR.