CALL FOR PAPERS
2023 Conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations
Renaissance Arlington Capital View, Arlington, Virginia, June 15-17, 2023
The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) invites proposals for its 2023 annual conference. The deadline for proposals is December 1, 2022.
SHAFR is dedicated to the study of the history of the United States in the world, broadly conceived. This includes not only foreign relations, diplomacy, statecraft, and strategy but also other approaches to Americans’ relations with the wider world, including (but not limited to) global governance, transnational movements, religion, human rights, race, gender, trade and economics, immigration, borderlands, the environment, and empire. SHAFR welcomes those who study any time period from the colonial era to the present. Given that the production, exercise, and understanding of U.S. power takes many forms and touches myriad subjects, the Program Committee welcomes proposals reflecting a broad range of approaches and topics.
Proposals
SHAFR is committed to inclusion and diversity, and encourages proposals from all, including members of groups historically under-represented within the organization. We particularly encourage proposals from women, scholars of color, colleagues residing outside of the United States, junior and contingent scholars, and scholars working in other disciplines. Your proposal must include a diversity statement that describes how it will advance this SHAFR commitment.
Graduate students, international scholars, and scholars whose participation might expand the organization’s breadth are encouraged to apply for SHAFR grants to subsidize the cost of attending the conference. Please see below for details.
The Program Committee welcomes panels that transcend conventional chronologies, challenge received categories, or otherwise offer innovative approaches and fresh thinking.
Panel sessions for the 2023 meeting will run one hour and forty-five minutes. A complete panel typically includes three papers plus chair and commentator (with the possibility of one person fulfilling the latter two roles) or a conceptually more expansive roundtable discussion with a chair and three or four participants. Papers should be no longer than twenty minutes and must be shorter in situations where there are more than three paper presentations. The Committee is open to alternative formats, especially those based on discussion and engagement with the audience, which should be described briefly in the proposal.
Individual paper proposals are also welcome, though complete panels with coherent themes will be favored over single papers. Those seeking to create or fill out a panel should Tweet #SHAFR2023 and/or consult with the executive director to help identify scholars with similar interests.
The Program Committee will develop a pool of potential commentators/chairs for panels constructed from individual proposals. If you are interested in volunteering for this pool, please contact the program co-chairs at [email protected].
Policies
All proposals and funding applications should be submitted via the procedures outlined at https://shafr.org/shafr2023. Applicants requiring alternative means to submit the proposal should contact the program co-chairs via e-mail at [email protected].
Proposals should list the papers in the order in which participants will present, as they will be printed in that order in the conference program and presented in that order during their session. Each participant may serve twice, each time in a different capacity. For example: you may serve once as a chair and once as a commentator; or once as panelist and once as chair or commentator. No participant may appear on the program more than two times.
AV requests, along with a brief explanation of how the equipment is essential to the presentation, must be made at the time of application and included in your proposal. AV access is limited and expensive. As such, please carefully assess your AV needs and realize that such requests can place limits on when and where we schedule accepted panels.
Any special scheduling requests (e.g., that a panel not take place on a particular day) must be made at the time of application and included in your proposal.
Generally, annual membership in SHAFR is required for those participating in the 2023 meeting. The president and Program Committee may grant some exceptions to scholars whose specializations are outside the field. Enrollment instructions will be included with notification of accepted proposals. Everyone appearing on the program is required to register for the conference.
SHAFR and the media occasionally record conference sessions for use in broadcast and electronic media. Presenters who do not wish for their session to be recorded may opt out when submitting a proposal to the Program Committee. An audience member who wishes to audiotape or videotape must obtain written permission of panelists. SHAFR is not responsible for unauthorized recording. SHAFR reserves the right to revoke the registration of anyone who records sessions without appropriate permissions.
Divine Graduate Student Travel Grants
SHAFR will award several Robert A. and Barbara Divine Graduate Student Travel Grants to assist graduate students presenting papers at the 2023 conference. The following stipulations apply: 1) no award will exceed $300; 2) priority will be given to graduate students who receive no or limited funds from their home institutions; and 3) expenses will be reimbursed by the SHAFR Business Office upon submission of receipts. The Program Committee will make decisions regarding awards. A graduate student requesting travel funds must make a request when submitting the paper/panel proposal. Applications should include: a 1-page letter from the applicant; reference letter from the graduate advisor that also confirms the unavailability of departmental travel funds. The two items should be submitted via the on-line interface at the time the panel/paper proposal is submitted. Funding requests will have no bearing on the committee’s decisions on panels/papers, but funds will not be awarded unless the applicant’s submission is accepted by the Program Committee in a separate decision. Application deadline: December 1, 2022.
https://shafr.memberclicks.net/divine-app
SHAFR Global Scholars and Diversity Grants
SHAFR also awards Global Scholars and Diversity Grants to help defray travel and lodging expenses for the 2023 conference. These grants are aimed at scholars whose participation in the annual meeting helps to diversify the organization. Preference will be given to those who have not previously presented at annual meetings. The awards are intended for scholars who represent groups historically under-represented at SHAFR, scholars who offer diverse and complementary intellectual approaches, and scholars from outside the United States. “Scholars” includes faculty, graduate students, and independent researchers. To further integrate grant winners into SHAFR, awards include one-year membership that includes subscriptions to Diplomatic History and Passport. Applicants should submit a copy of their individual paper proposal along with a short cv (2-page maximum) and a 2-3 paragraph essay addressing the fellowship criteria (including data on previous SHAFR meetings attended and funding received). Please submit your application via the on-line interface. Funding requests will have no bearing on the committee’s decisions on panels/papers, but funds will not be awarded unless the applicant’s submission is accepted by the Program Committee in a separate decision. Application deadline: December 1, 2022.
https://shafr.memberclicks.net/global-scholars-diversity-grants
Other Conference Events
The 2023 conference will include a mentoring workshop offering feedback on job materials, post-doc application materials, and book proposals? Those interested in participating can indicate this on the online conference submission form (although it is not necessary to be a panelist to participate).
For more details about the conference please visit the main conference web page, https://shafr.org/shafr2023.
Online Application