Conferences

CFP: Cities in Revolt: The Dutch-American Atlantic

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The organizers invite submissions of papers for an international conference, &#8220Cities in Revolt: The Dutch-American Atlantic, ca. 1650-1830&#8243- to be held November 13-14, 2009, at Columbia University. Ranging from the conquest of New Amsterdam to the presidency of Martin van Buren, the conference aims to document the continuous and fruitful political exchanges that took place in the long eighteenth century between the Dutch Republic and empire on the one hand and British North America and the United States on the other.

Among the key conference aims are to examine the political consequences of trans-Atlantic commercial linkages and the impact of the American Revolution on Dutch patriots. The keynote address will be given by Professor Jonathan Israel of the Institute for Advanced Study.

Papers proposed should be approximately 20 minutes in length. Submissions on any topic relevant to the conference topic and aims will be gladly accepted, however the organizers would particularly welcome submissions relating to:

Dutch Patriots in the United States in the 1790s
The American Revolution in the Dutch Atlantic world
New York and Amsterdam financiers in eighteenth-century politics
Dutch New Yorkers and politics in the early nineteenth century

To propose a paper, please submit a 250-word abstract and a short CV via email to both [email protected] and [email protected] by MONDAY, JUNE 1, 2009. Conference committee: Simon Schama (Columbia)- Karen Kupperman (NYU)- Evan Haefeli (Columbia)- Nathan Perl-Rosenthal (Columbia)- Wijnie de Groot (Columbia).

SUNY Stony Brook: The Worlds of Lion Gardiner

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The State University of New York at Stony Brook, in cooperation with the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, will hold a conference at Stony Brook on The Worlds of Lion Gardiner, c. 1599-1663: Crossings and Boundaries on March 20-21, 2009. Military man and engineer, chronicler and diplomat, lord of a New English manor married to a Dutch woman, Gardiner led a life replete with crossings: of the English Channel to engage in Continental wars, of the Atlantic, of the lesser waters of Long Island Sound, of national, imperial, and colonial borders, of racial divides, and of the very bounds of colonial law. The many crossings in which he and his contemporaries were involved did much to create boundaries between things previously less clearly separated.

Collecting and Gathering: Making Worlds, Staking Claims

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A one-day interdisciplinary conference and exhibit at the Center for Archaeology, Columbia University, New York City will be held Saturday May 23rd, 2009- abstracts are due Sunday March 22nd, 2009.

Practices, institutions and ideas centered around collections and collecting offer a fruitful area for interdisciplinary enquiry in the humanities and social sciences. Whether in the processes through which collections come to be formed, or the ways in which existing collections are experienced by a variety of publics, the impulse to collect is often key to knowing a wider world, and also knowing oneself. This conference aims to bring a wide variety of critical perspectives to bear on this topic- including anthropological, historical and art historical, literary, architectural and museological. Papers dealing with actual formal collections such as those found in galleries or museums, as well as those interested in less tangible collections &#8211 such as collections of facts, observations or ideas &#8211 are equally welcome. There are no restrictions with regard to time period, and papers are sought relating to the contemporary world, as well as the recent and ancient pasts.

Papers are solicited on the following and related themes:

The temporality of gathering &#8211 how the past and future are grasped and mediated through material substances and practices

Collecting and power &#8211 how collecting sets up or maintains power differentials between collector and collected, exhibitor and exhibited

Fixing and making worlds &#8211 the bonding of materials, substances, place and people

Histories of collecting &#8211 changing modalities and definitions of the collection and of what it is to gather materials, ideas or people in place and time

Collecting as a transformative process &#8211 how collecting alters, re-presents or invents the object that is collected and the implications of such transformations

Spaces of collection and collections of spaces &#8211 the politics, poetics and meaning of the exhibition space and its architectural framing

This conference is run by graduate students affiliated with the Center for Archaeology and is organized in conjunction with an exhibit on collecting designed by students in the Museum Masters program at Columbia.

Please send a 200 word abstract along with contact information (including name, email, institution affiliation) to Matt Sanger at [email protected]
Any questions can also be sent to this address.

Call For Papers: Reconsidering the City

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The History Department of SUNY Fredonia requests proposals for a conference, “Reconsidering the City,” scheduled for April 2010. The conference will explore new directions in the field of Urban History. How do Urban Historians define “the city”? How do scholars today conceptualize the field of Urban History? We welcome proposals for individual papers or panels that address these conceptual issues as well as proposals that highlight new work being done in Urban History in both western and non-western contexts. Paper proposals should be no more than 500 words- panel proposals should also include a brief (250-word) summary of the panel and its theme. Please send proposals and a one-page cv electronically to Mary Beth Sievens, Associate Chair, Department of History, SUNY Fredonia: [email protected].

The deadline for proposals is March 13, 2009.

NYS Association of European Historians Conference

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The New York State Association of European Historians will hold its fifty-ninth annual meeting October-2-3, 2009 at SUNY Brockport, Brockport, NY (near Rochester). Those interested in offering papers or entire panels to be considered for inclusion in the program should send their proposals to James Valone before April 30.

The New York State Association of European Historians is an informal association of historians who are interested in the history of Europe in the broadest sense (yes, we include the British Isles and colonial areas if the topic is related to European development).

Despite its title, the Association is not limited to individuals residing in New York State. Any scholar is welcome to participate in the annual conference including panelists from all over the United States and Europe. Graduate students who are at dissertation stage are welcome to offer proposals.

The NYSAEH is an excellent place to try out ideas- members are extremely supportive, while providing constructive comments that can be used to sharpen or refine your arguments.

Finally membership is mostly an act of the will. They do collect nominal dues at the annual meeting, but mostly members are members if they want to be.

Those interested should contact James Valone by e-mail at valone[at]@canisius[dot]edu or Fax: 716-888-2149. The snail mail address is:

James Valone
Canisius College,
2001 Main Street
Buffalo, NY 14208-1098

2009 Practicum for 21st Century Museum Professionals

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The Greater Hudson Heritage Network has just announced the schedule for its 2009 Practicum for 21st Century House Museums, The Container. In its third and final year, the Practicum for 21st Century Museum Professionals in Historic House Museums looks to re-invigorate mission, initiate change, invited new audiences, encourage professional collaborations, and improve presentation and planning in historic house museums and sites so as to provide benefit to the public and sustain their value to local communities. This year, the Practicum will touch upon issues regarding the historic house as envelope, the site and its surrounding landscape.

For an outline of the Spring Schedule and to register check out their website, www.greaterhudson.org.

April 6, 2009 Symposium: The Historic House Container, Envelope, Site and Landscape
Host Site: Locust Grove Estate (The Samuel F.B. Morse Historic Site)
Location: Poughkeepsie, NY (Dutchess County)

April 20, 2009 Workshop: Retooling the Historic House Envelope for Sustainability- Green Facilities Management
Host Site: Lyndhurst (NTHP)
Location: Tarrytown, NY (Westchester County)

May 4, 2009 Workshop: Master Planning for Site, Buildings and Public Audiences
Host Site: Pocantico Center (The Kykuit Carriage House)
Location: Sleepy Hollow, NY (Westchester County)

May 11, 2009 Workshop: History Preserved for the Urban Community
Host Site: Weeksville Heritage Center
Location: Brooklyn, NY (Kings County)

June 1, 2009 Workshop: Impact of the Landscape on the Historic House: Embracing Trails and Gardens in Interpretation of the Cultural Landscape
Host Site: Olana State Historic Site and The Olana Partnership
Location: Hudson, NY (Columbia County)

The Global 1989: A New Generation Conference

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2009 brings the 20th anniversaries of a wide variety of major events across the globe: the Cuban withdrawal from Angola- the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan- the Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa against Salman Rushdie- the Polish and Hungarian Round Tables- the protests at Tiananmen Square- the fall of the Berlin Wall- the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia- and the breakdown of old regimes in Mexico, Chile, and Brazil.

In an attempt to take a global approach to 1989, its antecedents, and its consequences, Princeton University will convene and host on 22-24 October 2009 a conference devoted to 1989. The ultimate panel themes will depend on the topics of the paper proposals submitted. They are particularly interested in moving toward new conceptual models, for example in the following areas: ethics and norms, intellectual history/history of ideas, law, microeconomics, migration, popular culture, and religion. The organizers see it as essential to underscore also the conference’s global scope, i.e. that it should encompass (but not necessarily limit itself to) variously defined Asian, Cold War, European, inter-American, Sino-Soviet, and transatlantic studies. We welcome also submissions concerning, for example, the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, or South Africa.

Organizers aim to provide a forum for recent work related to a doctoral dissertation, whether published or unpublished, complete or incomplete. Submissions are welcome from junior faculty and postdoctoral fellows as well as current graduate students. Submissions from around the globe are welcome, as the budget will cover the travel expenses of all of the scholars whose proposals have been accepted.

The organizers caution that the intended small scale of the conference will likely necessitate a highly selective review process. The program committee looks forward to the broadest possible range of submissions that fall within the intended scope of the conference, and it will arrange panels based on those submissions that it receives, yet we will likely be able to accommodate only a fraction of these submissions.

Submissions of a brief (300 words) abstract, as well as a more detailed prospectus (5 pages, double-spaced) that fleshes out the intended argument of the presentation in greater depth, will be accepted on a rolling basis until 1 February 2009.
Early submissions are particularly welcome.

Proposals should be submitted to Barbara Leavey (blleavey-AT-princeton-DOT-edu)- questions can be directed also to conference chair Piotr H. Kosicki (pkosicki &#8211 AT- princeton -DOT -edu).

This conference is a joint initiative of Princeton University’s Department of History, Davis Center for Historical Studies, Institute
for International and Regional Studies, Program in Law and Public Affairs, University Center for Human Values, and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Center for International History Grad Student Conference

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The Columbia University Department of History invites paper proposals (deadline for abstracts is 1/1/2009) for a Graduate Student Conference titled &#8220Claiming the World: Universalisms as Doctrine and in Action&#8221 to be held on March 27, 2009.

From the Roman notion of civitas to the Islamic duty of da’wah and the French colonial mission civilisatrice, universal claims have been deployed in the service of causes, movements, and ideologies of all kinds. They attempt to create order, unity, and meaning, yet thereby give rise to contestation.

This conference seeks to address the following questions: What kinds of universal claims have been advanced and how have they been transformed over time in different regions and historical periods? How do such claims take concrete form in the actions of polities and the practices of communities from the local to the global? How do they accommodate or resist particularities or rival universalisms? We wish to consider a range of entities that promulgate universal claims (such as states, nations, empires, religions, and social and political movements) in a multitude of realms (such as law, morality, norms, and identities). As this conference is presented in conjunction with the Center for International History’s annual theme, “In the Name of Humanity,” we are especially, but not only, interested in the ways in which universal claims have been embodied in the discourses and politics of human rights and humanitarian intervention.

We invite submissions from all time periods &#8211 ancient, medieval, early modern, and modern &#8211 and various geographic regions. Papers on topics that are broadly transnational or global in scope are preferred. Additionally, we encourage interdisciplinary research, and although proposals with a historical perspective are particularly welcome, we will also consider contributions from the fields of anthropology, sociology, literary studies, political science, and economics. Please send an abstract of no more than 300 words and a recent CV as email attachments (Word preferred) by January 1, 2009 and any inquiries to Simon Stevens at the following address: [email protected]

For more information regarding the conference can be found at the Center for International History’s website (beginning December 15th):

The New Jersey Forum: New Research in NJ Studies

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Although this is a blog of New York History, occasionally we’ll make announcements about regional events that New York historians might have interest in.

The New Jersey Forum: New Research in New Jersey Studies will be held Saturday, November 22, 2008 at the Trenton Marriott Hotel. The event is sponsored by the New Jersey Historical Commission, the NJ State Archives, and the New Jersey State Museum

Registration information and a preliminary program of events is available via word document here.

Expected sessions include:

Hope, Fear and Pestilence: Public Health in Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century New Jersey

Newsprint, Fear, and the Cholera: A History of the 1832 Cholera Outbreaks in New Jersey (Margaret Charleroy, University of Minnesota )

The 1918 Influenza Outbreak in New Jersey (Jennifer Harmsen, Hillsborough Middle School + Rutgers-NJIT History Department)

Pestilence Across the Delaware: New Jersey and the Yellow Fever Epidemics of the 1790s (Sandra Moss, New Jersey Medical History Society)

Interpreting a Preserved Landscape: New Jersey Museums and Architecture

New Solutions for House Museums (Donna Ann Harris, Heritage Consulting, Inc.)

Take Any Exit: The Colonial Revival in New Jersey (Harriette Hawkins, independent scholar)

Telling the Straight Story: Truth & Fiction in Building Interpretation (Margaret Westfield, Westfield Architects)

Suburban Stories: Place and Race in Twentieth-Century New Jersey

Extremely Suburban: Narratives from 20th-Century Princeton (Michael H. Ebner, James D. Vail III Professor of History, Emeritus, Lake Forest College)

African American Suburbanization and Racial Politics in Pre-World War II Montclair
(Patricia Hampson, Rutgers University)

A National “Black Brain Center” in Post-WWII Fort Monmouth, NJ (Melissa Ziobro, staff historian, U.S. Army CECOM Life Cycle Management Command, Fort Monmouth, NJ)

Parks and Bonapartes: Landscapes of 19th and 20th century New Jersey

&#8220He Will be a Bourgeois American and Spend his Fortune in Making Gardens”: A Preliminary Examination of Joseph Bonaparte’s Point Breeze Estate, Bordentown, New Jersey (Richard Veit, Department of History and Anthropology, Monmouth University)

The Development of Branch Brook Park – America’s First County Park (Kathleen Galop, Preservation Possibilities)

Morristown: A Cultural Landscape Study (Gillian Acheson, Department of Geography, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville)

Revolutionary Women: Female Education and Political Activism in Early New Jersey

“A More Accurate and Extensive Education than is Customary”: Educational Opportunities for Women in Early Nineteenth-Century New Jersey (Lucia McMahon, William Paterson University)

The Ladies of Trenton: Women’s Political and Public Activism in Revolutionary New Jersey (Catherine Hudak, Morris Hills High School, Rockaway, NJ)

“Working for the Slave as a Mother would Work for her Children”: Abigail Goodwin and the Anti-slavery Movement in New Jersey (Bruce Scherer, Project Archivist/Librarian, Salem County Historical Society, Salem, NJ)

Eighteenth-Century New Jersey Families

From London Publisher to American Farmer: Benjamin Clarke and his Diary of East New Jersey (Robert Craig, Historic Preservation Office, NJ Department of Environmental Protection)

Black and White Together? Slavery and Freedom in Upper Freehold Township from the Colonial Period to the Early Republic (Sue Kozel, Independent scholar)

Vital History: What Two Generations of a Loyalist Family Reveals About the American Revolution (Donald Sherblom, President, 1759 Vought House, Inc.)

2009 THATCamp Announced

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An announcement yesterday from Dan Cohen, posted on his digital humanities blog:

THATCamp (The Humanities and Technology Camp), which brings together scholars, librarians, curators, technologists, and developers for a two-day “unconference” that interactively explores the cutting edge of the digital humanities, was such a success this year that we’re bringing it back in 2009. Better yet, we are pairing it with the Digital Humanities 2009 conference being run by our friends on the other side of the Washington beltway, the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. THATCamp 2009 will immediately follow DH2009 on June 27-28, 2008. Stay tuned to the THATCamp site for a more formal announcement and application guidelines.