8.0131 Conf: Early American History and Culture (1/106)
Elaine Brennan (EDITORS@BROWNVM.BITNET)
Sun, 7 Aug 1994 22:02:17 EDT
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 8, No. 0131. Sunday, 7 Aug 1994.
Date: Wed, 03 Aug 94 11:05:57 EDT
From: SAILLANT@BROWNVM
Subject: 1995 IEAHC Annual Conference
FIRST ANNUAL IEAHC CONFERENCE, 1995
The Institute of Early American History and Culture's
first annual conference will be held on June 2-4, 1995, at
the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. This meeting is
intended to provide a forum for the creative diversity of
scholarship characterizing early American studies.
Proposals for papers and/or panels, not to exceed three
pages, should be sent in triplicate to Professor Carol F.
Karlsen, Chair, IEAHC Annual Conference, Department of
History, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1045,
by September 30, 1994. A one-page vita for each participant
should accompany proposals.
This conference is being planned to be broadly inclusive
in terms of regions, topics, and disciplinary orientations
and to include scholars at all stages of their careers. To
encourage the participation of younger scholars in
particular, no conference fee is required and reasonably
priced accommodations will be available at the University of
Michigan in addition to lodging at local hotels. Details on
these and other meeting specifics will follow at a later
date.
Since this is the first Institute conference arranged
exclusively by calls for papers and proposals, the Program
Committee appreciates all individual efforts to publicize
the event. We especially hope that historians will encourage
colleagues and graduate students in early American
literature, art history, anthropology, and other related
disciplines to submit proposals. Although we anticipate that
most papers will focus on the pre-1815 period, we assume
that some proposals may extend beyond these years,
especially those that are comparative or discuss regions
like the Caribbean, Southwest, or Pacific.
The Committee welcomes suggestions on how to make this
first annual early American conference a dynamic and
exciting event. We have deliberately not determined the
structure of the conference in advance; rather, we invite
you to help shape it by organizing the kinds of sessions you
want. Questions we have considered include: Should all
sessions be organized along traditional lines (two or three
papers, one or two commentators, a brief question/answer
period)? Or do we want some sessions structured along other
lines? Should we, for example, have work-in-progress
sessions, organized thematically, with several presenters
speaking for roughly fifteen minutes on the central
questions and findings of their research, followed by an
extended audience participation period? Should we have
workshops, defining a broad problem or ongoing controversy,
with a few individuals presenting and again, a lengthy
audience response period?
Do we want sessions that are highly focused--on an
especially influential author, a particularly gifted
teacher, a path-breaking book or article, or a new direction
in the field? Do we want sessions organized around
teaching--for example, on developing "the survey" or
alternatives to it, defining "colonial America," or
incorporating interdisciplinary materials? Do we want a
keynote speaker or a summary session?
The Committee's decisions on these and other questions
will be based largely on the kinds of proposals we receive,
so please let us know your preferences. Individual papers
will, of course, be considered, but we encourage submission
of proposals for complete panels.
IEAHCNET will serve two main purposes in the planning for
the conference. First, we hope that subscribers will take
advantage of IEAHCNET to reach out to others with whom they
might collaborate on panels. If you are thinking about
proposing a paper, you might make an announcement on
IEAHCNET in search of co-panelists or commentators. Remember
that even if you use the public forum of IEAHCNET to make an
initial contact for planning a panel, you can use e-mail to
correspond privately with those with whom you are planning a
proposal. Second, Subscribers can take advantage of
IEAHCNET for more formative discussion. Subgroups can be
established on particular topics--for instance, religion,
republicanism, Southern politics, or Amerindian-French
relations--out of which sessions could develop. Or subgroups
could address the structure and final shape of the
conference, dealing with the kinds of sessions they find
most useful or the individuals they would recommend as
commentators or principal speakers. It will be especially
useful to the Program Committee to receive group-generated
proposals and recommendations. The months of August and
September should allow IEAHCNET subscribers to communicate
on the Internet and make timely proposals and
recommendations to the Program Committee by September 30,
1994.
Moderator John Saillant (Saillant@Brownvm.Brown.EDU) is
willing to give advice on the use of IEAHCNET for discussion
of the conference. If you need advice on how to move from
the public forum of IEAHCNET to a private discussion among
possible collaborators, reach him by e-mail with your
questions. If you are reading this announcement in a forum
other than IEAHCNET, and you wish to subscribe in order to
learn about the conference or to add to the discussion,
reach him by e-mail, fax (401-863-1040), or mail at
Department of History, Brown University Box N, Providence,
RI 02912.