Call for Papers: U.S. Intellectual History

Communities of Discourse

Fifth Annual Conference and Annual Meeting of the Society for U.S. Intellectual History
Co-sponsored and hosted by the Center for the Humanities,
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
New York City
November 1-2, 2012
Submission deadline: June 1, 2012

The Society for U.S. Intellectual History (S-USIH) invites panel proposals for its fifth annual conference to be held at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York on November 1-2, 2012. S-USIH is very pleased to announce that the keynote address will be delivered by David A. Hollinger, Preston Hotchkis Professor of American History at the University of California-Berkeley.

This year’s conference theme is “Communities of Discourse.” The theme highlights the fact that communities are essential to intellectual life. Intellectual historians often focus on individual figures, yet individuals are always embedded in wider communities of intellectual exchange. In addition, intellectual historians are themselves situated in communities of exchange that include not only other historians, but also academics from a broad range of fields (including literature, political science, communications, religion, sociology, anthropology, art history) and the wider public as well. The conference committee invites participants to reflect on all aspects of communities of discourse and the study of intellectual history. Although proposals that relate to the theme are particularly welcome, the committee will accept submissions that are relevant to any aspect of the study of American thought.

Given the growing popularity of the conference, the committee is introducing a number of new submission rules in order to ensure fairness. Please read carefully. We will only accept submission of complete panels and will no longer accept individual paper submissions. Panel submissions must include an abstract of each presentation, a separate description of the panel itself, and one-page CVs including the relevant means of contact for all participants. Abstracts for individual presentations should be no longer than 250 words; panel abstracts should be no longer than 500 words.

Please observe the following:

1. The number of participants in each session will vary with the format but each panel should have a chair. We will accept the following formats:
a. Traditional panels: Sessions featuring three academic papers and one commentator, who will also serve as the panel chair.
b. Roundtables: A series of ten-minute extemporaneous presentations on a topic followed by discussion among the panel and audience.
c. Discussion panels: Sessions in which the papers are circulated online prior to the conference. The entire session is devoted to discussions of the papers.
d. Brownbags: One-hour long presentations during the lunch period.

2. Each panel submission must indicate a panel organizer, who will serve as the point of contact for the conference committee.

3. The committee is especially eager to ensure a diverse representation of participants at the conference. All academic considerations being equal, panels will be selected whose participants contribute to that goal.

4. Participation will be limited to once on the program, so a person should only join one panel submission.

5. The committee assumes that submission to the conference is an indication that participants will be attending the entire conference. We are unable to accommodate scheduling requests.

6. All persons appearing on the program must become members of S-USIH and register for the conference in advance.

7. Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2012. All submissions must be emailed as attachments in MS Word or .pdf format.


Send all submissions to:
2012 Conference Committee
usih2012@gmail.com

Other queries may be directed to:
David Sehat, 2012 Conference Committee Chair
dsehat@gsu.edu