CFP: Making a Republic Imperial (deadline January 15, 2018)

CALL FOR PAPERS:

Making a Republic Imperial

Philadelphia, 28-30 March 2019

The McNeil Center for Early American Studies and the Program in Early American Economy and Society at the Library Company of Philadelphia invite proposals for Making a Republic Imperial, a conference on empire, imperialism, and colonialism in the early American republic (1780s-1850s) to be held in Philadelphia on March 28-30, 2019.

Scholars have turned to empire as a framework for thinking and writing about the early republic. This work has provided new insights into the political, economic, cultural, and intellectual history of the era, but it has also provided divergent and at times competing definitions of empire, imperialism, and colonialism. The imperialism of the early American republic can look quite different, we find, when described from the perspective of politicians, white settlers, the enslaved, Native Americans, merchants, or missionaries. This conference, accordingly, has a dual goal: to explore how and why the early republic became an empire, and to bring together scholars working on and with empire in the early republic across divides of approach and discipline.

The conference will feature a keynote address by Kathleen DuVal and panels of pre-circulated papers that will address the experience, meaning, and utility of empire as a category of analysis for the study of the early republic. What and where was early American empire? How does using empire affect questions of periodization, geography, narrative synthesis or scholarly specialization in an era when the boundaries of “American history” are ever-expanding? In what ways can empire help us to connect the history of the early republic to that of the larger world?

We seek individual paper proposals from scholars at all stages of their careers and in a variety of disciplines. If you wish to propose a paper, please submit an abstract (300 words) and a short curriculum vitae to:  makingarepublicimperial2019@gmail.com

The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2018.

Applicants can expect to hear back from the conference committee by the end of February 2018. Papers, which will be pre-circulated in early February 2019, should be approximately 7500 words in length. Some funding is available to offset the costs of travel and lodging for conference participants. Details about this support will be available after submissions are reviewed.

Program Committee:

Michael Blaakman, University of St. Thomas

Emily Conroy-Krutz, Michigan State University

Elizabeth N. Ellis, New York University

Rashauna Johnson, Dartmouth College

Honor Sachs, Western Carolina University