CFP: S-USIH Sixth Annual Conference
Omni Severin, Indianapolis, IN
October 9-12, 2014
The Conference Committee of the Society for U.S. Intellectual History (S-USIH) invites individual paper and panel proposals for its sixth annual conference to be held at the Omni Severin Hotel in Indianapolis, Indiana October 9-12, 2014. This year’s theme is “Materiality of Ideas.” This subject calls attention to the history of ideas by focusing on the various embodiments of American thought. This can include considerations of the relationship between immaterial and material realities; the development of American thought through the production or reproduction of ideas; the substance of thought, including the presence or absence of material objects; the manifestations of thought in economics, politics, or culture at local, national, or global levels; and, materialization in intellectual history including, but not limited to, book culture. Although proposals that relate to the theme are encouraged, the committee also welcomes submissions that are relevant to any aspect of the study of American thought.
Kathryn Lofton, Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, History, and Divinity at Yale University, will deliver the keynote address. Dr. Lofton is a historian of religion who focuses on the cultural and intellectual history of the United States. Her research centers upon the histories and anthropology of religions from pre-contact to the present in order to explicate the meanings of and relationships between religion, modernity, and the secular. Dr. Lofton’s first book, Oprah: Gospel of an Icon (University of California Press, 2011) uses Oprah Winfrey’s multimedia productions as an example of religion in contemporary America. She has published on modernism and fundamentalism in America, as well as studies of African-American women, ritual theory, parenting, and consumer goods as religious commodities. She is currently working on several projects, including a study of sexuality and Protestant theology; an analysis of the culture concept of the Goldman Sachs Group; and a religious history of Bob Dylan.
The 2014 conference will also host three plenary sessions and a number of special roundtables. More information about these panels will be forthcoming on the USIH blog.
Participants are encouraged to submit full panel proposals to the conference committee. Panels should consist of four members: (1) either three academic papers and one chair/commentator or (2) four academic papers. Panel submissions must include an abstract for each presentation, a separate description of the panel itself, and one-page CVs for all participants that include the relevant means of contact. Abstracts for individual papers must be no longer than 250 words; panel abstracts must be no longer than 500 words.
Though preference will be given to pre-constituted panel proposals, the conference committee also will accept individual paper submissions. Abstracts for individual papers must be no longer than 250 words and should include three to five key words to aid the committee in composing panels. Submissions should also include a one-page CV that includes the relevant means of contact.
The committee also encourages the submission of roundtable panels (a series of ten-minute prepared [but not read] presentations on a topic followed by discussion among the panel and audience), discussion panels (in which the papers are circulated online in advance of the conference and the entire session is devoted to discussions of them), brownbags (one-hour long, lunchtime presentations), “author meets critics” events, retrospectives on significant works or thinkers, or interviews. Submissions for alternate-format sessions must include a description of the proposed format, along with one-page CVs of all participants that include the relevant means of contact.
In addition, please observe the following:
1. The committee is especially eager to ensure a diverse representation of scholars at the conference.
2. Individuals may participate in the conference in at most two capacities (paper presenter, panel respondent, roundtable participant, etc). Participants may, for example, deliver a paper and be a panel respondent, but may not present two papers.
3. The committee will assume that submission to the conference is an indication that participants will be attending the entire conference. We will be unable to accommodate any scheduling requests.
4. All persons appearing on the program will be required to register for the conference and to become members of S-USIH.
5. Deadline for submissions is May 16, 2014. All submissions must be emailed as attachments in MS Word or PDF documents.
Send all submissions to:
2013 Conference Committee
s.usihconference@gmail.com
Other queries may be directed to: Mark Edwards and Cara Burnidge, 2014 Conference Co-Chairs, s.usihconference@gmail.com.
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