CFP: "Impeachments, Insurrections, and International Involvements" 2018 IAH Conference
The program committee of the Indiana Association of Historians [IAH] invites proposals from college and university scholars, graduate students, K-12 history educators, public historians, and independent scholars on any aspect of the conference theme of “Impeachments, Insurrections, and International Involvements,” broadly defined. Proposals for panels, individual papers, posters, and roundtables on topics related to the theme or on any historical subject in any field of history will be considered for the program. IAH welcomes historians of all eras and subjects and is not restricted to historians of Indiana.
The year 2018 marks many significant historical anniversaries that serve as the foundation for the conference theme for the 38th Annual Meeting of the Indiana Association of Historians. In 1848, political revolutions swept across Europe, only to fail in their attempts to install liberal governments as an era of renewed nationalism began. That same year, the U.S.-Mexican War came to an end, with the victorious United States taking vast territories from Mexico. In 1868, the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson marked a dramatic moment in the era of the Civil War and Reconstruction. The Spanish-American War of 1898 saw the United States defeat Spain, only to become involved soon afterward in a war in the Philippines. Hostilities and the massive loss of life in the First World War finally came to an end in November of 1918. In 1948, the defeat of former U.S. Vice-President Henry A. Wallace and the Progressive Party along with the Berlin Airlift symbolized the growing rift between the Soviet Union and the United States as would the rise of McCarthyism in the early days of the Cold War. Unrest across the Western world brought protests, riots, violence, and calls for reform from Chicago to Prague in 1968. That same year, a “silent majority” emerged from a conservative coalition to elect President Richard Nixon, a leader who would eventually face impeachment before resigning from office. A decade later, the Camp David Accords of 1978 brought peace between Israel and Egypt and gave hope to those who longed to find diplomatic solutions instead of warfare. In December of 1998, the impeachment of President William Clinton began, bringing scandal and political polarization to an era of economic prosperity. These and other anniversaries make 2018 a seminal year for historians to explain the past and demonstrate its relevance to the present, even as history and the search for truth seem to be coming under attack.
Keynote speaker Bruce J. Schulman, William E. Huntington Professor of History at Boston University, will deliver the Robert M. Taylor, Jr. Memorial Lecture on Saturday, February 24th.
Conference papers (approximately 10 pages/2500 words) should be based on original research, but may synthesize previous scholarship or be drawn from participant experience. Panels should consist of two or three papers with comments. Single papers will be given full consideration. Please include a one-page proposal and a one-page c.v. for each participant. The deadline for proposals is December 1, 2017. All materials and any questions should be submitted electronically to A. James Fuller, Professor of History at the University of Indianapolis and program committee chair, via electronic mail at afuller@uindy.edu.
The Indiana Association of Historian proudly announces the inauguration of the Walter Nugent Graduate Student Paper Prize, a $250 award that will be given to the best paper presented at the conference by an attending student participant. The award is open to all graduate students and the winner will be selected by a prize committee. To be considered for the prize, complete papers must be submitted by January 22, 2018 to the program chair at afuller@uindy.edu.