Call for Papers: (Un)Making the Nation
11 September 2015
S1 Alison Richard Building
University of Cambridge
United Kingdom
This one-day conference seeks to understand the (un)making of the modern concept of the nation by interrogating conventional narratives of its rise and fall. Existing literature on nationalism presents the process of nation-building as a teleological progression that begins with the birth of the modern nation state in the mid-19th century followed by its dissolution in the era of post-colonialism and globalisation. This conference seeks to complicate this narrative by exploring the nation as a continuously evolving political and social unit. It is therefore interested in papers that seek to interrogate existing narratives of the nation by exploring the forces that simultaneously created and contested emerging concepts of the national and the transnational.
This workshop is not limited to scholars researching topics directly linked to traditional themes of nationalism and transnationalism, but rather invites all papers that seek to explore different forces that played a role in subverting or reinscribing ideas pertinent to the development or deterioration of modern nations. Contributors are invited to explore the manifold ways in which unconventional histories of culture, gender, race, class, identity, and intellectual thought have played a role in simultaneously making and unmaking national and transnational societies. As such, this workshop welcomes contributions from historians from all fields, as well as researchers working in disciplines including gender studies, political science, cultural studies, economics, sociology, anthropology, and diaspora studies.
Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):
- Law, crime, and national citizenship
- Insurgency and terrorism
- Gender and sexuality in the nation
- Family and social history
- Political and religious thought
- Cosmopolitanism and the nation / citizen of the world and the nation
- Transnationalism and diaspora
- Global economic systems and national sovereignty
- Identity and the making of communities
- Popular culture, media, and technology
Interested applicants may send a 300 word abstract and a short CV to unmakingthenation@gmail.com by 30 June 2015. Successful applicants will be notified by email no later than 14 July 2015.
For more information and updates please visit our website: www.unmakingthenation.com
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://unmakingthenation.com/call-for-papers/