H-Ideas: New posted content
Global Perspectives Special Collection – Planetary Perspectives: A New Paradigm? [Announcement]
Denmark
We invite H-Net subscribers to contribute to a special issue of the University of California Press journal Global Perspectives. Contributions are to be fielded from across social scientific and humanities disciplines – including especially economic, social and intellectual history and political theory – as they relate to the successive global crises detonated at the turn of the 1970s.
We encourage contributions which address the following thematic clusters of questions:
Political economy. Has the extended period of slowing growth punctuated by increasingly severe crises altered the quality of the global economy definitively? How might financialization relate to this dynamic, and, in turn, to finance's reliance on the state – whether in the form of successive bailouts of lenders or until recently, ultra-low interest rates? Under these new conditions, how should political-economic analysis understand the commodification of the natural world, and the significance of dramatic changes in the prices of natural resources? What effect are such changes having on social life, and do they indicate that new forms in the economy of land, labor and exchange are now developing? Separately, on what models might a counter-movement from below draw for the democratic organization of the economy and natural resources?
Internationalism. How might an internationalist politics relate production and the use of natural resources to the social aims of democratic self-determination and improved welfare? How does mounting inequality within countries impose itself on international politics? What environmental considerations are relevant to the equitable distribution of wealth? How does internationalist politics distinguish itself from an apolitical reliance on the market and technological change? Proposals which depend on technical change and technocratic management risk widespread depoliticization and undermine popular self-determination. What role is there for alternative approaches which are more democratic and more sharply political?
The politics of environmental law. How will the politics of new environmental-legal campaigns be defined – as technocratic and elitist, or democratic and popular? Policy recommendations and expert opinions proliferate across global networks linked by NGOs and states, but new legal concepts are equally relevant to political economy and the new environmental regime now taking shape. How do such laws allow for democratic and other popular forms of oversight, or are they to rely mainly on the judgment of specialists?
Intellectual property. What is the status of legal claims to intellectual property today, and what are the relevant institutions and interests defining it? Which agents enforce the rights to the use of intellectual property legally and practically? The global regulation of intangible assets, specifically intellectual property, was shaped by the incorporation of the World Intellectual Property Organization into the UN in 1974. Industrial interests at the time often expressed preferences about such property which contradicted liberal orthodoxy; intellectual property rights secured rents, but often at the expense of innovation, it was then argued. This dynamic persist today. Histories of the fundamental political and legal questions raised by the enforcement of intellectual property rights – that is, the question of executive power at a global or planetary register – and especially within institutions such as the WIPO and later the WTO, will be most welcome. Papers which relate these debates to the present historic levels of concentration in high-tech (digital, biotech, pharmaceutical) and financial sectors are encouraged.
Technology and technical change. The rapid digitization of private and public life alike raises new political and economic questions. Decentralized blockchain-based currencies promise users anonymity, but they are likely prohibitively energy intensive in the long run, and as commodities have experienced massive speculative fluctuation in price which undermines their status as money. Central banks around the world are now proposing their own digital currencies, which give every indication of establishing immense powers of surveillance and influence. Other digital technologies promise fundamental changes not only for modes of production and transport, but also for politics, social life, the arts and even biology. The use of digital technology, especially when combined with patents held on agriculture, natural processes, or even entire genomes, portends a more thoroughgoing privatization of natural resources, if not their outright financialization. The related prospect of technological unemployment has also returned as a topic to be debated with renewed force. Does the concern have merit, or does it reflect other perhaps underappreciated contradictions producing underemployment and flagging growth? What might the parameters of a humane digital future be – and what are the prospects for an improvement in work conditions, where the many deleterious social consequences of digitization can be mitigated?
The state. Is geopolitics today still mostly a question of the balance of power within the inter-state system, or have supranational institutions supplanted the state, even partially? What are some of the consequences for international relations of new transnational problems, whether economic, military or ecological? How does the concept of global governance relate to this field? What does the recent history of institutions such as the UN, the ICC, and the breakdown of peace treaties such as the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty indicate about what drives geopolitical events? What new modes of internationalism might better be able to meet human needs, and what type of politics would have to be developed to usher in such a transformation of international institutions?
Social movements. What are the historical touchstones for a new internationalist, planetary politics? In which historical contexts did exemplary groups of people diagnose key global problems, and why? How did they envision possibilities in a changing world for progress toward peace, welfare, self-determination, and what meaning do such experiments carry today? In this context, we encourage contributors to focus on non-academic political groups and social movements broadly defined.
Military affairs. What type of politics is adequate for addressing the rise in militarism and the use of force since the turn of this century? Have new military technologies now initiated a transformation of warfare – toward hybrid and covert forms of war unfolding in civil society and targeting civilian infrastructure? How does the current balance of power among states bear on these developments, and how is the UN's performance to be evaluated in this context? Is the UN’s liberal internationalism in fact an expression of Atlantic interests, or is it the germ of a genuinely multilateral representative institution? What is the specific condition of imperialism today: does it reflect the jostling of rivals within a Westphalian inter-state system, or has it developed qualitatively into something else at a global scale?
Humanism and social theory. Is a renewal of humanistic inquiry in store? How might certain universalistic theories be revived and developed within the humanities and social sciences? What is the state of the critique of humanism as advanced by those who argue it is compromised by its Western provenance? Does social theory relate itself adequately to new historical developments, and how might historians incorporate new theoretical concepts into their practices?
Further ideas not mentioned in the above points are just as welcome if they address related questions.
We ask interested authors to submit abstracts by the end of October 2023, and article drafts of between 8,000 and 10,000 words, written in accordance with the journal’s guidelines, by the end of January 2024.
Professor Hagen Schulz-Forberg, Aarhus University
or
Joshua Rahtz, postdoc
CFP: History of Media Studies
CFP: History of Media Studies
(Versión en español está más abajo)
History of Media Studies is a peer-reviewed, scholar-run, diamond OA journal dedicated to scholarship on the history of research, education, and reflective knowledge about media and communication—as expressed through academic institutions; through commercial, governmental, and non-governmental organizations; and through “alter-traditions” of thought and practice often excluded from the academic mainstream. The journal publishes high-quality, original articles, reviews, and commentary on the history of this inter- and extra-disciplinary area as it has intersected with other fields in the social sciences and humanities—and with social practices beyond the academy.
We encourage submissions in any one of our formats, in either Spanish or English:
https://hms.mediastudies.press/author-guidelines
We are committed to a humane, care-based, and developmental review process, with the goal to improve manuscripts through collegial exchange.
The journal is published by mediastudies.press, a scholar-led, no-fee nonprofit publisher established in 2019. The journal is edited by three established scholars in the history of media and communication studies field: David W. Park, Peter Simonson, and Jefferson Pooley. See our launch editorial (versión en español).
The journal’s Editorial Board includes scholars from nearly all continents and regions, with the aim to broaden the field’s traditional scope.
The journal is affiliated with (1) the Working Group on the History of Media Studies; and (2) the History of Media Studies Newsletter.
History of Media Studies es una revista revisada por pares y dirigida por académicos, cuyo principal interés está en la historia de la investigación, de la educación y de la reflexión sobre los medios y sobre la comunicación. Su foco no está únicamente en el conocimiento producido por las instituciones académicas, sino también por las organizaciones comerciales, gubernamentales y no-gubernamentales, y por las “tradiciones alternativas” de pensamiento y de práctica, que a menudo quedan excluidas de las corrientes académicas dominantes. La revista publica artículos originales de alta calidad, reseñas y comentarios, sobre la historia de este área interdisciplinar y extra-disciplinar, entendiéndola como un espacio en diálogo con otros campos de las ciencias sociales y de las humanidades, así como con prácticas sociales más allá de la academia.
Aceptamos envíos en cualquiera de nuestros formatos, tanto en español como en inglés:
https://hms.mediastudies.press/author-guidelines
Nos comprometemos con un proceso de revisión humano, basado en el cuidado y en el desarrollo, cuyo objetivo principal es la mejora de los manuscritos a través del intercambio entre iguales.
La revista está publicada por mediastudies.press, una editorial sin ánimo de lucro, dirigida por académicos, y creada en 2019. Sus editores son tres académicos ya establecidos en el campo de la historia de los medios y los estudios de comunicación: David W. Park, Peter Simonson y Jefferson Pooley. Aquí puede consultar nuestro editorial de lanzamiento(versión en inglés).
El Consejo Editorial de la revista está compuesto poracadémicos de casi todos los continentes y regiones, con el objetivo de ampliar el alcance tradicional del campo.
La revista está afiliada con (1) Working Group on the History of Media Studies; y (2) la History of Media Studies Newsletter.
CFP: International Conference on "(Art)ificial Intelligence and the Problems of Language, Thinking, and Writing: Interrogations to Jacques Derrida" [Announcement]
West Bengal
India
International Conference on
(Art)ificial Intelligence and the Problems of Language, Thinking, and Writing: Interrogations to Jacques Derrida.
Organized by
Tattva Journal of Philosophy with Department of English and Cultural Studies
CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
And
Panihati Mahavidyalaya, Kolkata
Date: December 14-15, 2023
Venue: Panihati Mahavidyalaya, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
The first English translation of Jacques Derrida’s La Voix et le Phénomène (1967) translated as Speech and Phenomena: And Other Essays on Husserl's Theory of Signs is completing its 50th anniversary in 2023. This is “an event, perhaps” (Salmon, 2020). This book was translated again in 2011, this time with the title Voice and Phenomenon: Introduction to the Problem of the Sign in Husserl’s Phenomenology. Derrida’s views on translation “as transaction and as transfer” (2001) is too well known not to think of this series of translation events as, at least, “dubious”. We are using “dubious” of course to underline the fact that this International Conference which is being organized to commemorate Speech and Phenomena may not be celebrating the “original” book let alone celebrating Voice and Phenomena. Therefore, the question of authenticity and originality is, not putting too fine a point on it, an aporia. We use this aporia of original, translation, and multiple productivity of texts to investigate and contribute to the contemporary debates on artificial intelligence, machine learning, writing, ChatGPT, and several other concerns emerging from the current time of the “algorithmic self” (Pasquale, 2015). This investigation is through interrogations of Jacques Derrida and the series of “events” that his three books of 1967 helped initiate: De la grammatologie translated into English as Of Grammatology (1976); L'écriture et la difference translated into English as Writing and Difference (1978) apart from Speech and Phenomena this conference is celebrating.
We are using “interrogation”, fittingly to the aims of the conference, in the way Oxford’s A Dictionary of Computing (2008) defines the term. Interrogation in this sense is “the sending of a signal that will initiate a response. A system may interrogate a peripheral to see if it requires a data transfer. The response is normally a status byte. When a number of devices are interrogated in a sequence the process is called polling.” This International Conference, therefore, is in a way sending “signals” to Derrida and the texts associated to that proper name, especially Speech and Phenomena. We want to investigate if these texts signal back and to what extent on the questions of language, thinking, and writing that first animated Derrida and which now need a serious revisit, reformulation, and reconsiderations.
With the advances being made in AI and computing, we need a better understanding of how these technologies are changing (or not changing) how we understand language, thinking, and writing. This seems to be one of the urgent tasks of philosophy and theory. The optimism of Hilary Putnam (1995) that “AI has so far spun off a good deal that is of real interest to computer science in general, but nothing that sheds any real light on the mind” (392) to the Chinese Room Argument by John Searle (1980) where he claims that “no program is sufficient for intentionality” (424) have tried to wrest some ground of thinking from computation and algorithm but the field remains highly contested and contentious. Works such as Alien Phenomenology (2012) among many others have shown interesting ways in which interactions and thinking may happen within and between objects. Similarly, with natural language processing (NLP) which enables a predictive model of writing generating signifiers based on big data and algorithm the very notion of “writing” is perhaps undergoing a radical change. If we take Derrida’s claim that “writing thus comprehends language” (1976, 7) it is now an urgent task to see if probabilistic writing is or is not transforming the concept of writing all over again. Derrida’s task of revealing the ethnocentrism that controlled the concept of writing which was seen as “phoneticization of writing” (3) needs to be taken up in the light of the promises and ambitions of “predictive writing.” If Derrida indeed deconstructed the logocentric nature of ethnocentric writing, does predictive writing “liberate” us finally from the stranglehold of the logos? Is algorithmic also logocentric or is it not? There are suggestions that it may just be the case and that what Derrida and others were theorizing about language and writing may have ultimately been triumphant (Underwood, 2023). This conference will think about these questions deeply and hopefully will result in certain insights which give us newer ways of conceptualizing thinking, language, and writing.
This International Conference invites paper submissions from scientists, media scholars, philosophers, literary scholars, Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars, historians, anthropologists, practitioners, professionals, and others. The papers can have varied perspectives and aims. They can be exploratory and speculative and could also be based on empirical studies or lab results. The only requirement is that the papers should be in conversation (or as we mentioned above, in the nature of “interrogation”) with the range of concepts used by Jacques Derrida that pertains to language, thinking, and writing. The topics include but are not limited to:
- Deconstruction and AI
- Derrida and Ethics of Language and AI
- Derrida and Digital Humanities
- Derrida, Politics, and Social Media
- Derrida and AI generated Digital Selfs and Cultures
- Conversational AI and the Presence of Speech
- Trace in the Digital
Please send an abstract (500-750 words) with 3-5 keywords to mithile...@christuniversity.in
Conveners:
Avirup Ghosh, Panihati Mahavidyalaya, Kolkata, India.
Mithilesh Kumar, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru, India.
Namitha Shivani Iyer, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Abstracts will be selected through a double-blind review process. Papers presented at the conference will be published as a special issue in Tattva Journal of Philosophy (UGC-CARE Listed Journal. Group I, Arts and Humanities)
Important Dates and Fees:
- Deadline for submission of abstracts: September 30, 2023.
- Notification of selected abstracts: October 10, 2023
- Registration link: October 15, 2023.
- Deadline for registration: December 01, 2023.
Registration fee: Paper presenters (India)- INR 5,000
Paper Presenters (International)- US $75
Participation- INR 1,000 (India)/US $15 (International)
References:
Bogost, Ian. Alien Phenomenology, or, What It’s like to Be a Thing. University of Minnesota Press, 2012.
Daintith, John, et al., editors. A Dictionary of Computing. 6th ed, Oxford University Press, 2008.
Derrida, Jacques. Of Grammatology. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1976.
---. Speech and Phenomena, and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs. Northwestern University Press, 1973.
---. Writing and Difference. University of Chicago Press, 1978.
---. Voice and Phenomenon: Introduction to the Problem of the Sign in Husserl’s Phenomenology. Northwestern University Press, 2011.
---. “What Is a ‘Relevant’ Translation?” Critical Inquiry, vol. 27, no. 2, Jan. 2001, pp. 174–200. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1086/449005.
Pasquale, Frank. “The Algorithmic Self.” The Hedgehog Review, https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/too-much-information/articles/the-algorithmic-self. Accessed 7 Aug. 2023.
Putnam, Hilary, and James Conant. Words and Life. Harvard University Press, 1994.
Salmon, Peter. An Event, Perhaps: A Biography of Jacques Derrida. Verso, 2020.
Searle, John R. “Minds, Brains, and Programs.” Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 3, no. 3, Sept. 1980, pp. 417–24. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00005756.
Mithilesh Kumar- mithile...@christuniversity.in
Call for Papers: Journal of Contemporary Thought [Announcement]
Tamil Nadu
India
Journal of Contemporary Thought
The Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda, India invites papers for the current and future issues of the Journal of Contemporary Thought. Revived after a hiatus of five years, the Journal returns with fresh resolve to offer a platform for cutting edge research in the field of Theory. Our past contributors include scholars such as Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Etienne Balibar, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Fred Dallmayr, Gianni Vattimo, William V. Spanos, Martin Jay, S.N. Balagangadhara, Dipesh Chakrabarty, Shannon Bell, Gauri Viswanathan, Stephen Greenblatt, Ashis Nandy, Simon Gikandi, Gaurav Desai, among others.
In resuming its role, the Journal once again aims to foster interdisciplinary research and critical inquiry in contemporary theory, especially in areas such as culture and politics, and including literature and life-worlds, philosophy, and the human sciences. It approaches contemporary critical issues from a variety of politically and theoretically informed perspectives by exploring concepts, interpretations, and methodologies. It aims to reconsider existing concepts and theories while also opening itself to expanding frontiers of thought.
Researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines are invited to bring their insights and perspectives to this academic forum. The Journal encourages the submission of original research articles that demonstrate innovative thinking and push the boundaries of disciplinary terrains. Interdisciplinary approaches that bridge gaps between different fields, and foster deeper understanding of complex social, cultural, and theoretical phenomena are welcome.
Submissions
All manuscripts submitted to the Journal undergo a double-blind peer review process. Authors are therefore requested to submit the anonymised manuscript, with name and affiliation appearing on a separate cover page and accompanied by a covering letter addressed to the Editor stating that it has not been submitted to any other journal and that it contains no plagiarised content. The Journal follows the MLA format (9th edition) and manuscripts should be prepared accordingly. Submissions can be mailed to the Managing Editor at jct.sub...@gmail.com, and further details on manuscript preparation and submission guidelines can be found on the Journal of Contemporary Thought and the Forum on Contemporary Theory website. The Ethics Policy of the Journal is also available on the Journal's site. Articles are solicited until 31 October 2023. Manuscripts received after this date would be considered for the next issue.
Submissions are currently open.
Possible themes and topics
1. Expanding parameters of Theory
2. Theory in India
3. Theory and social, political, and cultural phenomena.
4. Theory, criticism, poetics, politics and aesthetics of literature.
5. Uses and abuses of Theory across disciplines.
6. Philosophical interpretation of literature and literary treatment of philosophy.
7. Death of Theory and After Theory.
8. Intersectionality and identity politics.
9. Investigations into systematic methodologies, viz. semiotics and narratology.
10. The globalization of Theory and its impact on societies.
11. Political Theology
12. States of Exception.
13. Environmental studies and ecological thought.
14. Posthumanism
The Journal encourages submissions that demonstrate relevance to contemporary issues, theoretical depth, and methodological rigour. It publishes 7-10 articles (6000-8000 words), 2-4 book reviews (1500 words max), one review essay (5000 words), and an interview/conversation with a theorist or scholar of theory. Additionally, readers will have the opportunity write in their comments on the Journal’s content and engage in meaningful discussions in a section on Critical Exchanges.
Publishers of critical works on all aspects of theory may request reviews by sending two copies of the book to the JCT. However, commissioning rights for such reviews rest with the JCT.
For any queries or clarifications, please contact the editorial team at the email address provided. We look forward to receiving your valuable contributions towards fostering intellectual exchange and critical dialogue through the Journal of Contemporary Thought.
Journal Details
Name : Journal of Contemporary Thought
Publisher: Forum on Contemporary Theory, Baroda
Website : https://www.jctportal.com
Manuscript Submission: jct.sub...@gmail.com
Address
Journal of Contemporary Thought,
Centre for Contemporary Theory,
C-304 Siddhi Vinayak Complex,
Behind Vadodara Railway Station,
Faramji Road , Vadodara 390 007 .
Contact
Samik Malla (Managing Editor)
Call : +91 75501 79761
Journal : https://www.jctportal.com
Forum : https://fctworld.org
CFP: Form / Function / Finitude, Graduate Workshop, HKU, online, 26-28 October 2023
Form / Function / Finitude
Third Annual Postgraduate Student Workshop
Department of Comparative Literature, University of Hong Kong
26-28 October 2023
Call for Abstracts: due 25 September 2023
PhD students from around the world are invited to apply for participation for a small-group workshop on Form / Function / Finitude
What types of criticism are appropriate for a world defined by impending environmental catastrophe, widespread economic precarity, and ongoing global violence? Some critics have turned to formalist critique in order to account for literary structure as well as to foreground the pleasures of beauty and aesthetics. Other critics have argued that critique should concern itself with its political use. Other critics still have suggested that criticism itself has ‘run out of steam’ and hope to imagine ‘post-critique’ as the necessary orientation for our humanistic inquiry. We need not think of these critical attitudes as necessarily opposed to one another; rather, the urgency of our time requires us to locate our critical imagination at the nexus of these traditions. What are the legacies of modes of criticism and critique? What are the methods and commitments of criticism? How can we read criticism under the rubrics of its own method? This workshop welcomes papers that engage with these questions – especially when questions of critical method interact with the objects they purport to illuminate.
Potential topics include (but are not limited to)
formalism, aestheticism, functionalism, Marxist dialectics, historical materialism, cultural studies, queer and feminist approaches, eco-criticism, critical race theory, postcolonial theory, entanglements, poetics
empire, war, violence, economic crisis, environmental catastrophe and climate change literary studies, art history, film studies, media studies, architecture, intellectual/institutional history
The faculty members for the Form/Function/Finitude 2023 Workshop are:
Robert Hariman
Professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University
He is the author of The Public Image: Photography and Civic Spectatorship (with John Louis Lucaites; University of Chicago Press, 2016); No Caption Needed: Iconic Photographs, Public Culture, and Liberal Democracy, (with John Louis Lucaites; University of Chicago Press, 2007); and Political Style: The Artistry of Power (University of Chicago, 1995).
Caroline Levine
David and Kathleen Ryan Professor of Humanities in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University
Levine is the author of The Activist Humanist: Form and Method in the Climate Crisis (Princeton University Press, 2023); Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network (Princeton University Press, 2015); The Serious Pleasures of Suspense: Victorian Realism and Narrative Doubt (2003) and Provoking Democracy: Why We Need the Arts (2007). She is the nineteenth-century editor for the Norton Anthology of World Literature.
Jean Ma
Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong
She is the author of At the Edges of Sleep: Moving Images and Somnolent Spectators (University of California Press, 2022); Sounding the Modern Woman: The Songstress in Chinese Cinema (Duke University Press, 2015); and Melancholy Drift: Marking Time in Chinese Cinema (University of Hong Kong Press, 2010). She is the coeditor of “Music, Sound, and Media,” a book series at the University of California Press.
The Department of Comparative Literature and the Centre for the Study of Globalisation and its Cultures at the University of Hong Kong invite graduate students whose work intersects or engages with these concerns. We hope to bring together PhD students from across the humanities, including but not limited to: literary studies, film studies, media studies, history, art history, and political theory.
The workshop allows PhD students to workshop a work-in-progress – usually a dissertation chapter or a potential journal article – in a small and supportive setting, and with colleagues from around the world. The workshop is led by three faculty members who offer feedback and guide conversation over the course of the three days.
Application and Timeline
Please submit your abstract (up to 250 words) with a working title, and your CV to conf.com...@gmail.com by 25 September 2023. Selected participants will be notified of their acceptance by 29 September and should submit the full paper by 13 October. There are no fees to attend the workshop.
The graduate workshop will be held on Zoom 26-28 October 2023. Papers will be circulated in advance among all the participants. Attendees are expected to read the papers of their panel before the workshop and give feedback during the panels.
If you have any questions, please email Dr J Daniel Elam: jde...@hku.hk
CFP: Thresholds | Nineteenth Century Studies Association (NCSA) Conference 2024 [Announcement]
KY
United States
Nineteenth Century Studies Association: Call For PAPERS, “Thresholds,” 45th Annual Conference
Louisville, Kentucky March 14-16, 2024 Proposal Deadline: September 30, 2023
Website: https://ncsaweb.net/2024-conference-information/
From its early history as an important trading hub along the Ohio River, Louisville, Kentucky stood as an important gateway between the south and the north as well as between the east and west. As the city grew rapidly throughout the nineteenth century due to its favorable geography, it served as a threshold to nearby Indiana enslaved people longing for freedom and simultaneously as one of the largest centers for the trade and trafficking of enslaved individuals. Despite Kentucky remaining within the Union, many in the state sympathized with the Confederacy, and the political clout of Confederate soldiers returning after the Civil War earned Louisville its reputation as the city that joined the Confederacy after the war was over. During reconstruction and into the twentieth century, the city continued to wrestle with its history while also creating opportunities for those newly freed. Thus, the image of Louisville as a threshold offers fruitful ground for considering the individuals, institutions, conditions, and movements that shape the nineteenth century.
As an interdisciplinary organization, we welcome (15-20 minute) papers and submissions that explore thresholds from a broad range of perspectives, especially diverse national and international frameworks. In discussing physical manifestations of thresholds, papers may explore thresholds in nineteenth-century art, architecture, geography, history, literature, and material culture. Papers may address temporal thresholds into and from the long nineteenth century, including events, figures, and perspectives from the eighteenth through the twentieth centuries. Since thresholds also imply the midpoint from one state of existence to another or from one social status to another, we also welcome broader interpretations of the conference theme such as: thresholds between wilderness and civilization, ecological thresholds, threshold states (e.g. vampirism), visual thresholds, economic thresholds, musical thresholds, and ontological thresholds. Submissions may also address the abundant scientific and technological thresholds in the nineteenth century and the ways they shaped our modes of existence and understanding, e.g. electricity, the phonograph, atomic particles, and the standardization of time. While thresholds often imply advancing through a transition, papers may also conceptualize them as limits that are not transgressed. Topics on the state of nineteenth-century studies might also include thresholds of teaching and scholarship, academic labor practices, or innovative approaches to humanities education.
Please send 250-word abstracts with one-page CVs to ncsa...@gmail.com by September 30, 2023. Abstracts should include the author’s name, institutional affiliation, and paper title in the heading. The organizers welcome individual proposals, panel proposals with four presenters and a moderator, or larger roundtable sessions. Note that submission of a proposal constitutes a commitment to attend if accepted. Presenters will be notified in November 2023. The organizers encourage submissions from graduate students, and those whose proposals have been accepted may submit complete papers to apply for a travel grant to help cover transportation and lodging expenses. See the sidebar at right for more information about conference grants. Questions about submissions or the conference may also be directed to: ncsa...@gmail.com
Decolonial Narratives in Economics: Alternative and Underrepresented Voices [Announcement]
Germany
Call for Book Chapters (Edited Volume)
Edward Elgar Decolonized Research Series, Edward Elgar Publishing
EDITORS
Altug Yalcintas, Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study and Ankara University, altug.y...@politics.ankara.edu.tr
Arne Heise, University of Hamburg, Arne....@uni-hamburg.de
SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE EDITED VOLUME
What are the narratives that are underrepresented in the history of economic thought? How do economists account for freedom, justice, and democracy in non-Western cultures? How are ideas in non-English speaking countries disseminated? What are the political and intellectual challenges in the colonised world?
This edited volume will present historical and contemporary papers that cover
- the evolution of political economy in non-English speaking countries in specific periods,
- perspectives that are systematically rejected by orthodox journals, marginalised in academic
- conferences, or discriminated against in the job market,
- contributions that have not received sufficient attention from the global scholarly community due to language barriers, travel restrictions, or lack of funding.
The volume will contain works by authors from underrepresented classes, genders, and ethnicities. It will offer alternative perspectives to reform the official rhetoric in economics that ignores the existence and significance of colonialism in knowledge production. We will move beyond the monist narratives in economics and have a pluralist conversation on the ignored scholarships that have theoretical and practical significance today.
The editors will undertake a thorough peer review of all the completed chapters prior to delivering the final manuscript. The decisions will be given by the editors upon the referee reports.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Submissions should be sent to both editors via email: Altug Yalcintas (altug.y...@politics.ankara.edu.tr) and Arne Heise (Arne....@wiso.uni-hamburg.de). Submitted chapters must be original, unpublished, and not under consideration for publication elsewhere. Only full text chapters will be considered. Please do not send long abstracts or early drafts.
IMPORTANT DATES
30 September 2023: First drafts of manuscripts
October 2023: Assigning referees by the editors
December 2023: Delivery of referee reports
February 2024: Decisions by the editors (upon referee reports)
March 2024: Final versions of manuscripts to be submitted to the publisher
WORD LIMITS: 6000-8000 words (including references, tables, and figures)
REFERENCES: Harvard-style in-text and reference list citations
For a detailed call for chapters, please click here.
Altug Yalcintas, Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study and Ankara University
The latest issue of Contributions to the History of Concepts has been published! [Announcement]
Dear Colleague,
The latest issue of Contributions to the History of Concepts has published!
Please renew your HCG Membership here: https://conta.cc/2PMxGVz
2023 HCG Members: Access the journal here: https://contributions.berghahnjournals.com/login/0/
Contributions to the History of Concepts
Volume 18, Issue 2
Table of Contents
Celebrating Reinhart Koselleck's 100th Birthday
Koselleck's Dichotomies Revisited
Gabriel Entin
Special Section: Conceptual Entanglements in China, Empire, and Beyond
Of Words, Change, and Transplantations: Reshaping Chinese Concepts between Empire and Modernity
Federico Brusadelli, Anne Schmiedl, and Phillip Grimberg
Enigmatic Concepts: On the History of Riddles in China and the West
Anne Schmiedl
Investigating Antiquity: Some Notes on the Chinese Concept of Archaeology
Phillip Grimberg
From Modern to Feudal: Conceptual Articulations of Federalism in Republican China
Federico Brusadelli
Articles
Peerless Dulcinea, Love of God, and Shoah: Steps toward the Conceptual History of Incomparability
Kirill Postoutenko
For the Environment, Against Bureaucracy: Soft Values and the Work of Synchronization in Finnish Political Debate during the 1980s
Martin Pettersson
Reviews
A Tale of Two Freedoms; Semantic Struggles in Roman Antiquity?; Beyond Reception: A Historiography of Concepts in Full Right
Hugo Bonin, Alexandra Eckert, and Andrés Jiménez Ángel
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Recommend Contributions to the History of Concepts to your library: www.journals.berghahnbooks.com/contributions/library-recommendations
Free Digital Resource for Historians of Damn Good Ideas. [Announcement]
United Kingdom
A free ebook is available that translates a Medieval narrative map, telling the story of a remarkable mission by the Colettine Poor Clare Nuns of Ischia monastery in the year 1444, to rescue the mothers and children from another island in the Mediterranean Sea during a volcanic eruption. It is an early example of humanitarianism in action - a damn good idea. The book is titled The Medieval Map and the Mercy Mission and can be downloaded without charge at the following link:
2024 Hagley Prize Submission Deadline/November 30th, 2023
Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History Conference are pleased to announce the 2023 co-winners of the Hagley Prize: Hannah Farber, Underwriters of the United States: How Insurance Shaped the American Founding, University of North Carolina Press and Alejandro J. Gómez del Moral, Buying into Change: Mass Consumption, Dictatorship, and Democratization in Franco’s Spain, 1939-1982, University of Nebraska Press. Hagley Museum and Library and the Business History Conference jointly offer the Hagley Prize awarded to the best book in Business History (broadly defined) and consists of an award of $2,500. The prize was awarded at the Business History Conference annual meeting held in Detroit, Michigan, March 9-11, 2023.
The prize committee encourages the submission of books from all methodological perspectives. It is particularly interested in innovation studies that have the potential to expand the boundaries of the discipline. Scholars, publishers, and other interested parties may submit nominations. Eligible books can have either an American or an international focus. They must be written in English and be published during the two years (2022 or 2023 copyright) prior to the award.
Four copies of a book must accompany a nomination and be submitted to the prize coordinator, Carol Ressler Lockman, Hagley Museum and Library, PO Box 3630, 298 Buck Road, Wilmington DE 19807-0630, Email: cloc...@hagley.org.
The deadline for nominations is November 30, 2023. The 2024 Hagley Prize will be presented at the annual meeting of the Business History Conference to be held in Providence, Rhode Island. March 14-16, 2024.
Thanks!
Carol Ressler Lockman
Coordinator, Hagley Prize
5 PhD Positions “The Aggressor: Self-Perception and External Perception of an Actor Between Nations” (Heidelberg or Bochum, Germany) [Announcement]
Germany
Heidelberg University (Department of History) and the Ruhr University Bochum (Faculty of History) invite applications for up to five PhD positions within the framework of the international research project “The Aggressor: Self-Perception and External Perception of an Actor Between Nations” to start in the winter of 2023–24 and to be hosted by either of the two institutions.
The interdisciplinary project, headed by Prof. Dr. Thomas Maissen (Heidelberg University), investigates the identity-forming construction of national enemy images across Europe, which are shaped by aggressors from neighboring countries. The project examines aggressors not as (international) legal actors but as ideal types and social figures that represent hostile groups in collective memory as individuals. It comparatively researches and systematizes the perception and interpretation of concrete enemy actors as aggressors based on historical case studies, focusing on their discursive construction and changing significance in the politics of memory. A detailed description of the project can be found at: https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/fakultaeten/philosophie/zegk/histsem/forschung/project_aggressor_en.html
Your tasks:
- Conceptualization and execution of a doctoral project in German or English over the course of three years, pending an evaluation after the first year
- Active participation in the further development of the broader project and in its events such as graduate seminars and workshops
Your profile:
- Above-average degree (Master’s or equivalent) at the time of taking the position
- Excellent doctoral project proposal
- Good knowledge of German or English; other language skills are welcome
We offer:
- A three-year (1+2) fixed-term contract at Heidelberg University or the Ruhr University Bochum
- Coordinated supervision of the doctoral project by several members of the project team
- Integration into an international interdisciplinary network of leading scholars from multiple established European research institutions
- Highly motivating research environment in a strong academic team
- Participation in international conferences and opportunities for publication of own research results
- The chance to design exciting projects in the field of Public History
- Salary based on the collective bargaining agreement of the German federal states (TV-L E13, 65%)
The doctoral project can be freely formulated within the framework of the above-mentioned description. For dissertations with a relevant topic that have already progressed, final funding with a shorter duration is conceivable. For questions regarding the content of the job profile, please contact Prof. Dr. Thomas Maissen (thomas....@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de).
Applications in German or English should include a cover letter, curriculum vitae, certificates, proof of language skills and professional experience (if applicable), two short academic letters of reference, and an outline of the doctoral project with details on the desired supervision and host university (max. 20,000 characters including spaces and bibliography) and should be sent as a single PDF file to: aggresso...@zegk.uni-heidelberg.de. The deadline is October 15, 2023. The interviews are expected to take place online on October 31, 2023.
The participating institutions stand for equal opportunities and diversity. Qualified female candidates are especially invited to apply. Persons with severe disabilities will be given preference if they are equally qualified. Information on job advertisements and the collection of personal data is available at www.uni-heidelberg.de/en/job-market.
PD Dr. Ivan Sablin, Department of History, Heidelberg University, Grabengasse 3-5, 69117 Heidelberg, Germany
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