CFPs deadline extended for MWWHA conference on "Reformations and Revolutions in World History"

by Jeanne E. Grant

Call for Proposals

“Reformations and Revolutions in World History”

The Eighth Annual Conference of the 

Midwest World History Association

22-23 September 2017, University of Central Oklahoma (Edmond, Oklahoma)

The proposal deadline has been extended to 15 April 2017

and the keynote is announced.

The Midwest World History Association is happy to announce a call for paper, poster, panel, roundtable, and workshop proposals for its annual conference to be held at the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma, on September 22nd and 23rd, 2017. The conference theme is ‘Reformations and Revolutions in World History.’

Today the world finds itself at a crossroads, just as it has done so many times before and will undoubtedly do so in the future.  The crises faced today – a resurgence in Nationalism, extremism, the continuance of war and its results: refugees, poverty, and hunger – seem to be testing the anchors of contemporary values of peace, tolerance, and humanity.

Far from the first crisis the world has faced, it is nevertheless important to grasp its history and the history of the ideas that have shaped it to understand the events of today. This year, 2017, will see the commemoration of the Protestant Reformation (1517), the Russian Revolution (1917), the independence of India and Pakistan (1947), the first sub-Saharan African Independence in Ghana (1957), and the signature of the Treaty of Rome (1957). Other anniversaries marked in 2017 include, but are not limited to, the Tacfarinas uprising against the Romans in 17 CE, the first official European diplomatic mission to China (1517), US entry into the First World War (1917), the internationalization of the Spanish Civil War (1937), the Palestine Partition Resolution (1947), the 1947 Truman Doctrine, and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.                                                                             

This conference will bring together emerging scholars, early career researchers, established academics from a variety of disciplines, and 6th-12th-grade teachers to provide a platform to explore the implications and significance the Reformation and revolutions have in the world. We encourage contributions from a range of perspectives, including social, political, intellectual and cultural history; social and cultural geography; social and political science; and 9-12 lesson plans. Possible subjects may include, but are not limited to:

• How has the dynamics of ‘reformation' and ‘revolution' worked with and against one another in world history?
• What impact have reform and/or revolutionary change had in the world?
• What effects have revolutionary and/or reformist approaches to crisis had in the past?
•  How are landmark moments such as the Reformation, and the numerous revolutions in world history, remembered/represented?
•  To what extent/in what ways are contemporary events the legacy of previous crises, or of attempts to reform/transform the world?
• How have specific political ideas (liberalism, capitalism, communism, socialism, freedom, justice, governmentality, legitimacy—as well as [post]colonialism and feminism) shaped historical development, particularly in moments of crisis
• How has world history given rise to new or revolutionary political ideas?

Proposals on any aspect of World History scholarship and teaching are also welcome.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Amy Nelson Burnett, Paula and D.B. Varner University Professor of History, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Professor Burnett’s work has focused on the Protestant Reformation in Germany and Switzerland, with emphasis on the exchange of ideas through printing and debate. Among her many books, Teaching the Reformation: Ministers and their Message in Basel, 1529-1629 (Oxford University Press, 2008) won the Gerald Strauss Prize awarded by the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference. Dr. Burnett will deliver a keynote entitled, “Reform, Dissent, and Toleration: The Reformation as a Crisis of Authority.”

Please send an abstract of 250 words, together with a short curriculum vitae, to the Program Committee Chair, Dr. Nikki Magie at chair@mwwha.org no later than 15 April 2017 (extended deadline). Questions about the conference can also be directed to this address. Where a complete panel is proposed, the convener should also include a 250-word abstract of the panel theme. Each panelist should plan to spend no more than 20 minutes presenting her or his paper.

Presenters must register for the conference by 15 August 2017 to be included in the program.

The MWWHA will offer up to three competitive Graduate Student Awards to offset part of the conference costs. Graduate students interested in applying should include a letter with their conference proposal explaining how the conference helps them with their studies, teaching, and/or future career plans as well as how their paper fits with the conference theme and the mission of the MWWHA.

We also invite accepted papers to be submitted to our journal, The Middle Ground, for potential publication: http://themiddlegroundjournal.org/.

Further information about the MWWHA, including membership and conference registration (when it becomes available), can be found on our website: http://mwwha.org/.

Presenters will be notified of acceptance by 15 May 2017.