Call for Papers: 38th Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association
Chicago, IL, November 21-24, 2013
Submission Deadline: 15 Febuary 2013
"Organizing Powers"
As insurgencies mobilize, dictators fall, and established political institutions face sustained challenge, contemporary events underscore a central question of social science history: how are relations of power organized and disorganized? How can we explain the emergence of distinctive forms of rule such as empires and nation-states? How does the consolidation of regimes and organized patterns of contention shape future trajectories of change and the capacity to imagine alternative forms of governance, social order, and collective action? These questions direct us to the terrain between the historical specificity of governing arrangements, the mechanisms behind the destabilization and durable reproduction of regimes, and the projects of change advanced by elites and insurgents alike.Although these questions are most easily asked in the context of high politics and contentious events, formal institutions of power cannot be disembedded from the dynamics of economic and demographic change, from the practices that organize work and family, from the cultural models of authority and order that shape action and understanding. In varied combinations, models of political, economic, and familial organization may sustain regimes of extraordinary longevity, robust trajectories of change, or recurring contradictions, crises and conflicts. At stake in these debates is a deeper, comparatively informed understanding of the possibilities of significant institutional change and substantial institutional endurance – past, present, and future.
The 2013 Program Committee seeks panel proposals that speak to the theme of “Organizing Powers,” but we also welcome, as always, individual papers and panels on all aspects of social science history. (See the list of network organizers for the range of topics regularly engaged by conference panels.)
The 2013 conference will be held at the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, Illinois.
How Do I Participate in the 2013 SSHA Program?
Starting early in 2013, proposals for individual papers and complete sessions will be accepted at http://ssha.org, which provides instructions for submission. The deadline is 15 February 2013; we prefer the submission of complete sessions. If you want to organize a session, we recommend that you first contact a network representative. Network representatives – who are open to all possibilities – screen all papers and panels in their areas. (Current networks, with their representatives' e-mail and web addresses, are listed on the SSHA website.) If you are not certain which network your paper proposal best fits, just ask the representatives of the networks closest to your interests.
SSHA will continue to make competitive grants for graduate student travel, now with additional help from the Charles and Louise Tilly Fund for Social Science History, which also supports a graduate student paper prize.
SSHA President for 2012-13
Elisabeth S. Clemens, Department of Sociology, University of Chicago
Program Committee Co-Chairs for the 2013 Conference:
Evan Roberts, Deptartment of History and the Minnesota Population Center, University of Minnesota, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Ajay Mehrotra, Law School and Department of History, Indiana University, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Network Responsibilities of SSHA 2013 Program Committee Co-Chairs
