The next meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies will be held in Providence, RI on October 25-28, 2018.
Theme: “Altruism and its Discontents: Human Rights, Humanitarianism, and Development.”
The deadline to apply is February 15, 2018.
From the NACBS description:
This workshop will explore human rights, humanitarianism, and development in the modern period, c. 1800-2000, through the prism of “altruism.” While usually treated separately, each of these areas of endeavor grapples with often competing interests in projects aimed at improving the lives of others, some altruistic, others less so. We seek papers that engage critically in human rights, humanitarianism, or development, with special consideration for those positioned at their intersections. What has been the relationship between humanitarianism and discourses on human rights and how has it changed over time? How do we explain the dynamics of imperialism, internationalism, and foreign intervention? Humanitarian intervention and development? Or, empire, decolonization, and “development” projects? Where were projects made and unmade and how? What were their costs and who bore them? Where did these discourses or projects fit within anti-colonial resistance or in the civic life of post-colonial societies? While our emphasis is on British engagement in the world, we welcome equally papers that examine the reception of these projects among local populations and/or that put British actors in comparative or international context.
The session will include 6-8 pre-circulated papers of 15-25 pages each. Participants will be chosen with a view to the complementarity of their research topics and strong preference will be given to graduate students and early career scholars. Participants must be prepared to submit their papers by September 30, 2018. Each participant will be required to read all papers for the session, and to share written comments on two of the papers, prior to the conference. The session itself will include brief presentations and discussions of each paper, followed by a more extensive conversation between participants and the audience around common questions and themes.
Please submit a CV and one page abstract to Carolyn Shaw (cshaw@bates.edu) and Matthew Hilton (m.hilton@qmul.ac.uk) by February 15, 2018. Results will be announced March 1st.
Those not selected for the workshop section are encouraged to submit proposals for the NACBS poster session, or paper and/or panel proposals for the regular NACBS session with a deadline of March 30, 2018. Further information may be found at the NACBS Conference website.
Further, the NACBS is able to offer limited financial support for graduate students (up to US$500) and under/unemployed NACBS members within ten years of the terminal degree (up to US$300). Details for these travel grants will be available on the NACBS website and emailed to the membership once the 2018 meeting program is prepared.
