The UCL Americas Research Network, part of University College London’s Institute of the Americas, proudly announces a one-day conference tailored towards Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers and Practitioners, Historical Roots, Modern Realities: Nationalism Across the Americas, to be held online on Friday, June 28 2024.

The history of nationalism in the Americas is a complex and multifaceted one. From the revolutionary anti-imperial imaginaries of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries to the recent rise of the ‘new nationalism’ of Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro, and Javier Milei, ideas of nationhood have indelibly shaped the political, social, and cultural lives of those living within the Americas. Nationalism has been marked by both inclusive and exclusionary tendencies, promoting national integration and cultural and intellectual production while simultaneously defining ‘insiders’ from ‘outsiders’ and fuelling conflict and ethnic, racial, religious, and gendered violence.

Historical Roots, Modern Realities is dedicated to exploring nationalism throughout the Americas and the Caribbean, in all its many forms, through trans- and inter-hemispheric perspectives. National ideologies neither exist nor develop in isolation. They are instead moulded by international dynamics of empire, globalisation, trade, migration, environment, religion, and culture, among others. Exploring nationalism beyond geopolitical borders highlights how nationalism is both defined by and in opposition to such transnational dynamics, encouraging a more expansive understanding of nationalism’s many international effects. The UCL Americas Research Network welcomes papers that investigate the formation and effects of nationalism in unexpected places, times, and contexts. Inspired by Benedict Anderson’s classical argument regarding nationalism’s American origins, they are also interested in how nationalism within the Americas diffused across the Atlantic, Pacific, and beyond, shaping how the nations of the Americas exist within the world and in relation to each other.

Historical Roots, Modern Realities invites submissions on any topic related to the study of nationalism in the American hemisphere, including, but not limited to, the following themes:

• Nationalism in International/Comparative Perspectives
• Nationalism, Gender, and Sexuality
• Nationalism and Religion, Civil Religion, and Patriotism
• Leftist, Conservative, and (Far) Right Nationalisms
• Memory, Commemoration, and Sites of Nationalism
• Racial and Ethnic Nationalism
• The Role of Nationalism in War and Internal Conflict
• Nationalism, Globalisation, and Transnational Networks
• Anti-Colonial and/or Anti-Imperial Nationalism
• Nationalism, the Environment, and Resource Competition
• Nationalism, Indigenism, and Indigenous Communities
• Digital and ‘New’ Nationalisms
• Cultural and Intellectual Symbols and Products of Nationalism

To apply, please email nationalismacrosstheamericas@gmail.com by March 1 2024 with the following:

• An Abstract of up to 200 Words
• A Personal Biography of up to 100 Words
• X/Twitter Handles, if Applicable