CFP: William Birch and the Complexities of American Visual Culture: A Symposium Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of the Visual Culture Program at the Library Company of Philadelphia

LAND AND WATER: PORT TOWNS, MARITIME CONNECTIONS, AND OCEANIC SPACES OF THE EARLY MODERN ATLANTIC WORLD. The British Group of Early American Historians will hold its annual conference at the University of Portsmouth, 31 August - 3 September 2017. Drawing on Portsmouth’s historic significance as a port town this year’s conference theme is: “Land and Water: Port Towns, maritime connections, and oceanic spaces of the early modern Atlantic World.” Portsmouth was a site of embarkation for those who shaped (or attempted to shape) the political, social, and demographic contours of the Atlantic World: the Roanoke colonists departed from the town in 1587; as did Admiral Nelson for the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. It was a hub of imperial force in the form of the Royal Navy and intimately connected with the imperial conflicts across the globe, and also of the protection and then prevention of the transatlantic slave trade. […]

REMOBILISING MILITANT PASTS: HISTORIES OF PROTEST, UNREST AND INSURRECTION IN POLITICS AND CULTURE Hosted by the Department of Culture, Media and Creative Industries at King's College London - 31st August & 1st September 2017 Delegates’ Fees: •       Speakers  Free •       Students and Untenured: One Day  £10 •       Students and Untenured: Both Days  £20 •       Tenured Staff: One Day  £20 •       Tenured Staff: Both Days  £40 Deadline for Registration is Thursday, 24 August.  Registration fees include lunch and refreshments. For any queries, contact Dr Dion Georgiou at diongeorgiou@hotmail.co.uk Click here to register: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/remobilising-militant-pasts-histories-of-protest-unrest-and-insurrection-in-politics-and-culture-tickets-36308575928 Programme (correct at time of posting) THURSDAY, 31 AUGUST 9:30 – 10:00: Registration 10:00 – 12:00: Radical Histories in Fictional Texts Matthew Ingleby (Queen Mary University of London) Fantasising 1887: Harkness, Nesbit and the Literary Afterimage of ‘Bloody Sunday’ Ruth Adams (King’s College London) Popular Cultural Representations of the Suffragettes Rebecca Hillman (University of Exeter) Resistance, Representation and Repetition: […]

QUEER SCREENS CONFERENCE 2017 September 2nd and 3rd 2017 The Institute of the Humanities and the Gendered Subjects Research Group at Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK Keynote speaker: Prof. Jack Halberstam (Columbia University) We seek to tackle diverse aspects of queer representation, and question the extent to which the new influx of queer on-screen visibility works at once both to liberate and obfuscate certain queer identities and cultures. How, for example, should we perceive representations of the legalization of gay marriage in numerous countries, while taking into account that these changes in law also mark the entrance of queer individuals into reproductive and familial time? In England and Wales, 2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, which decriminalized private homosexual acts between male individuals aged 21 or over. As such, this anniversary comes at what is arguably a troubling time; one where right-wing nationalism spreads across the […]

Game of Thrones: An International Conference University of Hertfordshire, De Havilland Campus, 6-7 September 2017   Co-organised by the Media Research Group of the Schools of Creative Arts and Humanities REGISTRATION NOW OPEN:  http://store.herts.ac.uk/conferences-events/conferences-events/conferences/creative-arts/game-of-thrones-an-international-conference The University is in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, which 25 minutes, by train, from central London. The nearest train station is Hatfield (direct route from King's Cross Station). The University is a short taxi journey or bus ride from Hatfield railway station. You can view train times and fares on the National Rail website. There are also bus services available from all the major London airports to the University. ​ Airport bus services  ​ Heathrow Airport (21 miles or 34km away) Arriva 724 service Luton Airport (18 miles or 29km away) National Express JL737 Service Stansted Airport (20 miles or 32km away) National Express JL737 Service Gatwick Airport (40 miles or 64km away) National Express JL737 Service View our maps and directions section for more information on […]

One-day international workshop organised by the Invasion Network at Lancaster University, 8th September 2017. Key-note speaker: Professor Emeritus David Glover Confirmed speakers include: Michael Hughes, Michael Matin and Antony Taylor Hosted by the Department of History, Lancaster University and supported by the Irish Research Council, ‘War of the Worlds: Transnational Fears of Invasion and Conflict 1870-1933’ seeks to consider the fear of invasion as a global phenomenon in the period between the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1) and the rise of the German Third Reich, including any region in which the fear became a notable social phenomenon and/or how fears of invasion and future conflict expressed in different nations and regions informed each other.

Doig Country: Imagining Montana and the West  Montana State University, Bozeman, September 14-16 2017 On September 14-16, 2017 the Western Lands & People Initiative at Montana State University in Bozeman, with the College of Letters & Science and the MSU Library, will host the symposium to celebrate the work of Ivan Doig and the acquisition of his papers by the university. The organizers invite proposals for papers and presentations that address the literature, history and geography of Montana and the West that Doig explored in his memoirs and fiction. Work need not directly address Doig's writings, but should allow participants to enter into a broad discussion of the connections between landscape and human experience, history and fiction, or what close observation and attention to place contribute to the various disciplines that engage us as scholars and as readers. Further information can be found at http://ivandoig.montana.edu/symposium-2017/

New Directions in American Philanthropy Sheffield Hallam University 14-15 September 2017 Meaning, literally, “love of all mankind”, the historian Lawrence J. Friedman has framed philanthropy as ‘a collective form of charitable giving.’ In the nearly two centuries since Alexis De Tocqueville’s observation that the United States is a ‘nation of joiners,’ volunteerism and philanthropy have played a significant role in America’s domestic and international history. For some, such as the scholar Olivier Zunz, philanthropy is ‘part of the American progressive tradition.’ Yet despite good intentions, the history of American philanthropy is not without controversy. Indeed, the political scientist Inderjeet Parmar, acknowledging that ‘it is difficult to believe that philanthropy…could possibly be malignant,’ has argued that it has not always been either an effective tool or a force for positive change. The purpose of this workshop is to engage in this debate concerning the positive and negative aspects of American philanthropy. […]

Free Public Lecture: Professor Inderjeet Parmar (City University of London), "Foundations of America’s Empire: How Elite Networks Dominate American Power at Home and Abroad" - 14th September 2017, 17.30-19.30, Sheffield Hallam University In this lecture, Parmar argues that corporate foundations – like Ford, Carnegie, and Rockefeller, among others – have played a significant but neglected or misunderstood role in the rise and development of American power. He argues that despite their cuddly public image and claims of benign support for democracy, human rights, development and freedom, such institutions are locked into the strategic heartlands of American elite power at home and its imperial global projects. Combining a historical analysis with the rise and politics of the Trump phenomenon, this lecture suggests that elite power-knowledge networks centred on influential American foundations, but which extend to think tanks, both main political parties, major universities, the federal executive, mass media and international organisations, built […]