The Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies
Maastricht, The Netherlands

The Atlantic has been a crossing-point for people, ideas, and commodities for centuries. This conference will broadly explore what the 'transatlantic' means for the people of Africa, the Americas, and Europe. More specifically the conference will address three inter-locking dimensions of the transatlantic experience. Firstly, it will consider the lessons of the dynamics of transatlantic relations. At a time when globalisation, which for some has its origins in the history of the transatlantic experience, raises concerns about the impact of westernisation or, more specifically, Americanisation on the rest of the world, the conference will ask what a study of the transatlantic can tell us about how people have adapted to cultural exchanges in the past. How have these exchanges impacted on cultures and identities in the transatlantic world? Secondly, the conference will examine the transatlantic experience as a focus of enquiry. Thus, contributions might consider how artists, scholars, and writers have come to explore transatlantic connections in the course of their work. Finally, the conference will ask what we can learn by the comparative experiences on the different sides of the Atlantic. What, for example, can comparative studies tell us about the relative experiences of citizenship, nation, and race?

Located at the Maastricht Center for Transatlantic Studies (Netherlands), the overall aim of the conference is to bring together scholars from across the world to discuss the development of citizens, nations, and cultures through the lens of the transatlantic relationship. The city of Maastricht has been a crossing-point for European cultures through history, and as 2002 marks the anniversary of the Treaty on European Union, signed in the city and which formally established EU citizenship, it is both an ideal location and an opportune time to consider the changing relations between citizens, nations, and cultures.

The organisers invite contributions from any discipline. The organisers especially welcome contributions from young scholars and postgraduates. All papers must nevertheless have the transatlantic relationship as the underlying theme.

Please send a 300-400 word abstract by 28th February 2002 to Neil Wynn or Andrew Thompson at the address below.