Proposals for scholarly papers dealing with the politics of place, space, and region in the Sunbelt are solicited for a symposium co-sponsored by the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University and The Huntington Library in Los Angeles, California. The summer 2008 workshop at The Huntington Library will be followed by a public symposium at SMU in Dallas, Texas in in Spring 2009. Ultimately a university press will publish the papers as a volume edited by conference organizers Michelle Nickerson (michelle.nickerson@utdallas.edu)and Darren Dochuk (ddochuk@purdue.edu).

The term “Sunbelt” has cemented itself into the American popular lexicon, even as some continue to challenge its use as an effective descriptor. Though sensitive to its potential misusage and aware of its contested currency in present-day politics, this symposium will challenge participants to think of the Sunbelt in historical terms as a region shaped subtly but appreciably by the exigencies of the post-World War II era. In this context the question of whether or not the Sunbelt exists will be eclipsed by questions of how and why it is assumed to exist, and toward what end for American politics and society.