This conference will explore the many aspects of civil wars and conflicts, with a particular focus on the interrelationship between those conflicts and the construction, advocacy and appropriation of ethnic, gender, national, racial and religious identities. We invite graduate and undergraduate students to submit one-page abstracts of proposed twenty-minute papers on these topics. Panel proposals, which should include a chair and/or commentator, are strongly encouraged. Individual submissions will also be considered.

Keynote speakers at the conference will include Victoria Bynum of Texas State University, author of "The Free State of Jones: Mississippi's Longest Civil War" and "Unruly Women: The Politics of Social and Sexual Control in the Old South" as well as Matt Childs of Florida State University, author of "The 1812 Aponte Rebellion in Cuba and the Struggle against Atlantic Slavery" and coeditor of "The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World".

Please submit with your abstract a short CV that includes your home or office mailing addresses, e-mail address, and phone number. Panel sessions should include a CV for all participants, including the chair/commentator, along with the abstracts for each paper. The deadline for submitting these is Friday 30 November 2007, and papers accepted for presentation will need to be submitted in full to conference organizers and commentators by Friday 7 March 2008.