Dissent and History

First Annual Graduate Conference in History

The Department of History at the University of Rochester

Friday and Saturday, 26-27 March, 2010

We are pleased to announce the first annual Graduate History Symposium at the University of Rochester, Rochester, New York. The theme this year is “Dissent and History.” Dissent, whether expressed through the political process, cultural discourse, economic activity, or social upheaval (to name a few modes), has always been a feature of human communal existence. Strategies and narratives of dissent, while they may be separated in time and space, are united in the challenges they pose to normative formulations of collective identity and narrative construction. Long an interest at Rochester, we believe that this topic remains broadly important.

Proposals on all historical aspects and chronological periods involving “dissent” are welcome. Examples of potential topics include examinations of individual dissenters, theoretical exploration of dissent and its many meanings, hegemony and dissent, religious dissent, gendering dissent, dissent and the “other,” and, finally, public order, dissent, and legal culture.

Kevin Mattson, Connor Study Professor of History at Ohio University, and author of, among other works, Rebels All!: A Short History of the Conservative Mind in Postwar America (2008), Intellectuals in Action: The Origins of the New Left and Radical Liberalism, 1945-1970 (2002), and Creating a Democratic Public: The Struggle for Urban Participatory Democracy During the Progressive Era (1998), will be the keynote speaker for this year’s conference.

The conference will consist of afternoon and plenary sessions on Friday and sessions all day on Saturday. We invite graduate students to submit abstracts (250 words max.) for a twenty-minute presentation, along with contact information (affiliation, email, and address), and a brief CV. The deadline for submitting proposals is JANUARY 15, 2010. Participants will be notified by January 20 of the status of their proposals.

Please send all materials to the conference email address:

rochestergradconference@gmail.com

For updates and more information, please visit the conference web page at:

http://www.rochester.edu/College/HIS/Dissent