The members of the Social Science History Association share a common interest in interdisciplinary and systematic approaches to historical research, and many of us find the SSHA one of the most stimulating conferences that we attend. The thematic topic of the 2010 annual meeting is “Power and Politics” – a theme that works very well with the research interests of many of the scholars involved in the Culture network. Culture is an interdisciplinary social science research field that focuses on questions of historical, cultural inquiry. Contributors to the field have brought perspective on a wide variety of problem areas; the 2009 program included culture panels on the following topics: agency in culture; the sociology of cities; play and games; epidemics in the media; questions of citizenship in troubled states; ritual, dreams and agency; the politics of memory; love and marriage in migration; cultural organizations and fields; constructing commonwealths in the 16th century; amateurs, experts and the production of knowledge; and many others.

While we welcome panels and papers on any topic of interest to scholars of Culture and History, we are particularly soliciting papers on the following themes, drawn from member suggestions:
• The "Chicago Schools" and Regimes of Power
• Culture and Colonization
• The Culture of Intimacy
• Hegemony and Mass Media
• Popular Culture and Popular Social Theory
• Culture in the Marketplace
• Struggles over Classification

The Culture network will be able to host at least six panels in 2010 and will also be able to place additional papers through co- sponsorship with other networks (for example, with History/Methods, Politics, Macro-Historical change, State-Society, Historical Geography, etc.).
SSHA requests that submissions be made by means of its web conference management system. Paper title, brief abstract, and contact information should be submitted on the site www.ssha.org, where the general SSHA 2010 call for papers is also available. Here is the direct link for submissions: http://conference.ssha.org/. The online system is now accepting submissions.

The online system is now accepting submissions. If you have any questions, please contact any of the Culture co-chairs (Jennifer Lena jennifer.c.lena@vanderbilt.edu, Fred Wherry ffwherry@gmail.com, or Leah Gordon gordonle@stanford.edu).

SSHA has set up a mechanism for networks to share papers, so even if you have a solo paper, send the idea along. It is possible and useful to identify a paper not only by the Culture network, but also by some other co-sponsoring networks. Co-sponsored panels and papers are encouraged by the SSHA Program Committee as a means of broadening the visibility of the various networks.

Please use the SSHA submission site – http://conference.ssha.org/