The Lived Experience of the State: An Interdisciplinary Conference.
March 25, 2011 (Paper Submissions due November 30, 2010)

The Graduate Students of the Duke University Department of History are pleased to invite graduate students in the humanities and social sciences to submit papers for their annual one-day conference at Duke University on Friday, March 25, 2010. The subject of the conference will be the lived experience of the state by its subjects/citizens. The conference will explore how historical actors have experienced the state in their day-to-day lives and contributed to its consolidation or undoing across a number of geographic and temporal frames. We are especially interested in papers that approach these state/citizen relationships from a variety of disciplinary or methodological approaches. We would also like to specifically encourage scholars with works in progress or at an early stage in their research, including pre-dissertation graduate students, to apply.

Topics of relevance for the conference might include (though are not restricted to): early modern state formation, colonial states and subjects, conscription and state violence, civil society under dictatorships, law and the local, immigration and the body politic, as well as many others.

The conference will consist of panels organized around specific questions/topics with a commenter.
There will also be both lunch and keynote speakers. Please submit an abstract of your paper including title and affiliation not to exceed 300 words by November 30, 2010, to Mitch Fraas at amf7@duke.edu.
Those selected will be notified by December 15, 2010.