2012 Symposium on Democracy: Democracy and the American Civil War Hosted by Kent State University, April 23-25, 2012

The planning committee for the 2012 Symposium on Democracy at Kent State University invites specialists in the Civil War era to submit paper proposals for next spring’s event. The Symposium on Democracy honors the memories of the four students who lost their lives on May 4, 1970.

This year, the theme will be “Democracy and the American Civil War.” Accordingly, the faculty organizers of the event are soliciting paper proposals from historians, particularly early-career scholars and graduate students whose research touches on this year’s theme. We construe the “Civil War era” broadly; the organizers urge scholars working on Reconstruction, the “Long Era Civil Rights Movement,” and related themes to submit proposals. Accepted papers will be organized into panels that will follow presentations by invited scholars on the second and third days of the Symposium; they will also be considered for inclusion in a Symposium collection published by the Kent State University Press.

Interested applicants should electronically submit current vitas and paper abstracts of no more than one page in length to the faculty co-chairs, Leonne Hudson and Kevin Adams, by February 15, 2012. The Symposium organizers will notify applicants of the final disposition of their proposals by early March. Electronic submissions, as well as questions concerning specific proposals, the application process, and the Symposium on Democracy writ large, may be directed to:

Kevin Adams
Associate Editor
Civil War History
Department of History
Kent State University
kadams9@kent.edu

Leonne Hudson
Associate Professor
Department of History
Kent State University
lhudson@kent.edu