Association for Political Theory 2012 Annual Conference, October 11-13, 2012
University of South Carolina
Columbia, South Carolina
Program Co-Chairs: Susan Liebell (St. Joseph’s University) and David Lay Williams (DePaul University)

Proposals due: Monday, February 20, 2012

The Association for Political Theory (APT) invites proposals for its tenth annual conference, October 11-13, 2012, at the University of South Carolina. The Association for Political Theory welcomes proposals from faculty, graduate students who have completed all requirements except for their dissertations, and independent scholars on all topics in political theory, political philosophy, and the history of political thought. We also encourage faculty to volunteer to serve as chairs and/or discussants.

How to Apply: To apply online, visit the APT website, http://apt.coloradocollege.edu and follow conference links. Abstracts of 300-400 words are due by midnight PST on Monday, February 20, 2012. Please review the proposal guidelines below before completing a proposal form. Each participant may submit one paper and one co‐authored paper proposal. Please note that the APT Conference does not accept panel or roundtable proposals. Each participant is required to submit a proposal form, even if the proposal is part of a co‐authored paper.

Chairs/Discussants: If you wish to participate as a chair and/or discussant, please note your areas of expertise and interest in the relevant box on the proposal form. Presenting a paper does not preclude one from serving as a chair or a discussant in another panel. Chairs and discussants must have a completed PhD.

Pre‐circulation requirement: All papers accepted for the conference must be submitted electronically to an archive on the APT website no later than October 1, 2012. Paper lengths should not exceed 30 double‐spaced pages of text so that discussants may provide suitable feedback. The archive will be password‐protected so that access is limited to members of APT. Participants who fail to submit their paper to the archive by October 1, 2012 will be removed from the program.

Participation in the conference requires membership in the Association. Membership is free. Papers are available to APT members only, so conference participants will need to join APT in order to receive access to the archive. Visit the APT website and follow the links, http://apt.coloradocollege.edu, to submit a membership application.

Questions and assistance: For questions about the program or proposal guidelines, or if you have any difficulty submitting a proposal, please contact the Program Committee Co‐Chairs, Susan Liebell (susan.liebell@gmail.com) and David Lay Williams (dwill105@depaul.edu).

To learn more about the Association and its annual conference, please visit the APT website at: http://apt.coloradocollege.edu.

APT INITIATIVE FOR 2012
Working Group Panel

"The politics of drama, the drama of politics: staging ancient political thought"

This group is part of APT’s new Working Group initiative. Participants will engage in pre-conference dialogue as they prepare their papers, and the panel will serve as one moment in a longer collaboration. The format will enable scholars working on similar questions to learn from each other, develop their ideas over time, and create professional networks. The group will be chaired by Jill Frank of The University of South Carolina. The intention is to submit the papers from this panel to an appropriate journal. Participants must have a first draft completed by August 15, 2012, and be ready at that time to share their work-in-progress and to comment on the work of the other participants. Just as for any APT paper, a polished version must be completed in time for presentation at the fall conference.

Potential participants should submit proposals via the proposal form and must indicate that they want their proposal to be considered for the working group panel. (You can submit the same proposal for both the working group panel and the general APT program, if you wish.) Papers will be selected by the working group panel chair and the APT Program Committee based on fit and strength. Participants in APT working groups must be at a post-dissertation stage of their career and to have begun publishing scholarly work. Once participants are notified of their acceptance and confirm their willingness to participate, members will develop a work-plan and schedule that may include (if appropriate) common readings.

Detailed Information on the Working Group Panel: Offering studies of human thought, character, actions, and institutions, the poetry of Homer, Hesiod, Solon, and Theognis, the histories of Herodotus and Thucydides, the tragedies and comedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, the speeches of Lysias, Demosthenes, and Aeschines, and the works of Xenophon, Isocrates, Plato, and Aristotle are fertile resources for political theory. Composing their works for present and future audiences in diverse literary forms which invite diverse interpretative strategies and produce diverse political effects, these political theorists largely refuse to speak in clear authorial voices or announce declarative truths. Instead they tend to use tropes like irony, myth, and metaphor, which often invite the truth of what they are saying to be called into question. This working group calls for paper proposals exploring the ways in which these authors' literary practices and/or texts in context illuminate ancient and/or contemporary politics or political theory.