“Histories of the Family: Intersections Between Public and Private Life”

to be held Friday, JUNE 1, 2012 from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Leopold Room (Harris Hall 108), 1881 Sheridan Rd., Evanston campus Keynote speaker Professor Deborah Coen (Columbia University), author of Vienna in the Age of Uncertainty: Science, Liberalism and Private Life (University of Chicago, 2007), with commentary from Professor Durba Ghosh (Cornell University), author of Sex and the Family in Colonial India: The Making of Empire (Cambridge UP, 2006)—convener: Teri Chettiar, CCHS Graduate Fellow
In recent decades, historical considerations of changes in the nature and constitution of families and family life have opened up new ways of thinking about the relationship between private and public life. Histories of the family bring new perspective to a host of important issues, including the changing social and cultural meaning of parenthood and childhood; the relationship between changes in the constitution of family life and perceptions of national decline; intersections between debates over marginalized sexualities and public anxieties over family “breakdown”; conflict between state services and ideas of family responsibility for the care of vulnerable individuals, such as children, the disabled, and the elderly; the role of the family in bringing legitimacy to colonial rule; as well as the relationship between changes in family life and changing patterns of consumption and expectations about standard of living. It has become increasingly accepted that families, family life, and family practices are intimately connected to a wide array of social, economic, cultural and political fields of inquiry.

This conference serves as forum for investigating the important insights which historical studies of the family bring to a diverse range of historical fields, including, but not limited to:
• historical intersections between politics, society, and “private life”
• histories of gender and sexuality
• histories of science, medicine and technology
• social and cultural histories of religion and processes of secularization
• urban histories and the development of suburbs
• historical studies of kinship in non-western contexts
• histories of global migration
• histories of modern politics (including the late-twentieth century emergence of political controversies surrounding “family values”)
To what extent have changes in families and family life been motivated by, and in turn impacted, economic, political, social, intellectual and cultural factors seemingly lying far beyond the reach of the private sphere of the family? Interested applicants should submit a one-page paper proposal and CV by Monday, February 20 at 12 noon via email to: terichettiar2011@u.northwestern.edu. A faculty committee will select conference participants.

Final papers of 10-12 pages (including notes) will be due Friday, May 18 at 12:00 noon.
For further information or questions, please contact Teri Chettiar, CCHS Graduate Fellow, terichettiar2011@u.northwestern.edu.