The Purdue University History Graduate Student Association announces its biennial conference: Crooked Lines: Connection and Conflict in History, Past and Present. This event will take place on the Purdue University Campus in West Lafayette, Indiana on Saturday, March 30, 2013.

“... some confidence needs to be regained in the possibilities of grasping society as a whole, of theorizing its bases of cohesion and instability, and of analyzing its forms of motion.” -- Geoff Eley, A Crooked Line

Narratives are often portrayed as deceptively linear, which clouds the connections between the past and present, and the variety of paths they follow. Exploring the divergences and convergences of traditional timelines and narratives allows us to broaden our understanding of the past. Crooked lines appear illustrating conflicts and connections across temporal, spatial, and ideological divisions and provide a richer understanding of the human experience. The Purdue History Graduate Student Association welcomes papers from multiple perspectives and disciplines that explore the crooked lines of history.

Submissions for panels or individual papers are welcomed from graduate students at all levels. We welcome scholars whose work focuses on any region or field. Please send a 250-word abstract and short curriculum vitae (no more than two pages) to HGSApurdueconference@gmail.com by January 7, 2013. For panel proposals, please send a 200-word panel abstract along with paper abstracts and presenters' CVs.