The organizing committee for the Harvard Graduate Student Conference on International History (Con-IH) invites graduate students to submit proposals for its sixteenth annual conference. This year's theme is the economic dimension in international and global history. The conference will take place at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Thursday March 10 & Friday March 11, 2016.
Financial, economic and political-economy issues have played a fundamental role in world development and continue to do so. They involve multiple agents besides the nation state; they prompt refined policy analysis; and they challenge historians to turn to the broadest range of sources and demand interdisciplinary analysis. Con-IH 16 seeks to discuss cutting-edge studies that take up the dimensions of economics in international, regional, and global historical study, for any era from Antiquity to the present, and proceeding outward from any world region.
We especially welcome submissions that address one or more of the following themes, but the list is suggestive only:
- The "great divergence" - the Industrial Revolution and how certain regions, most notably in "the West," became wealthier than those in other parts of the world
- Economic development as a process and practice (e.g. modernization theory, development banks and finance, etc.)
- Histories of economic thought and policy
- The role of institutions, both national and international, in shaping international economic life
- Markets - how markets are conditioned and structured within and across borders
- The social history of economic life, including labor and migration
- The role of debt -- private and public, national and international, money, and finance
- Inequality and dependence
- Approaches to economic knowledge (e.g. national income accounting) and their impact on social and political outcomes; so, too, disciplinary assumptions and models; also the role of archives and quantitative data
Accepted papers will be grouped for presentation within five or six panels each composed of graduate students, and a faculty commentator. Con-IH thus provides an unparalleled opportunity to engage in lively and lengthy discussions with an emerging cohort of researchers in training from around the world, as well as with faculty from Harvard and elsewhere. Our keynote speaker, Patrick O'Brien, professor emeritus of economic history at the London School of Economics and Political Science, has written extensively on a wide range of topics in global economic history from the early modern period to the twentieth century.
Graduate students interested in participating in the conference should submit a 300-word proposal and one-page curriculum vitae (in Word or PDF format) to conih@fas.harvard.edu. Proposals must be received by November 15, 2015 in order to be considered. Successful proposals will be notified by December 1, 2015. We anticipate being able to reimburse reasonable travel and lodging expenses for all participants. As the date approaches, additional information will be posted on the conference website at con-ih.com.