Call for Papers
Knowledge, Work and Class
Thirty-First Annual North American Labor History Conference
Wayne State University
October 22-24, 2009
The Program Committee of the North American Labor History Conference invites proposals for sessions and papers on "Knowledge, Work, and Class" for our thirty-first annual meeting.
The diffusion of knowledge - through classrooms, print, media, the internet - is one of the most powerful forces of modern global culture. While the intellectual labor needed to create these words, images and ideas is often invisible, the conditions and compensation for that labor has recently come into the public debate.The wrangling over artists' compensation for illegal downloads, the debate over advertising on blogging websites, or the movements for better pay for graduate teaching assistants, represent several different arenas where the worth of ideas is currently playing itself out.
The 2009 North American Labor History Conference "Knowledge, Work and Class" will explore the myriad questions that emerge when considering the worth, conditions and compensation for the labor of thought and production of ideas. From journalists to teachers to researchers, labor performed with the brain as well as the hand is foundational to modern economies but also presents challenges to those seeking to historicize, contextualize and analyze these types of labor.
The program committee encourages comparative and interdisciplinary scholarship from a range of national and international contexts, the integration of public historians and community and labor activists into conference sessions, and the use of differing session formats (workshops, roundtable discussions, and multimedia as well as traditional panels). It encourages sessions that address the theme from perspectives of gender, race, ethnicity, and sexuality.
Please submit panel and paper proposals (including a 1-2 page abstracts and brief vitas or biographical statements for all participants) by March 23, 2009, to:
Professor Janine Lanza, Coordinator, North American Labor History Conference Department of History, 3094 Faculty Administration Building Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202
Phone: 313/577-2525; Fax: 313 577-6987
Email: [mailto]nalhc@wayne.edu[/mailto]
The North American Labor History Conference is sponsored by the Department of History, the Walter Reuther Library, and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Wayne State University.