LLC News

CFP: The Global E. P. Thompson: Reflections on the Making of the English Working Class after Fifty Years

The Global E. P. Thompson:
Reflections on the Making of the English Working Class after Fifty Years
To be held at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
October, 3rd - 5th, 2013

Paper Proposals are due May 15th, 2013

Fifty years ago E. P. Thompson published The Making of the English
Working Class, one of the most influential social history works ever.
Its approach to the history of common people, its arguments and its
methods came to influence several generations of historians and others
all over the world. To trace Thompson's influences, and with it the
larger story of the varied approaches to social history that have come
out of them, the Program on the History of Capitalism and the
Weatherhead Initiative on Global History at Harvard University seek to
initiate a global conversation among researchers across the humanities
and social sciences to reflect critically on Thompson's impact on the
writing of history and his enduring significance for future research.

At a time of global economic crises, as scholarship returns to themes
of class, inequality and political economy with renewed interest,
urgency, and moral purpose, the fiftieth anniversary of the Making of
the English Working Class offers a welcome opportunity to both
critically reflect on Thompson's scholarship and consider the ways in
which his ideas, methods and commitments can still inspire
intellectual frameworks and research programs that speak to present
global problems.

The conference, to be held at Harvard University from 3rd-5th of
October, 2013 invites critical engagement with Thompson's legacy. The
Making has been at the center of many controversies in the writing of
social, political, cultural, and labor history over the past decades,
and we welcome papers that trace these debates. We are also interested
in papers tracing Thompson's influence in various fields of history,
and in various parts of the world. Moreover, we are seeking
contributors who address issues such as:
Translating E. P. Thompson: English Idioms and Traditions in Global
Context
Class Formation: An Important Category of Analysis in History?
Moral Economies and Political Economy: Culture, Economy and Politics
Spatially Situating Social Processes: Communities, Regions, Nations,
World-Systems

We are committed to making this a global conversation. With translations
of the Making into many languages, including Chinese, Japanese, Turkish,
Portuguese, Spanish, French and German, Thompson's work has had a global
audience. Middle Eastern, Asian, African and Latin American scholars are
especially encouraged to apply.

Finally, we encourage graduate students to submit paper proposals. We hope
to provoke an inter-generational dialogue, involving established scholars
who have long drawn inspiration from Thompson's work as well as aspiring
practitioners starting their academic careers.

Please submit paper abstracts of no more than 500 words, along with a
CV, to Jessica Barnard at the email address:
jbarnard@wcfia.harvard.edu with the subject line "E. P. Thompson 2013"

Paper Proposals are due May 15th, 2013

We will notify applicants in June, 2013. If accepted, we will ask you for
a draft paper by September 1st. We will cover all (economy class) travel
costs, accommodation and meals.

Organizers
Rudi Batzell, PhD Candidate, History, Harvard University
Sven Beckert, Laird Bell Professor of American History, Harvard University
Andrew Gordon, Folger Fund Professor of History, Harvard University
Gabriel Winant, PhD Candidate, History, Yale University
Rudi Batzell rbatzell@fas.harvard.edu

Posted by Sara Cole on February 15, 2013 12:03 PM | Permalink