Noticias y Eventos News and Events Nouvelles et Événements

Conference “Forming Nations, Reforming Empires: Atlantic Polities in the Long Eighteenth Century”
February 26–27, 2010
New York City

This conference will discuss the ways in which people and polities from the Americas, Europe, and Africa assumed, legitimized, rejected and interacted with various forms of authority in the “long eighteenth century.” This period is typically characterized by the dissolution of Atlantic Empires combined with the emergence of the nation state. Yet, historians have begun to argue that even as nation states began to emerge in the colonial Atlantic, empires continued to thrive, reconstructing themselves in the face of changing notions of sovereignty, freedom and territoriality. This conference seeks to explore the affinities, groups and networks that were important to people’s thinking and acting politically and examine the ways that nations and empires coexisted and came into conflict during the period of the “long eighteenth century.”

Contact: atlanticconf2010@nyu.edu.

Symposium “Independence and Decolonization”
The Institute for Historical Studies at the University of Texas at Austin
April 15-17, 2010

Inspired by the upcoming bicentenary of Mexican independence, the symposium aims to generate dialogue among scholars from a variety of disciplines working on processes of independence, decolonization, and the reconfiguration of territorial and social borders that such processes generate.

Problem areas:

1. 1. Global and local dynamics of “first wave” independence movements and decolonization in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries (e.g. United States, Haiti, Spanish America).

2. 2. Nineteenth century decolonization (e.g. Ottoman successor states, Brazil, Cuba)

3. 3. National liberation movements and decolonization in the twentieth century

Contact: Professor Susan Deans-Smith, sdsmith@mail.utexas.edu. For further information about the Institute for Historical Studies, its programs, and fellowships see: < www.utexas.edu/cola/insts/historicalstudies/ >.

Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies, Cuba Project, CUNY
International symposium “Cuba Futures, Past and Present”
Spring 2011

Since the early part of the 19th century, Cuban intellectuals, political leaders, civil society organizations and institutions have created multiple visions, projects and blueprints for building an independent Cuba. External and transnational groups, including governments, have also participated in generating ways of improving society. These efforts continue in the present. Past or present, these visions can often clash with each other, fail to attract support, or much less induce change consensually perceived as desirable. However, they have generated legacies that stand and shape realities, memories, perceptions, and diverse plans for reforming Cuba.

This international symposium invites interested academics, both young scholars and established specialists, to submit paper and panel proposals on ideas, actors, processes, institutions, and prospects/outcomes in these efforts. The symposium is organized by the Cuba Project at the Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies (The Graduate Center, CUNY). The Cuba Project welcomes participation from academic, artistic, and professional institutions and endeavors. Papers can explore a wide range of historical and contemporary themes. Written by academics and other scholars, they may illuminate the visions, processes, institutions, civil society organizations, social movements, and other actors operating or focused on various contexts and futures.

The list of themes include:

• • Revolutionary period and Pos-communist dynamic

• • Cultural, economic, and political dimensions

• • Creation and demise of utopias and paradigms

• • Knowledge of cultural spheres: literature, cinema, arts

• • Republic Cuba (1902–1959) and 19th century

• • Diverse substantive and policy areas: Racial and ethnic relations

• • Identity, Education, Health, Environment

• • Economic reform, political organization

• • Intellectuals and knowledge

• • Political mobilization, civil society, state-society relations

• • Cubans living abroad

• • Intellectuals and knowledge

• • Transnational actors and processes

• • Political mobilization, civil society, state-society relations

Proposals should consist of a 1-2 page abstract, with a cover letter indicating the author’s professional affiliation, biographical sketch and contact information.

Submission: Please send proposals by email to: cubaproject@gc.cuny.edu; or via fax to: (212) 817-1540. Or send a hard copy in a sealed envelope to:

• Bildner Center for Western Hemisphere Studies

• Attention: Cuba Project

• 365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5209

• New York, NY 10016-4309

For updates and further information visit < www.CubaSymposium.org >, and for general information about the Bildner Center visit < www.bildner.org >. Please send comments and inquiries to cubaproject@gc.cuny.edu.

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