The NACBS Blog

This conference, which will be held at the Heyman Center at Columbia University on Feb. 8-9, 2013, examines the flourishing of women's history in Britain in the 1970s, and the changing place of women's and gender history within the academy. What have successive generations taken from earlier generations? work, and how have they transformed it? What happened to those early theories and networks? What has been gained and lost through the process of institutionalization? What has happened both to the ?place? of the feminist imperative within history, and to the relatively privileged place of Britain within that scholarship? Speakers include: Sally Alexander, Hazel Carby, Arianne Chernock, Anna Clark, Deborah Cohen, Leonore Davidoff, Lucy Delap, April Gallwey, Durba Ghosh, Katherine Gleadle, Susan Grayzel, Catherine Hall, Mary Hartman, Saidiya Hartman, Karen Hunt, Seth Koven, Tom Laqueur, Sharon Marcus, Penny Summerfield, Bonnie Smith, Pat Thane, Selina Todd, Deborah Valenze, Judith Walkowitz, and Ina Zweiniger-Bargielowska. To register, please contact Jonah Cardillo at jgc92@columbia.edu.

I would like to announce the annual NACBS reception at the upcoming American Historical Association meeting in New Orleans. The 2013 reception will occur from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 5th in Preservation Hall, Studio 6 at the New Orleans Marriott (one of the main AHA conference hotels). Please join us if you can.

Paul R. Deslandes
University of Vermont
Associate Executive Secretary, NACBS

North American Conference on British Studies Undergraduate Essay Contest 2013

Each year the NACBS awards up to twelve prizes of $100.00 each to the best essays on British topics submitted by undergraduates studying in American and Canadian universities. 

Essays may be from any department – History, English, Philosophy, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, etc. – as long as they relate to British Studies and date from 2012/2013.

Essays must have been written while the author was a degree-seeking undergraduate at a U.S. or Canadian college or university.

Essays should be no longer than 25 pages (please, no theses).

Submissions must be accompanied by a nominating letter from the professor who taught the course for which the essay was written. Nominating faculty must be current members of the NACBS. Please include the permanent mailing address and email contact information for the student.

Send a paper copy of the essay and the letter of nomination to EACH of the following 3 members of the adjudication committee by June 15th, 2013 (3 copies in total).

Dr Guy Ortolano
101 Halcyon Hill Road
Ithaca, NY 14850
USA

Dr Lisa Surridge
Department of English
University of Victoria
Victoria, BC
Canada, V8W 3W1

Dr Rob Falconer,
History-Humanities,
Grant MacEwen University,
City Centre Campus,
Edmonton, AB,
Canada T5J 4S2

The Pacific Coast Conference on British Studies (PCCBS) invites paper and
panel proposals for its fortieth annual meeting, to be held at the Faculty
Club at the University of California, Berkeley, March 8-10, 2013.

The PCCBS invites papers representing all fields of British Studies --
broadly defined to include those who study the United Kingdom, its
component parts and nationalities, as well as Britain's imperial cultures.
We welcome proposals from scholars and doctoral candidates in a wide
range of disciplines across the humanities, social sciences, and the arts,
including History, Literature, Political Science, Philosophy, Religion,
Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Theater Studies, and Art History.

Proposals for individual papers, partial panels, or complete panels are
all welcome, although complete panel proposals are preferred.  We
encourage the submission of proposals dealing with interdisciplinary
topics, as well as panels on new pedagogies and technologies associated
with British Studies.

The deadline for submission of proposals/panels is NOVEMBER 15, 2012.
Proposals should include a 200-words abstract for each paper plus a 1-page
c.v. for each participant.  Those submitting full or partial panel
proposals should include a brief description of the panel plus a 1-page
c.v. for the panel chair as well as for its commentator.  Please place the
panel proposal, its constituent paper proposals, and all vitae in one
file, making certain that your contact information, especially e-mail
addresses, are correct and current.  Proposals should be submitted via
e-mail attachment by Nov. 15, 2012, to:

Professor Michelle Tusan, PCCBS Program Chair
Department of History, University of Nevada-Las Vegas
michelle.tusan@unlv.edu

The North American British Music Studies Association (NABMSA) announces the creation of the biennial Diana McVeagh Prize for Best Book on British Music. The prize is named in honor of pioneering British music writer, Diana McVeagh, who is the author of books on and musical editions of British composers Edward Elgar and Gerald Finzi, among others. Her books are known for their insightful interpretations of music and its context, and the lyrical quality of her prose.

The first Diana McVeagh Prize will be awarded in November of 2013. Any book on British music – including monographs, books within a series, eBooks, or collections of essays (if all of the essays within are centered on the study of British music) are eligible for consideration for the Prize. To be considered for the Diana McVeagh Prize, Candidates must be members of NABMSA in good standing for the prize year (2013), and must submit a copy of the book to be considered postmarked by no later than July 1, 2013, to the Secretary of NABMSA at the following address:

Prof. Nathaniel G. Lew, Secretary
North American British Music Studies Association
c/o Department of Fine Arts
Saint Michael's College
One Winooski Park, Box 377
Colchester VT 05439

The winner of the Prize will be announced at the 2013 Business Meeting of NABMSA to be held in Pittsburgh, PA in November of 2013.

More information on the Diana McVeagh Prize for Best Book on British Music and information on joining NABMSA may be found at the Association’s website,www.nabmsa.org.

The latest addition to History Working Papers (http://www.historyworkingpapers.org) is online and includes papers for the upcoming NACBS 2012:

Linking the Digital Past: British History and the Impact of the Semantic Web
Seth Denbo, University of Maryland
http://www.historyworkingpapers.org/?page_id=262

Textmining British Studies: an Overview of Recent Developments
Tim Hitchcock, University of Hertfordshire
http://www.historyworkingpapers.org/?page_id=266

As many of you know, History Working Papers (HWP) is an online space for scholars to share works-in-progress with their peers. After uploading a conference paper, essay, or article manuscript to the HWP website, authors can invite others to read their work and make comments in the margins. As more people respond, writers get more feedback. But, unlike traditional comments done on paper, HWP allows commenters and authors to interact with each other. They can read each other’s marginalia and engage in dialogue about it. In fact, entire threaded discussions can take place in the margins.

If you are presenting at NACBS (or simply have a paper that you would like to post) and would like to pre-circulate your paper through History Working Papers, please contact Jason M. Kelly at jaskelly@iupui.edu.

CALL FOR PAPERS NOW OPEN
Food in History: Anglo-American Conference 2013, 11-12 July 2013
Senate House (London)
 
From famine to feast, from grain riots to TV cookery programmes, dieting to domesticity, food features in almost every aspect of human societies since prehistoric times. At its annual summer conference in 2013 the Institute of Historical Research aims to showcase the best of current scholarly writing, research and debate on the subject. Our plenary lecturers include Ken Albala, Susanne Freidberg, Cormac O’Grada and Steven Shapin. The  conference will include a publishers’ book fair, policy forum, film screenings and a historic food recreation event. Bursaries will be available enabling postgraduate students to attend.
 
Panel proposals (three papers each plus chair) and individual paper proposals are invited on topics across the full range of food history from ancient to contemporary times, and from all areas of the world: for example: food technology and regulation; global foods and the globalisation of food trade; migration and culinary culture; restaurants; food religion and status; diet and nutrition; individual commodities; agriculture, distribution and markets; retail, advertising and consumption. Early career researchers are particularly encouraged to participate.
 
Please send your proposal to Foodinhistory@lon.ac.ukby 15 December 2012. The finalised conference programme will be published in January 2013.

Call for Papers

MID-ATLANTIC CONFERENCE ON BRITISH STUDIES
ANNUAL MEETING

Plenary Speaker: Deborah Valenze, Barnard College

LEHMAN COLLEGE, CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
Saturday and Sunday, March 23-24, 2013

The MACBS, an affiliate of the NACBS, the main organization for British Studies in Canada and the United States, seeks participation by scholars in all areas of British Studies. We solicit proposals for papers and panels on Britain, the British Atlantic World, and the British Empire broadly defined. Our interests range from the ancient to the contemporary and we welcome participation by scholars of history, anthropology, literature, art, politics, economics and related fields. Senior faculty, junior faculty, and graduate students are all encouraged to participate.

Proposals for individual papers and full panels are welcome. Paper proposals should include a brief (no more than 250 words) abstract of the paper and a curriculum vita. Full panel proposals should also include a concise description of the panel’s overall aim and indicate which panel member will serve as the organizer and primary contact.

All submissions must be received by 21 December 2012

Send proposals via email to:

Daniel Beaver
Department of History
Pennsylvania State University
dxb28@psu.edu

and

Laura Beers
Department of History
American University
beers@american.edu

For additional information, see MACBS website:

www.lehman.edu/academics/arts-humanities/history/macbs/index.php

This is a gentle reminder that the deadline for regular registration for this year's NACBS is fast approaching; after October 1, the rates will go up.  Online registration is fast and easy at http://www.nacbs.org/conference/.  In addition to guaranteeing yourself the lower rate, timely registration makes things much easier for the conference organizers.

Also, the deadline for booking at the conference rate at our host hotel, the Montreal Marriott Chateau Champlain, is October 18.  We urge you to stay at the conference hotel, as the special rates we negotiated are based on filling a specified number of rooms.  More information about the hotel as well as about transportation can also be found at http://www.nacbs.org/conference/.

We very much appreciate your attention to these matters, and look forward to seeing you in Montreal November 8-10.