EH.N: CfP: Grad Student Conference on the History of Capitalism, Harvard University

[histcap at fas.harvard.edu]

The History of Capitalism in the United States Graduate Student 
Conference at Harvard University November 6-8, 2008 Call for Papers

The development of American capitalism has profoundly shaped the 
histories of both the United States and the world. Its study has the 
potential to connect large-scale processes with daily life and to 
shape our understanding of nature, culture and even freedom. All too 
often, however, scholars have divided the history of capitalism into 
business histories, labor histories, and economic histories along 
with studies of the state. This conference is intended as a forum in 
which to encourage dialogue, debate and more inclusive approaches to 
the writing of the history of capitalism in the United States. We 
hope, in the process, to interrogate the conceptual boundaries often 
employed in research on capitalism.

Building on the success of the 2006 conference, we seek papers or 
panel proposals from graduate students whose work will broaden the 
understanding of American capitalism and provide a new prism through 
which to understand U.S. history as a whole. Because we see 
capitalism as both a subject in itself and an analytical framework, 
we invite papers that reflect the variety of topics that are 
intricately connected to capitalism. We particularly welcome papers 
that utilize transnational approaches to reposition the history of 
capitalism in the United States within a global context.

We believe the framework of capitalism can be applied to nearly any 
topic and welcome submissions on subjects related (but not limited) 
to:

* Industrialization
* Slavery and the slave trade
* Labor and management
* Markets, credit, and finance
* Currencies and commodities
* Entrepreneurship
* Trans- and multinational corporations
* Migration and immigration
* Imperialism and colonialism
* Materialist histories of culture
* Legal structures and the state
* Cultural reverberations of capital

Submit proposals of 500-1000 words to histcap at fas.harvard.edu by June 1, 2008.