The “Stiftung Deutsch Amerikanische Wissenschaftsbeziehungen” (SDAW/Foundation German-American Academic Relations) has just issued its “Call for Proposals 2018”. This year, SDAW is soliciting proposals for a “brainstorming conference” on the future of academic collaboration on transatlantic relations. The conference will take place March 2019 in Toronto.
Please find our detailed CfP here or online at https://www.deutsches-stiftung
The closing date for the receipt of proposals is April 1, 2018.
Category: Announcements
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CFP 2018: SDAW/Foundation German-American Academic Relations
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Call for papers: Historicism as a Polemical Concept in the Humanities and Social Sciences, 1890-1980
Although “historicism” is a many-headed monster, notorious for being defined in different ways by different groups of scholars, there seems to be consensus at least on Historismus being a nineteenth-century phenomenon. Whether historicism is defined as the scholarly paradigm represented by Leopold von Ranke, as a worldview propagated by counter-Enlightenment intellectuals such as Johann Gottfried von Herder, as “neo-styles” in art and architecture, or as a perspectival theory of knowledge, its key representatives all belonged to “the long nineteenth century” (1789-1914). Judging by the secondary literature, then, “historicism” is a label for nineteenth-century modes of thought, which in the early decades of the twentieth century made way for a variety of “modernist” approaches in history, philosophy, art, and architecture.
How convincing is this consensus? If we treat historicism not as a descriptive label, but as an actors’ category used by historical agents themselves, it quickly turns out that “historicism” is a term of late nineteenth-century origin, that it was used most frequently in the early and mid-twentieth centuries, and, most importantly, that “historicism” was more a polemical term than a descriptive label. When twentieth-century scholars, artists, or intellectuals warned against “historicism,” they didn’t criticize a nineteenth-century school, but drew attention to what they perceived as dangerous implications of a then-current way of thinking, feeling, or behaving vis-Ã -vis history. For them, “historicism” typically was a word of warning, sometimes even a term of abuse, the rhetorical, emotional, and political aspects of which were as important as their referential function.
Examples not only include Karl Popper, whose famous diatribe against “historicism” tried to exorcise the spirit of Hegel and Marx, but also a range of well and lesser known sociologists, economists, political theorists, historians, theologians, and philosophers, who feared that something essential was undervalued or ignored by the method, paradigm, or worldview they called “historicism.” Often the phrase did not refer to the past per se, but to a bleak future perceived to be looming when historically informed performances of Baroque music, contextual treatments of philosophical disputes, or historical critical readings of sacred scriptures were to gain dominance.
What happens when “historicism” is studied as an emotionally charged Kampfbegriff, employed by a variety of authors in and outside the humanities and social sciences from roughly the 1890s until late into the twentieth century? Apart from challenging the conventional wisdom that historicism was a nineteenth-century phenomenon, this approach seems to have four potential advantages, which are briefly alluded to in our subtitle:
Perceptions: In the best tradition of the history of concepts (Begriffsgeschichte), it stimulates historians to be attentive to distinct and changing usages of the term. What did “historicism” mean to specific authors in specific temporal, geographical, and disciplinary contexts?
- Beliefs: It encourages historians to interpret the perceived dangers of “historicism” as indices of preciously held beliefs about history, the past, or past-present relations. What “relations to the past” or regimes of historicity did critics of “historicism” try to defend?
- Emotions: Drawing on an emotional turn in cultural and intellectual history, it invites historians to examine the anxiety, anger, and worry behind criticism of “historicism.” Why was the tone of the polemics often accusing or complaining and what does this convey about the critics’ concerns?
- Transfers: It challenges historians not to study isolated case studies, but to examine the spread and transfer of language of “historicism” across linguistic and disciplinary boundaries. Is it true that musicologists borrowed the phrase from art historians, to what extend did architectural concerns resemble the worries of theologians and philosophers, and if “historicism” wasn’t as prominent a term in France as it was in Germany and England, was there an equivalent concept in French?
These are central questions for a two-day workshop scheduled to take place on August 30-31, 2018, in the seventeenth-century Trippen House in Amsterdam that serves as the seat of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).
In addition to keynote lectures by Garry Dorrien (Columbia University / Union Theological Seminary), David N. Myers (Center for Jewish History, New York / University of California Los Angeles), and George Steinmetz (University of Michigan), the organizers are soliciting proposals for 20-minute papers addressing one or more of the questions listed above. Abstracts of 200-300 words are due by February 15 (this is an extended deadline!), 2018, and can be send to Adriaan van Veldhuizen at a.p.van.veldhuizen@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
The workshop is organized by Herman Paul and Adriaan van Veldhuizen (Leiden University) in the context of a project entitled “The Demands of Our Time,” funding for which is provided by the Thorbecke Fund (KNAW). For more information, please contact Adriaan van Veldhuizen at a.p.van.veldhuizen@hum.leidenuniv.nl.
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Comparative and Historical Sociology Section Awards for 2018
Comparative and Historical Sociology Section Barrington Moore Book Award
Deadline: 2/15/2018The section presents the Barrington Moore Award every year to the best book in the area of comparative and historical sociology. Nominated publications should have been published during the two years prior to the year of the award (i.e., for the 2018 award only books published in 2016 or 2017 will be considered). Books may be nominated only once for this prize. Thus, books nominated last year cannot be considered again for the 2018 award. Books may be nominated by authors or by other scholars, but not by publishing houses. Letters of nomination are not required. To nominate a book, please send an email to each member of the prize committee indicating that you are doing so, and please make arrangements for each member of the committee to receive a copy of the book by February 15, 2018. Both the book and the email must be received by February 15 for the book to be considered. Winners of the award are expected to be members of the comparative historical sociology section at the time the award is presented.
Committee:
Mabel Berezin (chair)
Department of Sociology
Cornell University
346 Uris Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-7601
mmb39@cornell.eduTianna Paschel
Department of African American Studies
University of California, Berkeley
670 Barrows Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
tpaschel@berkeley.eduJonathan Wyrtzen
Department of Sociology
Yale University
493 College St, Room 307
New Haven, CT 06511-8907
jonathan.wyrtzen@yale.eduThe Comparative and Historical Sociology Section Charles Tilly Best Article Award
Deadline: 2/15/2018The section awards this prize every year to the best article in the area of comparative and historical sociology. Nominated publications should have appeared during the two years prior to the year of the award (i.e., for the 2018 award only articles published in 2016 or 2017 will be considered). Authors or other members of the section may nominate an article by sending an email to each member of this prize committee along with a PDF copy of the article. The email and copy of the article must be received by each member of the committee by February 15, 2018 to be considered.
Committee:
Barry Eidlin (chair), barry.eidlin@mcgill.ca
Mathieu Desan, mathieu.desan@colorado.edu
Yingyao Wang, yw8c@virginia.eduThe Comparative and Historical Sociology Section Theda Skocpol Dissertation Award
Deadline: 2/15/2018The section presents the Theda Skocpol Award every year to the best doctoral dissertation in the area of comparative and historical sociology. Eligible dissertations must have been defended and filed between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2017. Dissertations may be nominated by dissertation chairs, advisors, or current department chairs. Self-nominations are not allowed for this award. Dissertations may be nominated by sending a letter or email to each member of this prize committee. We ask that each nomination letter include a brief discussion of the specific strengths and contributions of the dissertation. Authors are then responsible for providing each member of the committee with an electronic copy of the dissertation, to the email addresses indicated below. (For dissertations that are too large to send over email, please email the committee members a durable link to a downloadable version of the dissertation.) Both the nominating letter and the dissertation must be received by each member of the committee by February 15, 2018 to be considered.
Committee:
Moon-Kie Jung (chair), mjung@soc.umass.edu
Robert Braun, robert.braun@northwestern.edu
Shai Dromi, shai.dromi@g.harvard.eduThe Comparative and Historical Sociology Section Reinhard Bendix Best Student Paper Award
Deadline: 2/15/2018The section presents the Reinhard Bendix Award every year to the best graduate student paper in the area of comparative and historical sociology. Submissions are solicited for papers written by students enrolled in graduate programs at the time the paper was written. Both published and unpublished papers will be considered. Students may self-nominate their finest work or it may be nominated by their mentors. Authors and mentors may nominate a paper by sending an email to each member of the prize committee along with a PDF copy of the article. The email and copy of the article must be received by each member of the committee by February 15, 2018 to be considered.
Committee:
Matthew Norton (chair), mnorton@uoregon.edu
Aliza Luft, aluft@soc.ucla.edu
Nicholas Hoover Wilson, nicholas.wilson@stonybrook.edu -
Fascism And Antifascism In Our Time: Critical Investigations (in Hamburg, Germany)
International Conference in Hamburg
Topic of the conference:
The spread of nationalist and authoritarian movements in Europe and around the world have prompted debates about a return of global fascism. At the same time, many countries are witnessing civil society activities opposing such movements. Politicians and activists from both camps endorse like-minded actors across borders. Do these developments suggest that we are living in a time comparable to the 1930s, when the decisive marker in national and international politics was the one between fascism and antifascism?
The conference investigates the contemporary relevance of fascism and antifascism by bringing together scholarly experts on these historical movements and actors in civil society. It will discuss the interrelatedness of fascism and antifascism, illuminate their global networks and local trajectories, analyze central characteristics and ideas, and trace shifts in discourses and practices of remembrance. Another focus are memory politics, phenomenology, current adaptations as well as the aesthetic dimensions and artistic practices associated with fascism or antifascism.
The overarching aim of the conference is to explore whether and how the histories of fascism and antifascism offer insights into the rise of authoritarian regimes today. What makes a fascist regime? What is the line separating authoritarianism from fascism? Can we identify “tipping points”? How should a civil society react to these challenges? Do antifascist movements of the 20th century offer a role model? How can insights into such historical connections benefit proponents of a democratic civil society?
General information:
No conference fee; free accommodation; travel costs will be reimbursed up to 300 / 500 / 800 Euro. Conference language: English. Contact (only via E-mail): Victoria Romano, Hamburger Institut für Sozialforschung, antifascism@his-online.de.
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Dialectics of Progress
Conference on ‘the dialectics of progress’ at the New school (from Alice Crary, philosophy professor at the New School for social Research)
Please join us at the New School of Social Research for a two day conference dedicated to examining ‘the dialectics of progress’. This conference has a workshop format in order to facilitate conversation. All of the papers are available ahead of time (if you would like a link to the reading material, please e-mail Anna Katsman at Katsa701@newschool.edu). All the panelists will have read the material ahead of time. The panel presentations will proceed by a circuit of commentaries, where each panelist critically introduces a fellow panelist’s work. Then the floor will open to general Q&A. Please see the attached poster for the schedule. Looking forward to seeing you there!
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Real Types vs Ideal Types
George Steinmetz & Philip Gorski
Thursday, October 19 from 12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Abstract: in discussing explanation of social phenomena, including systems of meaning, Weber develops the concept of an ideal type. For Weber the ideal type:‘‘It is not a description of reality but it aims to give an unambiguous means of expression to such a description . . . An ideal type is formed by the one-sided accentuation of one or more points of view and by the synthesis of a great many diffuse, discrete, more or less present and occasionally absent concrete individual phenomena, which are arranged according to those one-sidedly emphasized viewpoints into a unified analytical construct’’
But where does this leave realism? … is it possible to have real types? and if so, what would they look like? how would we construct them? and how would we use them in our explanations?
For more information on the webinar go to:
http://criticalrealismnetwork.org/webinars/upcoming- webinars/ To register for the webinar go to:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/ 6753745060977591041 -
ASA 2017: Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Sessions
Monday, August 14
10:30am-12:10pm: Politics and Power in Latin America.
Location Palais des congrès de Montréal, 510A
Session Organizer: Cedric de Leon, Tufts University
Brokers, Clients and Elite Political Networks in Mexico. Tod Stewart Van Gunten, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies
Explaining the Paradox of Postwar Latin American Political Development. Simeon J. Newman, University of Michigan
Political Party Articulation in Post-neoliberal Democracies. Gabriel Chouhy, University of Pittsburgh
Two Primitive Accumulations Behind Political Articulation: A Case Study of Postrevolutionary Bolivia. Edwin F. Ackerman, Syracuse University
Discussant: Diana Graizbord, University of Georgia
(Also at 10:30-12:10pm: The Historical Sociology of Social Science: Quebecois Perspectives
Cosponsored with Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology
Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, 512G, 10:30am-12:10pm
Session Organizer: Peter Kivisto, Augustana College
Presider: Peter Kivisto, Augustana College
ABSTRACT
The sociology of sociology is a necessary component of disciplinary self-reflexivity. Over the course of sociology’s history there has been a recurrent interest in such reflection on the discipline. The earliest discussions of “historical sociology” in the annual meetings of the American Sociological Society focused on the history of sociology itself. This session foregrounds historical work on sociology by sociologists and historians based in Québec and in Francphone world. This emphasis is especially appropriate given this location of this year’s meeting and the fact that 2017 is the centenary of Durkheim’s death.
Presenters:
Adam Smith: Neglected, to Our Cost. John A. Hall, McGill University
The Last Days of Durkheim’s Life. Marcel Fournier, Université de Montréal
Quebec Sociology and How it Differentiates Itself From Mainstream Anglophone American Sociology. Jean-Philippe Warren, Concordia University
Who Were the First Sociologists in France? A Long-term Perspective on Conflicting Narratives about the Birth of French Sociology. Sebastien Mosbah-Natanson, Paris Sorbonne University-Abu Dhabi
Discussant: Chad Alan Goldberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
2:30-4:10pm: The Politics of Experts and Expertise.
Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, 515A
Session Organizer: Barry Eidlin, McGill University
Companies and the Rise of Economic Thought. Emily Anne Erikson, Yale University; Mark Hamilton, Yale University
Institutional Logics and the Veterans Administration Post-War Reforms: Implementation in its Mental Health System. Greg Greenberg, Veterans Health Administration
Mediating Party and Public: Intellectuals and the Resurgence of Right-to-Work in the Industrial Midwest. Johnnie Anne Lotesta, Brown University
Organizing Psychiatry: How Public Workers Shape Social Services. Isabel M. Perera, University of Pennsylvania.
Discussant: Monika Krause, London School of Economics
4:30-6:10pm: Race and Ethnoreligious Politics.
Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, 515B, 4:30-6:10pm
Session Organizer: Cedric de Leon, Tufts University
A Bourdieusian Approach to Explaining the Rise of Religious Nationalism in France, 1940-1942. Aliza Luft, UCLA
Black Revolutions, Black Republics. Ricarda Hammer, Brown University; Alexandre White, Boston University
Ethnicizing the Frontier: Elite Structure of Ethnic Minority and Ethnic Mobilization in Southwest China (1660s-1930s). Yue Dai, University of Virginia
Roots of Radicalism: The Language of Revolution, Extremism, and Localism in Afghanistan, 1979-2001. Daniel Karell, New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD); Michael Freedman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Discussant: Tasleem Juana Padamsee, Ohio State University
6:30 to 8:10pm: Reception (Joint with Section on Political Sociology and Section on History of Sociology)
Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, Level 5, 517B
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
8:30-10:10am: Empires, Colonies, Indigenous Peoples
Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, 512G
Abstract:
Sociologists have shown increasing interest in the historical and comparative study of empires, colonies, and indigenous peoples. This paper brings together specialists on the British and American empires and postcolonies and the imperial frontiers with indigenous societies.
Session Organizer: George Steinmetz (University of Michigan, Institute for Advanced Study)
Presider: Kari Marie Norgaard (University of Oregon)
Presenters:
Yael Berda (Hebrew University): Legacies of Suspicion: from British Colonial Emergency regulations to the ‘War on Terror’ in Israel and India
Julian Go (Boston University): American Empire and Militarization at Home
James Fenelon (California State University) and Thomas D. Hall (De Pauw University): Standing Rock, Epicenter of Resistance to American Empire.
Saliha Belmessous (University of New South Wales): Indigenous and European Laws of Nations in North America to 1763
Discussant: Krishan Kumar (University of Virginia)
10:30-11:30 Section on Comparative-Historical Sociology Refereed Roundtables
Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, Level 5, 520A
11:30am to 12:10pm, BUSINESS MEETING
Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, Level 5, 520A
12:30-2:10 pm: Pierre Bourdieu and Historical Sociology
Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, 514B
Session Organizer: George Steinmetz (University of Michigan, Institute for Advanced Study
Abstract:
Recognition of the importance of Pierre Bourdieu’s work for empirical and theoretical sociology continues to grow worldwide, including the United States and North America. Yet the relations between Bourdieu and historical social science, historical sociology, and historiography are less obvious. This panel brings together sociologists and historians from France, Germany, and the United States to examine the role of Bourdieu, past and present, in historical social science and historiography.
Presider: George Steinmetz
Presenters:
Jean Louis Fabiani (Central European University; L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales). Event, structure and history.
Lutz Raphael (Trier University). Micro-histories and Huge Comparisons: Bourdieu and the Practice of Social History
Gisèle Sapiro (L’École des hautes études en sciences sociales): Field theory in global and historical perspective
Discussant:
Mathieu Desan (University of Colorado-Boulder)
2:30-4:10 pm Theory, Epistemology, and Ethics in Historical Social Science
Location: Palais des congrès de Montréal, 514B, 2:30-4:10pm
Session Organizer: George Steinmetz (University of Michigan, Institute for Advanced Study)
Abstract:
This panel examines current discussions of theory, epistemology, and ethics in historical social science.
Presider: Samuel Clark (University of Western Ontario, Sociology)
Presenters:
Phil Gorski (Yale University, Sociology): On the Ethics of Social Science
Herman Paul (Leiden University, History): The Scientific Self: Epistemic Virtues as Embodied Research Ethics
Dan Little (University of Michigan, Philosophy and Sociology). Historical foundations of the social sciences
Ann Orloff (Northwestern University): Feminist theories, Sociologies of Gender and Historical Social Science
Discussant:
Isaac Reed (University of Virginia, Sociology)
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Congratulations To Our 2017 Section Award Winners!
Barrington Moore Book Award
Heather A. Haveman. 2015. Magazines and the Making of America: Modernization, Community, and Print Culture, 1741-1860. Princeton University Press.
Tianna S. Paschel. 2016. Becoming Black Political Subjects: Movements and Ethno-Racial Rights in Colombia and Brazil. Princeton University Press.
Rebecca Jean Emigh, Dylan Riley & Patricia Ahmed. 2016. How Societies and States Count (2-volume work: Antecedents of Censuses from Medieval to Nation States and Changes in Censuses from Imperialist to Welfare States) . Palgrave MacMillan.
Charles Tilly Best Article Award
Barry Eidlin, 2016, “Why is There No Labor Party in the United States? Political Articulation and the Canadian Comparison, 1932-1948.” American Sociological Review 81(3) :488-516.
Ivan Ermakoff, 2015, “The Structure of Contingency,” American Journal of Sociology, 121(1) : 64-125.
Theda Skocpol Dissertation Award
Robert Braun (Cornell University [now an incoming AP at Northwestern]): “Religious Minorities and Resistance to Genocide: Christian Protection of Jews in the Low Countries during the Holocaust”
Honorable Mention: Shai Dromi (Yale University [now a Fellow at Harvard]): “The Religious Origins of Transnational Relief: Calvinism, Humanitarianism, and the Genesis of Social Fields”
Reinhard Bendix Student Paper Award
Chengpang Lee (Chicago, Sociology) and Myung-Sahm Suh (Chicago, Divinity School), “State-Building and Religion: Explaining the Diverged Path of Religious Change in Taiwan and South Korea, 1950-1980.”
Honorable Mention
Alexander F. Roehrkasse (Berkeley, Sociology), “The Demise of the Debtors’ Prison: Market Development, State Formation, and the Moral Politics of Credit.”