December
20, 2005
Dear colleagues in the
Early American Matters
caucus:
Based on discussions at our caucus’s first-ever business meeting, at the ’005 A.S.A., let’s Propose an interdiscipinary session for the 2006 A.S.A., in Oakland, along these lines:
(This “From Inside Out”
simply echoes the ’006
A.S.A. program committee’s overall title, “The United States From
Inside and
Out: Transnational American Studies.”
To see the archive of earlier posts to the Caucus’s new
list-serve,
click here.)
Rather than presenting standard-length papers, each of five scholars will present a 5-minute opening statement, i.e., a brief paper spelling out a particular way to approach the session's broad topic. Such selfless brevity will free up time for a lively, substantive discussion involving members of the audience as well as these panelists.
Individual presenters might focus on
transatlantic culture, genders, the emergence of the concept
“international,”
cartography, slavery, forms of religion, evolving notions of contact
zones, and
so on. While these examples are
obviously not mutually exclusive(!), each presenter will have a clearly
articulated topic, and the interdisciplinary proposal we turn in to the
A.S.A.’s 2006 Program Committee will include a title for each
presenter's
opening remarks. Then, a month before
the 2006 A.S.A., each presenter will furnish his or her brief (i.e., 4-
or
5-minute) paper for posting here at the Caucus’s website.
Send queries and proposals soon to
<2006asaproposals@english.fsu.edu>;
250-word proposals are due no
later
than Friday, January 13(!), at that e-mail address, and rather than
sending an
attachment, simply cut and paste the text into your e-mail.
Thank
you.
Dennis Moore