“Can Comparative Historical Sociology Save the World?”

Mini-Conference of the Comparative Historical Sociology Section

Friday, August 19, 2016

Seattle, Washington

The Comparative Historical Sociology section of the American Sociological Association and the Equality Development and Globalization Studies (EDGS) program at Northwestern University are pleased to announce a mini-conference entitled “Can Comparative Historical Sociology Save the World?” The conference will take place August 19th, 2016 at the University of Washington, in Seattle.

We live in a world where the most important policy concerns, from terrorism and climate change to the fight against poverty and infectious disease, transcend national borders. This conference explores how scholars might use the tools of comparative and historical sociology to engage issues of public concern. An opening plenary session moderated by Professor Monica Prasad will engage both advanced and early-stage scholars in conversation on this issue. Other sessions will be organized around the papers accepted through this call.

We encourage paper submissions from scholars at all career stages, from sociology and other disciplines. We are especially interested in submissions that employ comparative and historical methods to examine important issues of our day, such as (but not limited to) global market regulation, questions of immigration and citizenship, poverty, environmental insecurity, and protracted race, gender and class inequality. We also invite submissions reflecting on the tradition of policy-relevant research in comparative historical sociology, as well as what the role of comparative and historical methods could or should be in public debate.

Please submit abstracts of no more than 500 words through the electronic abstract submission form. The deadline for submissions is January 30th, 2016.

Conference participants and attendees will be asked to contribute a participation fee of $25 for faculty and $15 for students. Funding to defray costs of travel and lodging will be awarded on a lottery basis for interested graduate students and term faculty participants. Announcements about travel awards will be made after papers are accepted.

For questions, please contact the planning committee at chsminicon@gmail.com.

The organizing committee:
Johnnie Lotesta
Aliza Luft
Josh McCabe
Andre Joshua Nickow
Sarah Quinn
Fiona Rose-Greenland
Eric Schoon