De-Centering Cold War History: Street-Level Experiences and Global Change
De-Centering Cold War History:
Street-Level Experiences and Global Change
Cold War histories are often told as stories of national leaders, state policies and the global confrontation that pitted a Communist Eastern Block against a Capitalist West. We acknowledge the important consequences of this global competition, of the arms race, and of international diplomacy and détente, but we seek to bring together scholars who contribute new analytical approaches to reveal the complexities in the historical trajectory of the Cold War.
To this end, we plan to engage in a collaborative effort to present and publish a street-level history of the global Cold War era. As three collaborators from different fields, we issue this CFP first for a Conference Presentation at the University of Arizona (November 4-November 7, 2010). Second, we will publish selected conference presentations in a Special Edition Journal. We invite contributions that challenge Cold War master narratives with a focus on super-power politics and de-center a historical narrative that situates the Soviet Union and the United States at the core and the “rest of the world” in the periphery. Your analytical approach should consider local-level experiences and regional initiatives that contributed to the making of a Cold War world; all geographical regions are welcome and cross-disciplinary approaches are encouraged. Our primary goal is to inspire a fruitful dialogue and new forms of collaboration among interdisciplinary scholarly approaches and to forge new research directions in the study of the Cold War.
At the Conference, we envision a combination of intensive workshops among participants, as well as panels and presentations open to the public. We ask Conference participants to arrive by Thursday. Friday and Saturday will be structured around presentations for the public in the mornings (Friday and Saturday, 9:00 – 10:45 AM and 11:15 to 1:00 PM), and workshops with participants in the afternoons (Friday and Saturday, 3:00 to 6:00 PM). Conference participants (and journal
contributors) will receive reimbursement for travel to Tucson, Arizona, to attend the Conference; this invitation will include food and accommodation (three nights) on location.
Please send your 500-word proposal for an individual presentation and a short curriculum vitae (latest by August 25, 2010) to:
Project Director: Jadwiga Pieper Mooney (Department of History, University of Arizona) jadwiga@email.arizona.edu
Collaborators: Fabio Lanza (Departments of History and East Asian Studies, University of Arizona) flanza@email.arizona.edu
Elizabeth Oglesby (Departments of Geography and Latin American Studies, University of Arizona) eoglesby@email.arizona.edu
In your proposal, please indicate your name, institutional affiliation, address, e-mail address and what kind of audiovisual equipment you will need, if any.
We greatly encourage early submissions! Selected participants will be informed by September 15, 2010.
Jadwiga E. Pieper Mooney
Department of History
215 Social Science Building
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Email: jadwiga@email.arizona.edu