CfP: Seeking Legitimacy: Authority and Expertise in Modern Britain University of Birmingham 20th-21st June 2016
Type: Call for Papers
Date: June 20, 2016 to June 21, 2016
Location: United Kingdom
Subject Fields: British History / Studies, Contemporary History, Cultural History / Studies
CALL FOR PAPERS
Seeking Legitimacy: Authority and Expertise in Modern Britain University of Birmingham
20th-21st June 2016
20th-21st June 2016
noun: value; plural noun: values
1. the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something.
Seeking
Legitimacy is a two-day workshop for postgraduates and early career
researchers (within five years of completion) that aims to explore the
relationship between authority and legitimacy in modern Britain. We wish
to confront the historically contingent nature of value: who or what is
valued at different historical junctures, how is value bestowed, sought
after or fought for, and how do people come to feel valued (or not).
Value
and legitimacy are informed by authority and expertise that necessarily
engender systems of inclusion and exclusion. We are interested in
whether modern Britain looks any different when claims to authority and
authenticity become the focus of critique. By historicising authority,
we can begin to turn attention towards groups and individuals who have
been hidden from history by these implicit value judgements.
As
historians, our expertise often legitimises and privileges certain
narratives and case studies, inadvertently placing parameters around
objects of historical study. How does this affect our engagement with
the public when we are seen to be acting in the interest of the past and
not their present? What happens when we become more reflexive about
seeking to legitimise the past?
The
first day of the workshop, run in conjunction with History Lab Plus,
will explore the contested methodology of Public History. Sessions will
confront the problematic relationship between the historian and the
public, and question whether co-curation is ever possible.
On
the second day, we invite ten-minute-long papers that reflect on themes
of value, legitimacy, expertise or authority in your own work. We are
interested in broad historical scope and papers can cover any topic
within modern British studies.
If you wish to attend this event, please send abstracts of 250 words and a short biography to seekinglegitimacy@gmail.com
Deadline: 22 April 2016
There
are no registration fees for this event and travel bursaries are
available. Please indicate upon submission if you want to be considered
for a bursary.
Please note that you must be available to attend both days of the event.