Announce

University of California, Los Angeles 

 SFPS Postgraduate Workshop; 3-4 May 2018 

Special Panel: Charles Forsdick (University of Liverpool), Kate Marsh (University of Liverpool), and Dominic Thomas (UCLA)

A hallmark of postcolonial studies is the interrogation of the entanglements and zones of contact between different groups of people. Transcending borders to engage in meaningful dialogue holds true for academics working on these questions, as well. To celebrate the first postgraduate workshop of the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies held in the United States, we invite scholars to consider the theme of Transnational Francophone Postcolonial Studies to discuss not only the texts and media that we study, but also the varying methods we use to elucidate fundamental questions of the discipline. How are we adapting our methodologies and approaches in reaction to the ever-evolving field? As scholars often working at the intersection with other fields—such as memory studies, genocide studies, spatial studies, the digital humanities—how might we envision the future for francophone postcolonial studies? 

The workshop seeks to examine the state of the discipline through the work of students working on their dissertations.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to: littérature-monde, francophonies, universalism, cosmopolitanism; terminologies, interdisciplinarity, Human Zoos; translation, plurilingualism, creolization; migration and migrants; as well as space and the spatial shift. 

Please send an abstract (300 words) and a biography (50-100 words) to Nanar Khamo at sfpspg2018ucla@gmail.com by February 15, 2018. Notification of acceptance by February 28, 2018. Papers can be either in French or English. https://sfpspg2018ucla.wordpress.com

*Please note: to participate in the workshop, you must become a member of the Society for Francophone Postcolonial Studies. Please visit http://www.sfps.ac.uk/membership/to learn of the numerous benefits that come with membership. 

Sponsored by: UCLA French & Francophone Studies 

Source: H-France

27–28 September 2018  Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, Vilnius

The Peace of Westphalia in 1648, ending the Thirty Years War, is often considered to be a milestone for modern diplomacy. It took nearly five years and the countless efforts of numerous diplomats to bring an end to the largest international conflict in the early modern period. However, wars and conflicts between rulers or governing bodies have always been critical to the development of diplomatic practice. While writing about the diplomat’s duties one of the first theoreticians of diplomacy, Bernard du Rosier, stressed that the ambassadors were to make peace, to arrange past disputes, and remove the cause for future unpleasantness, in other words to end and prevent all kinds of conflicts. But how did late medieval and early modern diplomacy approach this problem? What methods did the diplomats use to obtain the peace – as Garett Mattingly called it - the grand object of diplomacy ?

The upcoming conference, Splendid Encounters VII, will focus on answering these questions. Therefore, we welcome all submissions on this subject, but especially encourage proposals for both individual papers and panels of 3 papers addressing the following:

• peace negotiations on the local or regional levels • ceremonial of negotiations and signing peace or truce agreements • diplomacy as a tool for ending military, religious, economic, etc. conflicts • diplomats’ strategies to deal with conflict on various levels • diplomatic appeasement and peace preservation.

We invite submission of abstracts (300 to 400 words) for twenty-minute papers. Splendid Encounters is a series of international and interdisciplinary conferences that aims to bring together scholars from the broadest possible range of perspectives to consider diplomacy and diplomatic activities in the early modern era.

After successful meetings in Warsaw, Bath, Florence, Budapest, Prague and Lisbon we invite you to join us for another event, this time co-organised by Lithuanian Institute of History, History Faculty of Vilnius University, Faculty of Humanities of Vytautas Magnus University, Institute of History of Polish Academy of Sciences, Premodern Diplomats Network as well as National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania.

Please direct queries regarding submissions to Dr Anna Kalinowska: akalinowska@ihpan.edu.pl and e-mail abstract and short biography to: se7.vilnius@gmail.com Deadline for submission is 15th March 2018. The applicants will be notified of the acceptance of their proposal by 15th April 2018. Please be advised, that the conference fee of max. 30 EUR, covering the conference packaged and coffee breaks, may apply.

Source: RSA

Colloque « jeunes chercheurs » du CIREM 16-18

Wendake (près de Québec) les 20 et 21 juin 2018

S’il est indéniable que la découverte du Nouveau Monde fut l’occasion d’un choc cognitif et culturel profond pour les peuples européens, il faut admettre que le choc fut plus grand encore pour ces peuples d’Amérique qui ont vu des étrangers investir leurs territoires et se les approprier. La rencontre de l’Autre, certes, permet au soi de se définir, et c’est dans la confrontation des cultures que les constructions identitaires se dévoilent, se déclinent et se précisent; mais cette définition de soi peut également impliquer la négation de l'altérité, son ensevelissement systématique sous les manifestations d'un pouvoir – militaire, technologique, puis culturel – dominant. Lorsque l'Européen rencontre l'autochtone d'Amérique du Nord, il fait globalement le choix d'affermir le mythe de son pouvoir et de sa destinée téléologique. Se penser comme Autochtone, Français, Européen, Américain ou citoyen du monde implique la connaissance de ce choix du pouvoir, de l'évolution du mythe de la progression évangélique au sein duquel se sont pensées les dissemblances et ressemblances dont témoigne abondamment ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler la « littérature de contact », soit l’ensemble des écrits qui thématisent la rencontre entre les cultures du Nouveau Monde et de l’Ancien. Cependant, il est d’autres corpus –philosophiques, théologiques, historiques, politiques, journalistiques– qui font état à la même époque de fractures sociales et identitaires au sein même des sociétés européennes et qu’il conviendrait aussi d’interroger afin de prendre la juste mesure de l'identité dominante qui a été exportée vers le Nouveau Monde. Enfin, il est certain que la rencontre de traditions aussi radicalement étrangères que celles que l’on découvre sur le nouveau continent n'a pu laisser cette identité intacte. Le choix du pouvoir relevant toujours du mythe, il ne peut aller dans les faits, en définitive, qu'au-devant de ses failles, de son altération, de son altérité. 

Bien sûr, l'identité européenne fut loin d'être monolithique, et des voix se sont élevées (dont celle de Montaigne fut sans doute l'une des plus retentissantes) pour relativiser le mythe du pouvoir occidental. Comment se sont confrontées les différentes conceptions de l'identité colonisatrice dans les discours d'alors? Que peut-on déduire comme savoir utile du choc de ces rencontres – rencontres des cultures, rencontres des idées – et des secousses qu’elles occasionnent pour la période concernée? Peut-on tirer des enseignements du jeu des comparaisons auquel se livrent les différentes élites européennes? Quels échos fiables subsiste-t-il de ces cultures qui ignoraient l’écriture? Si, vraiment, les traditions sont des vecteurs d’identification pour une communauté donnée, dans quelle mesure leur confrontation a-t-elle pu conduire à des identités nouvelles?   

De nature interdisciplinaire, ce colloque CIREM-CRPA se tiendra à l’Hôtel-Musée des Premières Nations de Wendake (près de Québec) les 20 et 21 juin 2018 et accueillera les jeunes chercheurs (des étudiants à la maîtrise ou au master ainsi que des doctorants et postdoctorants) œuvrant dans les différents champs des sciences humaines, de la littérature à la philosophie, en passant par l’histoire (de l’art, de la musique, des sciences, du langage, etc.). 

Les communications inédites ne devront pas dépasser les vingt minutes allouées à chaque participant. Les propositions de communication en français (titre et résumé de 250 mots, niveau d’étude, affiliation institutionnelle) devront être envoyées aux organisateurs avant le 26 février 2018 à l’adresse suivante : crpa@uqac.ca. 

Les Cahiers du CIERL (Éditions Hermann, Paris) accueilleront les articles issus des communications après examen par le comité organisateur et scientifique du colloque. 

Le comité organisateur : Mélissa Lapointe, Paul Kawczak, Marie-Andrée Gill, Marc-Antoine Mailloux.

Directeur scientifique : Luc Vaillancourt (Chaire de recherche sur la parole autochtone, UQAC)

Source: Fabula

Antwerp University, 4–6 October 2018

Proposals: 31 January 2018

A singular carrier of ideas, information, knowledge, and culture, the book has always held a special place in society. Aspects of production, distribution, and consumption have been the subject of thorough study, but analyses of the economics of the book trade remain rare, or less than comprehensive. The special status of the book, its importance for pre-industrial economy as a whole, and the limitations of the sources available seem to have prevented the undertaking of comparative, diachronic, and synchronic surveys from the economics point of view.

Recently, the topic of the economics of the book trade has come to the fore. Scholars acknowledge the importance of the price of books and its impact on society. Especially in the absence of a system of freely accessible libraries, the price of books imposed an important obstacle to access to information and knowledge circulating in print in the Early Modern Period. It is important, therefore, to study the business models for production, price formulation, and market development, starting with information about sales of new and second-hand books sold in shops, at fairs, and at public auctions.

This conference invites papers dealing with any aspects related to the economics of book production, book distribution, and book consumption in the Early Modern Period. Potential topics are the cost of book production; the price of unbound versus bound books; the impact of paper and parchment on production costs; analyses of retail versus wholesale transactions; distribution costs for books (packing, transportation, tolls, unpacking, and insurance issues); and purely monetary issues of the book trade related to payments made in different currencies, in cash or on account. In particular, we welcome papers which address the methodological problems of a historical economical approach to handpress books and the different types of payments and currencies involved, in addition to surveys addressing this issue from a comparative point of view (comparison between printing shops, on local, regional or transnational levels).

We wish to programme papers going beyond isolated cases, and including, for instance, analyses of wider synchronic or diachronic data sets, which will help to clarify essential trends and factors in the economy of the book in Early Modern Europe.

Deadlines Please submit proposals for papers (c. 400 words) to goran.proot@gmail.com by 31 January 2018. You will receive an answer by 15 March 2018.

Academic committee – Dr. Renaud Adam, Université de Liège, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow – LE STUDIUM – Institute of Advanced Studies of Loire Valley / Centre d’Etudes Supérieures de la Renaissance (Tours) – Prof. dr. Pierre Delsaerdt, History Department, Antwerp University/KU Leuven – Prof. dr. Kees Schepers, Ruusbroec Institute, Antwerp University – Prof. dr. Johan van Heesch, History Department, KU Leuven/Brussels, Royal Library – Prof. Angela Nuovo, Università di Udine, Department of Humanities and Cultural Heritage - EMoBookTrade project (ERC 694476) – Prof. dr. Jeroen Puttevils, History Department, Antwerp University – Prof. dr. Violet Soen, History Department, KU Leuven – Prof. dr. Bert De Munck, History Department, Antwerp University In collaboration with Antwerp University, Antwerp University Library and the Ruusbroec Institute, the EMoBookTrade project (Università di Udine), Flanders Book Historical Society, Antwerp Bibliophile Society, Museum Plantin-Moretus & Antwerp Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience.