History has always been important for the development of nations, which draw their identity from a real or imagined common past. At the same time, nations have been important for the development of historiography; nations shape the way historians draw their maps, arrange their books, and define their areas of specialization. But nations are problematic as well as powerful. The historian's task is to do justice to the significance of nations, nationalism, and national histories without accepting them uncritically; to explain them without explaining them away.
This year's presidential sessions critically examine the nation as a historical problem and a historiographical category. The Thursday afternoon session takes a global approach to the relationship between ethnic loyalties and civic institutions. On Friday morning, three papers illustrate issues in international history, an approach that builds upon but also extends the experience of individual nation states. On Friday afternoon, a roundtable of historians looks at "failed nationalisms," thus reminding us of the fragility and contingency of nation building. The two Saturday sessions focus on nations and nationalism in modern Europe, which has played a particularly important role in both national politics and national discourse. The Sunday sessions take a global perspective: first by looking at the way nations were represented at fairs and exhibitions, then by examining the international history of human rights.
In addition to these presidential sessions, a number of other presentations contribute to the annual meeting's central theme. Of particular interest are the three sessions (78, 98, 136) on the Scholars’ Initiative in Yugoslavia, a project that confronts the troubled past and contested present of national questions in this region.
— James Sheehan
Thursday, January 5, 3:00–5:00 p.m.
1. Nationalism: Global Perspectives on the Civic/Ethnic Dichotomy—Roundtable
Marriott, Grand Ballroom Salon A
Chair: Yael Zerubavel, Rutgers University
- China
Prasenjit Duara, University of Chicago - United States/Canada
Eric Kaufmann, Birkbeck College, University of London - East Central Europe
Nancy Wingfield, Northern Illinois University - Central Asia
Adeeb Khalid, Carleton College - Comparative Perspectives
Aviel I. Roshwald, Georgetown University
Friday, January 6, 9:30–11:30 a.m.
22. New Directions in International History
Loews, Millennium Hall
Chair: Jeremi Suri, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- Gender, Domesticity, and International History
Kristin L. Hoganson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - The Perils of Parsimony and the Pleasures of Perusing the Past: Gold Battles and Military Strategy in the Twentieth Century
Francis J. Gavin, University of Texas at Austin -
Diasporan Dialogues: African Perspectives in World History
James H. Sweet, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Comment: Jeremi Suri
Friday, January 6, 2:30–4:30 p.m.
51. Failed Nationalisms: Winners and Losers in the History of Nationality—Roundtable
Loews, Millennium Hall
Sponsored by the AHA Research Division
Chair: Charles E. King, Georgetown University
Panel:
- Nina Silber, Boston University
- Mrinalini Sinha, Penn State University
- Ronald G. Suny, University of Chicago
- Timothy Snyder, Yale University
- Larry Wolff, Boston College
Saturday, January 7, 9:30–11:30 a.m.
80. What Difference Does a Nation Make? Rethinking Religion in Nineteenth-Century Europe—Roundtable
Loews, Regency Ballroom Section B
Joint session with the American Catholic Historical Association
Chair: John W. Boyer, University of Chicago
Panel:
- Marc H. Lerner, University of Mississippi
- Ellen Astrid Koehler, University of California at Davis
- Carol E. Harrison, University of South Carolina
- Anthony J. Steinhoff, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Saturday, January 7, 2:30–4:30 p.m.
111. European Nations: Their Origins, Contexts, and Ideologies
Loews, Regency Ballroom Section B
Chair: Pieter M. Judson, Swarthmore College
- The Discovery of Germany, 1500–1800
Helmut W. Smith, Vanderbilt University - The National and the Maritime
Linda Colley, Princeton University - National Sentiment and Nationalism in the Age of Democratic Revolutions
David A. Bell, Johns Hopkins University - The Trap of Backwardness: How Does Eastern European Nationalism Fit?
Maria N. Todorova, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Comment: Ivo Banac, Yale University
Sunday, January 8, 8:30–10:30 a.m.
141. Nations on Display? Exhibitions, World's Fairs, and the National Question, 1851–1958
Marriott, Grand Ballroom Salon C
Chair: Peter Hoffenberg, University of Hawai’i at Manoa
- A Chosen People? The Soviet Union at the World's Fairs, 1937–58
E. Anthony Swift, University of Essex - Of Menu Cards and Dinner at the Ming Tombs: China's Early Twentieth-Century Nation-Building in a Global Context
Susan R. Fernsebner, University of Mary Washington - How to Use the Empire to Build the Nation, or the Congo at Belgian World's Fairs 1885–1958
Matthew G. Stanard, Indiana University - The City of Algiers and the 1900 Paris World's Fair
Nancy Lee Turpin, University of Illinois at Chicago - Exhibitions, World's Fairs, and Nationalism: A Historiographical Reflection since the Crystal Palace
Peter Hoffenberg
Comment: The Audience
Sunday, January 8, 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m.
170. An Atlantic History of Rights
Loews, Regency Ballroom Section B
Chair: Philip D. Morgan, Johns Hopkins University
- An Enslaved Enlightenment: Re-Thinking the Intellectual History of the French Atlantic
Laurent Dubois, Michigan State University - Public Rights and Private Commerce: A Nineteenth-Century Atlantic Creole Itinerary
Rebecca J. Scott, University of Michigan
Comment: Philip D. Morgan
Of Particular Note
Scholars attending the annual meeting may find the following special sessions—organized by the Scholars' Initiative on Yugoslavia—also interesting.
Friday, Jan. 6: 2:30-4:30 p.m.
78. The Scholars' Initiative in Yugoslavia, Part I: History as a Destructive Force in Multiethnic Societies
Loews, Washington Room C
Saturday, Jan. 7: 9:30-11:30 a.m.
98. The Scholars' Initiative in Yugoslavia, Part 2: Its Design, Implementation, and Impact
Loews, Congress Room C
Saturday, Jan. 7: 2:30-4:30 p.m.
136. The Scholars' Initiative Team Reports, Part 3: Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies
Loews, Congress Room B
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