U.S. Intellectual History Blog

U.S. Intellectual History In Unusual Spots

Next month I’ll be a part of a roundtable/panel at the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association (SSHA). Since the session is titled “The Education of Labor Intellectuals,” I figured it would be of interest to USIH readers.

I’m pleased to be a part of a group including Leon Fink, Toby Higbie, Tony Michels, Caroline Merithew, and Elizabeth Faue. The meeting is in Chicago, and the session is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 17, from 3:15-5:15 p.m. More is available at this link (near the bottom—you can click through for abstracts).

While looking up the information for my session I discovered other SSHA sessions related to U.S. intellectual history. For instance, JHI editor Martin Burke organized one titled “The Power of ‘Culture’: Culture and the Social Sciences in Twentieth-Century America.” It takes place the same Saturday as mine, but from 9-11 a.m. Here are the participants and paper titles:

* Martin Burke — Creator, Organizer, Author
* George Vascik — Chair, Discussant
* Jeffrey Sallaz — Author — “Diffusion and Distinction: American Sociology as a Bourdieuian Field”
* John S. Gilkeson — Author — “Eric R. Wolf and the Development of a Global Cultural History”
* Fred Beuttler — Author — “From Moral Absolutes to Cultural Universals: Social Science and the Moral Order in the Post-War World: 1943-1952”
* Martin Burke — Author — “The Geertzian Moment: Cultural Anthropology and American Historiography”

Again, you can go to this link and click through for abstracts (about two-thirds down).

Doesn’t the SSHA seem like an unusual place to find USIH work? I didn’t know that SSHA would welcome this subject until Caroline Merithew suggested it (confession: I didn’t even know about SSHA until Caroline’s suggestion). Of course our panel could be considered primarily one on labor.

I wonder what other unusual or intriguing places our readers have seen U.S. intellectual history panels? My hunch is that many more are out there. This gives me hope for a future USIH conference. – TL