Society for U.S. Intellectual History

2024 Annual Conference: Knowledge and Belief 

Call for Proposals

The 2024 USIH Conference will be a fully in-person meeting in Boston convening on November 14-16 at the Boston Sheraton. Due to the prohibitive costs of hybrid events (in combination with the challenges of making such events pleasant for participants), there will be no hybrid options for presentation or attendance. Within those parameters, we plan to facilitate a conference that is accessible and welcoming to all who identify under USIH’s broad definition of intellectual history as “ideas in action.” We are committed to using the meeting as a venue for strengthening institutional connections to related organizations and contributing to USIH’s ongoing efforts in DEI. The conference theme is “Knowledge and Belief.”

The 2012 Modern Intellectual History roundtable on “The Present and Future of American Intellectual History” (Volume 9, Issue 1) posited a number of potential trajectories for our field. Among the many proposals were two themes that appear as relevant as ever. First, our close connection to yet distinction from the methodologies of cultural history. And second, our continued historiographical entanglement with religious history. This conference aims to both continue and challenge these generative questions within the sphere of intellectual history.

Intellectual historians have been forced to face the disciplinary implications of both deconstruction theory, which directly identifies ideological concepts as social constructs, and the cultural turn, which prioritizes the contextual meaning of words and ideas. Scholars in our field have responded to these shifts by demonstrating the continued significance of ideas to understanding generational change, cultural practices, and even social power. Ideas, it turns out, still retain explanatory potential even when stripped of their previously normative assumptions.

Few arenas of intellectual history have demonstrated this potential as the realm of religion. Faith, belief, revelation, scripture–these are all genres of religious understanding that can be understood, at least in part, as ideological artifacts. Religion is, by nature, an intellectual endeavor, ways to understand the world and humanity’s relationship to it. As religion remains a crucial part of American history, so does it prove the persisting relevance of investigating ideas.

Besides welcoming the traditionally broad range of topics expected at USIH conference, this particular program will encourage examinations of ideas’ relationship to culture in general, and religion in particular. Topics like the origins and rise of White Christian Nationalism, scriptural literalism, religious Americans’ global imagination, fundamentalist anti-secularism, Black civil rights protests, women’s ordination, and queer religious imagination are just some among many potential issues that can be addressed. Panels might examine the (at times) competing truth claims of religious and scientific thinkers. 

Types of Submissions

Traditional Panels (4-6 people):

A traditional panel will include a chairperson and either three or four presenters. The panel chairperson may also serve as a commentator, or the panel may include a separate commentator.

Traditional Panel submissions must include the following materials: a title for the panel; a designated chair; names, email addresses, and institutional affiliations (if any) of all panel participants; a 200-word abstract for each paper; a separate 300-word abstract for the entire panel; a one-page CV for each participant.

Roundtables (4-6 people):

A roundtable will include four or five discussants. One of the discussants may serve as the roundtable chair/moderator, or the roundtable may include a separate chair/moderator.

Roundtable submissions must include the following materials: a title for the roundtable; names, email addresses, and institutional affiliations (if any) of all roundtable participants; a 200-word description of each discussant’s expected contribution to or intervention in the discussion; a separate 300-word abstract for the entire roundtable; a one-page CV for each participant.

Author Meets Critics (3-6 people):

Such a session will be about a recent book in U.S. intellectual history where one or more scholars will present their analysis of the book, followed by a response by the author themself. One of the presenters may also serve as the chair, or the chair may be a separate person.

Author Meets Critics submissions must include the following materials: the title of the book and a 200-word synopsis/abstract of the book; names, email addresses, and institutional affiliations (if any) of all participants; a 200-word description of each discussant’s expected intervention; a one-page CV for each participant.

Single Paper Proposal:

Although preference will be given to organized panels, we are accepting individual paper submissions.

All individual paper submissions must include the following materials: a title for the paper; name, email addresses, and institutional affiliations (if any); a 200-word abstract for the paper; a one-page CV. Submissions should also include (1) a hierarchical list of themes, topics, events, and other relevant keywords (related to intellectual history, as much as possible); and (2) the paper’s anticipated chronology. These tools will aid in the creation of sessions.

Submission Guidelines

1. The committee is especially eager to ensure a diverse representation of scholars at the conference. We welcome submissions from graduate students, professional historians, academics working in adjacent fields, scholarly professionals working outside the academy, independent scholars, and high school teachers. We strongly encourage panels that reflect the diversity of our field in terms of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and/or institutional prestige of panelists.
2. Individuals may appear on the program no more than twice. Those appearing twice must do so in two distinct capacities (paper presenter, panel commentator, roundtable discussant, etc.). Participants may, for example, deliver a paper and be a panel commentator, but may not present two papers.
3. Our conference venue makes the rental of A/V equipment prohibitively expensive, so we ask that panels not rely on access to it.
4. The committee will assume that submission to the conference is an indication that participants will be able to present at any time on November 14 to 16. If religious practice, teaching schedules, ADA requests, or other obligations limit when you can present, please note such limitations with the proposal.
5. All persons appearing on the program will be required to register for the conference and to become members of S-USIH.
6. All documents should be submitted to the email address [email protected]m in a single PDF document. The deadline for submissions is May 1, 2024, and notifications will be sent to session organizers by June 15, 2024.