Call for Papers

 

The Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy invites paper proposals for its Annual Graduate Workshop Series at the University of Pennsylvania. They welcome submissions by doctoral students (PhD, JSD, SJD, etc.) from any university and discipline whose research explores the controversies, dilemmas, and promises of democratic society.

 

The Center provides an interdisciplinary venue for graduate students to present their research and receive constructive scholarly feedback. By placing papers in conversation with each other across disciplinary boundaries, the hope is to provoke new ways of thinking about the implications of democracy and citizenship. The Andrea Mitchell Center encourages papers that interrogate democracy and citizenship from any of the following dimensions and beyond:

 

● Tensions over definitions and practices of democracy
● Citizenship and political membership
● Responses and resistance to political institutions
● Movement and migration
● Climate change and democracy
● Environmental policy
● Law and public policy
● Public health
● Economic inequality and social stratification
● Movements for democracy and social change in particular regions
● Science, medicine, and technology
● Policing and militarization
● Issues of race, gender, and sexuality
● Disability studies
● Religious movements
● Cultural memory and public history
● Media and misinformation
● Social movements
● Historical approaches to state and sovereignty
● Food and agrarian studies
● Education and higher learning

 

You can find titles of papers presented at the Graduate Workshop in past years at: https://amc.sas.upenn.edu/graduate-workshops/graduate-workshop-archives

 

The Andrea Mitchell Center’s Graduate Workshop is a yearlong series held once a month between September 2023 and May 2024. Two graduate students, usually from different fields, present their papers at each meeting. Presentations are approximately 10 minutes per paper, followed by a group discussion. Papers must be submitted three weeks in advance of the workshop to be circulated. Papers should be no more than 25 double-spaced pages.

 

Applications are due Friday, June 30th, 2023. Please submit your applications through this Google form. The application will require the following information:

1. An abstract of up to 300 words including a working title for the paper and up to 5 keywords connecting your project to the aforementioned themes,

2. A brief statement that indicates your discipline and institution, and

3. Three workshop dates (from those mentioned below) that suit your availability, in order of preference.

4. Are you willing and able to present the paper in person in Philadelphia?

 

Dates for the Graduate Workshop Series, 2023 and 2024
*Note: your paper must be ready to be submitted three weeks prior to the workshop date*

September 20, 2023
October 18, 2023
November 15, 2023
December 6, 2023
January 24, 2024
February 21, 2024
March 20, 2024
April 17, 2024

All workshops will be held from 12 – 1:30 pm ET.

 

The Center is flexible about holding the sessions in person or over Zoom, depending on participants’ preferences and abilities. They will use one of two formats on a case-by-case basis: in-person, if both presenters are willing and able to travel to Philadelphia (the event will still be live-streamed); or entirely virtual in the case that one of the presenters is unable to travel to Philadelphia. Participants will not be required to travel for the workshop.

 

Please note that in the event travel is possible, the Center will be unable to provide funding for travel or accommodations. Feel free to contact andreamitchellcenter@gmail.com with any questions.