CALL FOR PAPERS

Revolution: Imagined Futures, Remembered Pasts

8th Annual Stony Brook University History Graduate Student Association Conference 

 

March 6, 2025

Keynote speaker 

Enzo Traverso

Susan and Barton Winokur Professor in the Humanities at Cornell University, 

and author of Revolution: An Intellectual History. 

For their eighth annual graduate student conference, Stony Brook University’s History Graduate Student Association (HGSA) invites paper submissions from the social sciences and humanities about topics related to revolution. These include, but are not limited to: revolutionary political, social, or intellectual movements; utopian ideas and how they shape political actions; origins and transformations of radical intellectual traditions; historical analyses of rebellions, insurrections, or uprisings; and the relationship between the history and memory of revolutions. They welcome submissions without restrictions on time period, geographic scope, methodology, or approach as long as they are related to the broad thematic framework of revolutions.

 

Before the modern era, the word “revolution” was often associated with the cyclical patterns of history and the regular movement of celestial bodies. Later, the word came to signify its opposite: revolution suggested that the essence of historical time could be found in novelty – a complete break with the past. Understanding the causes behind that change, the new historical processes it unleashed, and the different ways in which it has shaped culture, everyday life, and political participation is a task faced by all of those interested in social change and collective action. 

 

Historians and social scientists have tried to identify the causes and consequences of revolutions. Historical actors have recognized its political significance and sought to harness its powers. Countries have gained independence or changed political regimes under the banner of revolution. For some, those revolutions became the stuff of civic pageantry, national identity, and the bedrock of citizenship. Revolutions have been a source of fierce contestation and strife, but also a source of political legitimacy for those that have governed in its name.

 

Today, however, revolutions are increasingly absent from our political practices and utopian horizons. In many ways, the idea of revolution has been relegated to the realm of cultural memory, whether due to state repression or a pessimistic view of radical change, leaving the threats and hopes it awoke buried in the past. How do we conceptualize the shifting meanings of revolution and its historical legacies? What insights can new perspectives on revolutions reveal about the present?

 

The 8th annual conference will take place in-person at Stony Brook University on March 6, 2025. If you are interested in participating, please submit a 200-word proposal and a C.V. in a single PDF document via email to stonybrookhgsa@gmail.com with the subject heading ‘Conference Proposal’. Submissions should be titled “LastName_ShortTitle” and submitted by December 17, 2024. Notifications of acceptance to the conference will be sent by January 17. Full papers must be submitted to the same email by February 16, 2025.