The Historical Society’s 2008 Conference: Migration, Diaspora, Ethnicity, & Nationalism in History

By Randall Stephens

The Historical Society is hosting its sixth biennial conference at Johns Hopkins University on "Migration, Diaspora, Ethnicity, & Nationalism in History," June 5-7, 2008. Blog readers will be interested in a number of the sessions, many of which deal with religious history topics: New Scholarship on the Post-Civil War era; African Americans in the era of the Great War; the State of African-American History and Studies, Parts I & II; What Public Historians Can Teach Academic Historians; Moving Civil Rights History in New Directions; Antislavery Reconsidered: Means, Ends, and Constituents; the Politics of Civil Rights History; 19th Century Religious History.

The relentless thrust of globalization and the unexpected termination of the Cold War have increased rather than reduced global tensions. These developments force us to reconsider some themes once thought to be exhausted. Migrations, the formation of Diaspora communities, and the resurgence of ethnicities, both old and new, have transformed our understanding of nationalism and conventional conceptions of the nation-state. The 2008 conference will consider the above themes.

Franklin W. Knight will chair the 2008 conference program committee.

See more on the conference web site.