In August 21-24, 2008, the Interim Conference of the International Sociological Association’s (ISA) Research Committee on the History of Sociology (RCHS) will take place at Umeå University, Sweden. The conference will be thematically focused on ”Perspectives from the Periphery”.
In the centre of attention will be issues related to different geographical, social, disciplinary and temporal peripheries. How is the local related to the global? Is there a political geography of social theory? In what ways have gender, ethnicity and class structured the production of social knowledge -- and our understandings of it? What do experiences from the non-western margins say about today’s spatial and temporal limits, and power relations? Is a trans-national history of the social sciences without a cognitive centre possible, and how would in that case such a history look like?
The conference especially welcomes papers related to one or several of the following sub-themes and topics. But since the aim of the conference is to offer an open and inclusive understanding, papers on other aspects of the history of sociology and the social sciences are welcome as well:
- Geographical peripheries: history of sociology and the social sciences in Sweden and other small or non-western countries; glocal and/or postcolonial perspectives, etc.
- Social peripheries: women as forgotten pioneers and newcomers on the sociological scene, social scientific couples, class and ethnic perspectives, power relations, etc.
- Institutional peripheries: extra-academic social research; state investigations and non-governmental organisations; disciplinary boundaries and academic hierarchies, etc.
- Temporal peripheries: 1968 -- forty years later; long-term historical perspectives; cultural historical perspectives, etc.
There will be three types of sessions: four keynote lectures, two plenary sessions and a number of parallel workshop sessions.
Keynote speakers will be:
- Prof. Saïd A. Arjomand (Department of Sociology, State University of New York – Stony Brook)
- Prof. Raewyn Connell (Faculty of Education and Social Research, University of Sydney)
- Prof. Johan Heilbron (Centre de sociologie européenne, Paris, and Erasmus University, Rotterdam)
- Prof. Eileen Yeo (Department of History, University of Strathclyde)
One of the plenary sessions will be a book session centred round Prof. Jennifer Platt’s The British Sociological Association: A Sociological History (Sociologypress). The other plenary session will be organised by the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.
The conference is co-hosted by the Department of Historical Studies, Umeå University, the Department of Sociology, Uppsala University, and the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS).
For further information go to the conference website.
For questions regarding the scientific programme or if you are interested in proposing a session, please contact the conference organisers Prof. Hedvig Ekerwald (Uppsala University), Dr Per Wisselgren (Umeå University) and Prof. Björn Wittrock (SCAS) via email periphery2008@histstud.umu.se.
For practical issues please contact the Conference Secretary Mrs Kaarina Streijffert, Umeå Congress AB, at kaarina.streijffert@umea- congress.se.
Welcome to Umeå and Perspectives from the Periphery in August 2008!
Hedvig Ekerwald
Per Wisselgren
Björn Wittrock
Location:
Umeå University
Sweden
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