DEADLINE EXTENDED THROUGH MAY 5TH

Call for papers

“Infectious Democracy: Histories and Cultures of American Politics”
September 19-20, 2008
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

The 2008 Conference of the New England American Studies Association will
examine the
histories, complexities, and nature(s) of American political culture and its
contentious
relations to democracy as expressed both at home and abroad. From the
debates about
governance between indigenous peoples and settlers, to the pivotal moment in
which many
of the ideals of American democracy were crystallized in the Declaration of
Independence,
to the 2008 presidential election, the meanings of democracy in American
political
cultures have been far from self evident. NEASA’s 2008 conference asks how
democratic
practices and rhetorics can be attractive, contagious, invigorating, and
debilitating.
The ideals of the early republic, the icons of the founding fathers, the
symbolic power
of democracy, and the power of democracy to engage and motivate an
electorate operate in
tandem and in tension with the abuses of settler colonialism, histories of
disenfranchisement, the US war and occupation in Iraq, and the belief that
the US can and
should determine the sovereignty of other nations.

The 2008 conference invites papers and panels that consider the myriad ways
in which
rhetorics and practices of democracy can be tools for both expanding and
limiting
freedom. Potential topics for panels include American electoral politics;
voting rights
and voting wrongs; grassroots movement for freedom and justice; literary
representations
of democracy; American colonialist/imperialist practices at home and abroad;
Native
American citizenship and sovereignty rights; civil and human rights
campaigns; gay,
lesbian, transgender politics; the politics of immigration; and the role of
“democracy”
in the media. We invite paper and panel proposals in all areas of study and
from the
range of academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.
Proposals with a New
England regional focus are welcome. We especially encourage proposals from
those situated
outside of the traditional academy, including independent scholars,
curators, artists,
secondary educators, librarians, activists, administrators, and other
cultural workers.

Please submit paper or panel proposals to:
<mailto:neasacouncil%40gmail.com>neasacouncil@gmail.com
by May 5, 2008.

Suggested Topics

Iroquois Confederacy
Native America
Biopolitics and Biopower
US Supreme Court
Democracy aborted
Democracy Now!
Flag waving
Civil Rights
Human Rights
Media studies
Impeachment
Hacking
Black box voting
Disenfranchisement
Indian Civil Rights Act
Indian Citizenship Act
Voting Rights Act
Class and Democracy
Naturalization
Homeland security
Cultural citizenship
Refugees
Indigenous rights
Constitutional reform
LGBT rights
Executive power
Government abuses
Citizen combatants
Legislative history
Material culture
Branches of power
US policy in Israel
Racial dictatorship
Palestine
Shadow states

NGOs and US imperialism
Privatization of democracy
Democracy and neo-liberalism
Community empowerment
Third parties
Web-based democracy
Labor and citizenship
Feminist action Anarchism
Transnationalism
Prisoner rights
Polling and demographics
Public opinion
Voting blocks
Youth vote
Stolen elections
The “L”-word: Liberal
Presidential icons and images
Environmental Justice
Symbolic politics
Founding Fathers
Political economy
Immigration history and Policy Globalization
Orientalism
Campaign financing
Political Propaganda and Artistic Visual representations of democracy
Activism
Politically Transmitted Diseases
Myths of democracy
Patriotism
Crypto-fascism
Zionism and the secular state
Rhetoric of infectious disease
US borders
Middle East intervention