Dear Members,
Please note the contact details for this conference at the end of this
email.Roiyah
CALL FOR SUGGESTIONS ~ CALL FOR PAPERS
70th ANGLO-AMERICAN CONFERENCE OF HISTORIANS
The Sea
They that go down to the sea in ships
And occupy their business in great waters:
These men see the works of the Lord
And his wonders in the deep.
The seventieth Anglo-American Conference of Historians, which will take
place on 4, 5 and 6 July 2001, will be devoted to the subject of the "The
Sea". As Braudel's classic study of the Mediterranean in the time of Philip
II reminds us, the sea has many histories, the sea has made history, and
people have made history on the sea. The surface of our planet has always
been more water than land, and so the history of the sea, and the sea in
history, are essential parts of human experience. Perhaps this explains why,
albeit belatedly, naval history, nautical archaeology and maritime heritage
are now expanding rapidly as areas of popular interest and scholarly
enquiry.
It is these experiences and these histories which the conference intends to
explore and address, in the broadest and most wide-ranging ways. Particular
topics which we would wish to cover include: national navies and national
rivalries in grand strategy and war; merchant navies and trade and commerce
in everything from goods to disease to ideas to people (among them slaves
and emigrants); the form and functioning of sea-borne empires (and their
differences from land-based imperiums); the law of the sea, smuggling and
piracy; docks, harbours, shipbuilding and resort towns; the evolution of
boats, ships, merchant and naval vessels and of navigational science and
technology; the histories of the shore, the beach, the coast and the
seaside; the sea as big business and the sea as recreation; the sea as the
arena for global exploration, both on the surface and beneath; and the sea
as a place of work for dockers, shipbuilders, seamen and fishermen.
We hope additionally that the conference will explore the differences (and
similarities) between naval history and maritime history; will investigate
how the sea has both united and divided peoples and nations, as an agent of
cosmopolitanism and as a reinforcement of insularity; will look at the
pollution and exploitation of the sea as part of the history of our
environment; will integrate the history of the sea with the history of the
(normally land-bound) natural world; and will examine the many different
ways in which, across the centuries and around the globe, the sea has been
both culturally constructed and culturally represented in art, literature,
music and film. How does the presence of a coastline help to define a
nation, a civilisation, a continent? And how has the history of men and
women on land been influenced, determined and changed by their awareness and
experiences of the surrounding sea?
The deadline is 24 November 2000 and both suggestions and proposals should
be sent to Dr Debra Birch, Institute of Historical Research, Senate House,
Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU. Fax: 020-7862-8811. Email: [log in to unmask]
<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
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