Call for Papers
This colloquium, the fifth in a biennial series, offers an opportunity for scholars from a variety of disciplines to work together to enrich their mutual understanding of the intersections between public finance, politics and literature during Britain's 'financial revolution'. The term 'Britain' is used loosely to refer to all constituent parts of the United Kingdom and also to Ireland and the colonies. The term 'literature' is broadly defined to include newspapers, pamphlets, treatises, novels, plays and illustrations.
The organizers invite proposals for papers that explore:
- the mechanics of the 'financial revolution' itself — the ins and outs of institutions like banks, joint-stock companies, public debt and paper money;
- how the new financial technologies affected contemporary political debate and/or the literature of the period;
- how the literature of the period shaped people's perceptions of the financial revolution and/or its political consequences; or
- recent developments in one's own discipline that will be of interest to scholars working on the financial revolution from other disciplinary perspectives
Papers will be distributed in advance and presented in 2-hour sessions at which all colloquium participants are present. Presenters will have five minutes to summarize their findings. The rest of each session is given over to questions and discussion, in which the goal is to enrich our mutual understanding by eliciting insights from all of the disciplines represented at the table. Authors are therefore expected to write for a non-specialist audience, avoiding jargon, making concepts from their own discipline readily accessible to all those present, seeking to identify areas of general interest, and focusing on questions on which scholars of various disciplines will have something to contribute.
Graduate students and emerging scholars are particularly encouraged to submit proposals.
Proposals of 250 words or less are due 15 June 2011. Those whose initial proposals are accepted will be asked to get a finished paper to the conference organizers by 15 December 2011. The final decision to accept or reject papers will be made in mid-February 2012 and the program will be published shortly thereafter.
Final drafts of accepted papers will be due no later than 1 May 2012.
Initial expressions of interest are welcome and can be addressed to any of the colloquium organizers listed below.
