CFP (grad): How to End a Revolution?, 4/2012, Harvard

From: <[email protected]>

"How to End a Revolution?" - CALL FOR PAPERS (DEADLINE: JANUARY 31st, 2012)
The Annual Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Student Conference
Harvard University, Cambridge MA, United States
April 13-14, 2012

How to begin a revolution is a question that has received much attention
from many great thinkers.
The goal of the 2012 Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference at the Mahindra
Humanities Center is to
reverse that perspective and ask:
How to end a revolution?

The end of a revolution is not something inherently given, but a process in
the making that serves
different perspectives and interests. At the same time, the phase of
transition characterized by
chaos and instability very often opposes and challenges the attempts of
making an end - from both a
theoretical and a practical perspective. Is an end of a revolution even
possible if history is
understood as a constant process based on a linear definition of time and
temporality? What
challenges does the idea of a leaderless movement pose towards traditional
views of political
authority and authorship? What happens when unity and cohesion break apart
and many different
individual interests and powers evolve? What comes after the revolution?

The ongoing revolutions and uprisings in the Arab world highlight both the
challenges of making a
(constructive and collective) end, as well as the significance and
timeliness of these questions to
be addressed at the conference. Drawing upon contemporary and historical
examples like the Arab
Spring and the French Revolution, we invite you to examine the complex,
multifaceted and mutable
discourse that is shaped by historians who define, politicians who declare,
writers who narrate and
lawyers who legitimate the end of a revolution. In what violent and
non-violent ways have people
tried to stop, use or influence a revolution? Which strategies, tools and
techniques are employed
to end a revolution and how are they determined by underlying concepts of
time, history and change?
Through our collective inquiry - by analysing how people deal and dealt
with moments of transition
and by comparing their strategies, interests and narratives - our goal is
to better understand the
phenomenon of social and political change. With this approach we hope not
only to expand the
knowledge of revolutions but also to develop new ideas and strategies that
will potentially prove
to be practically important and relevant.

We seek rich, rigorous graduate student contributions from the humanities,
social and political
sciences (in particular from the following disciplines: law, literature,
history, philosophy,
political sciences, sociology), and even natural sciences if relevant.

Discussion themes may include, but are not restricted to:
* What is an End? Thinking About and Representing the End
* The End Versus Ending - Revolution as Process or Given?
* Controlling the End - Controlling the Power. Attempts of Overtaking the
Protest
* Temporality, Change - and Order? How to Transform Chaos into Stability
* New Beginnings. Manifestos and Literary Narratives
* The People, the Media or the Military? Authorship of Revolution
* Continuity of Power. How to Deal with the Old Structures?
* Circular Revolution, Linear Progress and Permanent Evolution?
* Arts, Religion and Empathy. Lessons to Unite the People
* Trials, Constitutions and Elections. The Role of Law in Transitional
Periods

We ask prospective participants to submit a short curriculum vitae and a
500 word abstract that
outlines the paper's topic, methodology and argument, as well as how the
prospective participant's
research interests relate to the theme of the conference more generally.
Participants will be
notified by mid-February whether their paper has been accepted into the
conference. Please
note that participants can apply for a limited number of travel grants.

DEADLINE FOR ABSTRACT SUBMISSION: TUESDAY, JANUARY 31st, 2012

For more information and submission details, please visit:
http://isites.harvard.edu/revolution2012

For further questions, please contact the coordinators by e-mail:
[email protected]

Conference coordinators:
Eike Hosemann, Harvard Law School
Scott Liddle, Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Matthias Meyer, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Ani Nguyen, Chemical Biology Graduate Program, Department of Systems Biology