The Futures’ Past
The University of Sydney Postgraduate Conference 2015
26-27 November, 2016
As historians, how our subjects speculate about their futures can provide a rich source of information about the past. How can we harness the hopes and fears people had about the future in our representations of past lives and their contexts? What do such thoughts and feelings tell us about the role of the future in shaping human narratives? With the past’s future and our own in mind the Department of History at the University of Sydney will be holding a two-day conference on the 26th and 27th November, 2015, for postgraduates and early career researchers interested in addressing these issues and impulses in history and other related disciplines. In this conference we hope to open up a discussion about the way in which we currently write our histories, and the subjects, values, themes and methods that we use. Accordingly, we invite abstracts from those working within history and related disciplines, which will inform us about the histories they are writing, and the ways that these histories are being informed by both past, present and future forces.
Papers will be 20 minutes, with ten minutes following for question time. Proposed theme or approach-based panels should include three papers. Each panelist should deliver a paper of twenty minutes with ten minutes of question time to follow.
Themes that your paper might address include:
- The history and forms of history you are presently engaging with
- How you use and write history in your own work
- How present political, academic or social contexts influence the history you are writing
- Changing trends in the history fields you are writing within, both in past and present forms, and how this has shaped your own work and interests
- Interdisciplinary influences in your historical field
- Different subjects or approaches to history that you are adopting, and how these might be shaped by past and present forces
In addition to these suggested themes, we also welcome other submissions related to history.
Abstracts for proposed papers should be no more than 200 words and must be submitted to our website by close of business on September 7, 2015, with an accompanying 50-100 word biography.
All proposals for panels, roundtable discussions, workshops or other novel formats are encouraged, and should be forwarded to: samantha.killmore@sydney.edu.au.
Any questions can be directed to organising committee at: historypgconference@gmail.com.
