About SSHA News

SSHA News is an experimental publication of the Program Committee for the 2006 Social Science History Association annual meeting, November 2-5, 2006. If you are a member of the Association and have comments, please send email to Toby Higbie, higbie (at) uiuc (dot) edu. If you are not a member, why not join now? For complete information about the Association, please see our website: www.ssha.org.

Over the coming months, the Program Committee will post announcements to this site in an effort to keep members up to date with the scheduling of the annual meeting. In addition, SSHA President Margo Anderson will post periodic commentaries on the state of the Association.

Policy on Comments: The site's software allows readers to post comments, and by all means go for it. However, be aware of the following:

1. The Program Committee will not always be able to read and respond to each comment. If you need information, contact the Program Committee directly: ssha2006@pop.umn.edu
   
2. Comments are the opinions of their authors and do not represent the policy of the Association.
3. Please use professional language and courtesy when commenting. Offensive comments, machine generated comments, and human generated advertising comments will be deleted.

Sincerely,
SSHA 2006 Program Committee

Labor Network

The Labor Network coordinates sessions and collaboration among SSHA members interested in labor and working-class history, broadly defined. We are especially interested in panels and papers that compare the lives and cultures of working people across time and space as well as panels and papers that reinsert the history of working people in the narratives of cultural, intellectual, political, and gender history. We also welcome panels that cross disciplinary boundaries, drawing connections between economics, history, demography, and geography.

States & Societies Network

The States and Societies Network is made up of sociologists, political scientists, historians, and other scholars who are interested in the history of states, the development of the state as a social institution, and the relationships among forms of rule and other institutions in society. The network is methodologically pluralistic, including narrativists, comparativists, area specialists and both quantitative and qualitative approaches. We welcome proposals for papers and panels on all topics that might fall under the broad rubric of "states and societies." We hope some proposals will address the 2006 conference theme, "Audiences and Publics." For example, network panels might focus on practices of political communication, relationships between social scientists and policy makers, relationships between states and news media, or the development of public spheres.

Rural Network

Rural populations are the base of all settled societies, providing at minimum food, natural resources, and surpluses that make other elements of civilizations possible. Even in industrial economies, rural communities provide a steady stream of labor and talent to their urban and suburban counterparts, and images of the rural often exert a strong cultural influence in cultural centers. Rural Network members explore the transformation of rural communities, populations and economies, and the changing administrative, economic, social and technological forces that interact with them regardless of their source. Among possible panels linked to the Annual Meeting theme of "Audiences and Publics:". Mapping the Rural in Our Classrooms. New technologies enable us to present data in map form for student use in new and interactive ways and have the potential to impress upon students the significance of rural developments on society as a whole. A Cross-national discussion of the place of the rural in social science historical literature. Where do rural studies fit, and why do they occupy that place?

Migration/Immigration Network

The Migration/Immigration network comprises younger and established scholars from around the world. Sessions focus on different aspects of long-distance and short-distance migration. Papers often focus on processes of cultural exchange, adaptation, group and network formation but also dissimilation. Our sessions tend to be interdisciplinary and overlap with other SSHA networks. Participants are encouraged to explore new methodological issues and to present results of their research. We particularly encourage younger scholars to submit proposals. The Migration/Immigration network fosters international exchange and offers an outlet for reflection and analysis across disciplinary boundaries.

Macrohistorical Dynamics Network

Macrohistorical Dynamics (MHD) is an interdisciplinary social science research field that focuses on problems of large-scale, comparativehistorical inquiry and the epistemic problems that arise at that level of inquiry. The field invites collaboration among historians, social scientists, and philosophers around the conceptual and historiographic problems that arise in large-scale historical inquiry. Contributors to the network have brought perspectives on a wide variety of problem areas, including macro- and historical sociology, world history, comparative study of civilizations, philosophy of history, globalization, and studies of long-term ecological, technological, demographic, cultural, and political patterns. Since its beginning in 1997, the MHD network has hosted panels that have provided for discussions of important innovations in the conduct and results of large-scale historical research.

Education Network

The Education Network helps scholars organize sessions at the annual meeting of the Social Science History Association (SSHA) around the history of education broadly, including formal schooling, higher education, childhood, and informal education, educational policy in a variety of institutions, and education serving a diverse constituency. We encourage cross-national papers and panels, papers and panels using theory relevant to exploring education in relation to gendered and raced educational institutions and practices, and papers and panels examining class issues and education.

Criminal Justice/Legal Network

The Criminal Justice/Legal History Network is part of the Social Science History Association (SSHA) and the European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC). It is made up of historians, sociologists, economists, criminologists, geographers, lawyers, and other academics and independent scholars who are interested in the history of crime, policing and the law. Members include both "bean counters" and "non-bean counters," scholars focusing on statistics and those exploring the meanings of narratives. The network’s purpose is to provide an international forum for the exchange of ideas and research across disciplines and methodologies. Many members of the network attend the annual meetings of the SSHA and the bi-annual meetings of the ESSHC to participate in sessions, roundtables, and poster displays that include the presentation of papers and discussion on important books, ongoing research projects and new research methods. In addition, members enjoy conference ‘Crime Gang’ dinners and other informal gatherings. While membership in the SSHA is necessary for participating in its conferences, it is not necessary for being a member of the Criminal Justice/Legal History network.