2015 - 9/11 and the Academy 2015

September 11, 2001 was, according to then President George W. Bush, “the day that changed everything.” This one-day conference takes that statement and turns it into a question directed toward the academy. It seeks to bring together scholars of all levels to discuss the states of their field. Its goal is to facilitate an interdisciplinary conversation about the influence that 9/11 has had on the humanities; visual and performing arts; and the social, physical, and natural sciences.
Papers may address a number of questions, including but not limited to: How has critical scholarship changed across the disciplines since 9/11 and the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq? How have disciplinary methodologies changed (or not) since 9/11? Have alternative avenues of inquiry, new research questions, and emergent conceptual frameworks been explored, asked, and articulated? How has 9/11 produced a reexamination of older theories or the formulation of new ones that possess greater explanatory power? Has recent work been driven by methodological innovations, the political context of the early twenty-first century, or a convergence of the two? Has cooperation between the academy, the federal government, and the private sector increased or decreased, and has that cooperation been productive or restrictive with regard to disciplinary evolution? In what ways has scholarship informed public understandings and shaped collective memories of the attacks? How has the fact that scholars have been, for more than a decade, writing during wartime and economic woes rather than an era of peaceful prosperity affected the production of knowledge? Are there comparisons or contrasts to be made between the academy’s response to 9/11 and disciplinary developments during previous eras of national “crisis”? In the end, was 9/11 a watershed moment in the academy, or have the developments of the past thirteen years built on earlier intellectual trends that transcend that day?
Scholars interested in taking part in this collective examination of the academy should submit a 500-word proposal and CV. Conference papers should be approximately 10,000 words. The conference organizers expect to compose the accepted papers into an edited collection that highlights the changes and continuities in the academy since 9/11.
Hosted at Emory & Henry College, a liberal arts college in southwestern Virginia, the conference anticipates being able to take advantage of the campus culture of service and scholarship, bringing to bear a spirit of interdisciplinary cooperation and critical discourse toward the creation of a lively and rigorous dialogue about how academic disciplines have been and continue to be affected by world historical events.
All questions and submissions should be sent to: 911conf-AT-ehc.edu