Conference 2009

Conference-2009: 19-21 February 2009

The 2009 British Scholar Annual Conference came to an end on Saturday afternoon following three intellectually-engaging days. Sir David Cannadine opened the conference on Thursday, 19 February with his entertaining and illuminating lecture entitled “Ending the British Empire: Independence Day Ceremonials in Historical Perspective”. Friday saw the beginning of twenty panels that covered every part of the world from India and Nigeria to Australia and the Caribbean and all historical approaches from political and economic to social, intellectual, and cultural. Linda Colley’s keynote address on “Empire, Gender, and Obsession: The worldwide political thought of Philip Francis” was delivered on Friday afternoon and touched on numerous themes of interest to historians dedicated to investigating Britain’s interactions with the world.

The British Scholar Dinner Party on Friday evening was held in the Texas hill country and included live bagpipers and drummers, prime rib, Texas-style barbeque from the world-famous Salt Lick Restaurant, the free flowing of wine and ideas along with lively conversation and classical musicians playing throughout dinner. Saturday saw the continuation of numerous engaging panels and the entire conference was capped off by a pub crawl in downtown Austin on Saturday night. Numerous pictures were taken of the festivities and can be found by visiting the pictures page.

If you had a chance to join us for the 2009 British Scholar Annual Conference we hope to see you here in Austin again next year for more of the same. If you have not yet been to the conference, we invite you to submit an abstract or a panel for consideration when our call for papers is released at the end of March.

Program Available

To view the conference program, click the link below.

Read This Year's Papers Here

Sir David Cannadine's Opening Lecture and Linda Colley's Keynote Address for the 2009 British Scholar Annual Conference

Professor Sir David Cannadine is an historian of modern British history from 1800 to 2000. He has published extensively on aspects of social, cultural, political and imperial history from this period, with a particular focus on the British aristocracy; urban development and the structure of power in British towns; issues of class in Britain and the themes of cultural expression and ceremony both within Britain and its empire.

Listen to David Cannadine's Opening Lecture by clicking here

Linda Colley, the Shelby M.C. Davis Professor of History at Princeton University, will serve as the Keynote Speaker for the 2009 British Scholar Annual Conference. Professor Colley focuses on British domestic and imperial history since 1700. Her numerous works include:

> The Ordeal of Elizabeth Marsh: A Woman in World History - A New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year (2007)

> Captives - Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 – Winner of the Wolfson Prize for History

> In Defiance of Oligarchy: The Tory Party 1714-1760

Professor Colley writes for British and American periodicals and newspapers, including the Guardian, the Times, the New York Times, the Times Literary Supplement, and the London Review of Books. In 1999 she delivered the Prime Minister’s Millennium Lecture at 10 Downing Street. Among other public lectures, she has delivered the Trevelyan Lectures at Cambridge University (1997), the Wiles Lectures at Queen’s University, Belfast (1997), the Ford and Bateman Lectures at Oxford (1999 and 2003), the Nehru Memorial Lecture at the London School of Economics (2003), the Lewis Walpole Memorial Lecture at Yale (2000), and the Carnochan Lecture at Stanford (1998). In 1999 she was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.

We are greatly looking forward to welcoming Professor Colley to the University of Texas at Austin for the second British Scholar Annual Conference, which will take place at the world-renowned Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center on 20-21 February 2009. The call for papers for the 2009 conference can be found below. Start making arrangements today to join us for what promises to be an unforgettable event.

Listen to Linda Colley's Keynote Address by clicking here

Call for Papers - 2009 British Scholar Annual Conference

This serves as a call for papers for the second annual British Scholar Conference. The conference will be held in Austin, Texas on Friday February 20th and Saturday February 21st, 2009 on the University of Texas campus. The conference, which is organized by the British Scholar Society and British Studies at the University of Texas, focuses on British history from 1688 to the present. The purpose of the British Scholar Conference, just like the forthcoming British Scholar Journal, is to highlight the importance of British history from varied perspectives. Established scholars, scholars at the beginning of their careers, and graduate students are welcome to apply and present at the conference.

The conference accepts both individual paper and complete panel submissions. Submissions of individual papers should include an abstract of 150-300 words as well as a few descriptive keywords. Panels are expected to consist of three to five papers and should be submitted by the person willing to serve as both chair and respondent. In addition to abstracts for each individual paper, the panel chair should also include a brief 100-150 word introduction describing the panel’s main theme. The conference does not discriminate between panels and individual paper submissions.

All submissions for inclusion in the British Scholar Annual Conference must be received by Sunday, June 1, 2008. Decisions on inclusion will be made by August 25, 2008. Submissions should be made electronically to conference@britishscholar.org. Updates regarding the conference will be periodically posted to the British Scholar website. It is hoped that participants will be able to call upon their departments for hotel and transportation expenses.

Information on hotel accommodation and conference registration will be forthcoming. It should be noted that becoming a member of the British Scholar Society entitles you to a discounted registration rate. Membership in the British Scholar Society is available by subscribing to the British Scholar Journal, which will be launched in September 2008. More information on the British Scholar journal is available by visiting the journal page.