Making Democracy: Violence, Politics, and the American Founding

The newly opened George Washington Forum on American Ideas, Politics, and Institutions, which has its home at Ohio University, invites paper proposals for a conference and subsequent edited volume on violence, politics, and the American founding. The conference will be held at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio (April 22–23, 2010). Andrew Cayton (Miami University), Peter Onuf (University of Virginia), David Hendrickson (Colorado College), and Patrick Griffin (University of Notre Dame) will deliver plenary lectures.

Democratic nations have seldom been created in times of peace, and the United States was no exception. This conference aims to promote academic discussion and to explore new research trends on the interplay between violence and the political, intellectual, social, and cultural histories of British North America and the United States during the last three-quarters of the eighteenth century. Papers on the conference theme in its wider Atlantic and European contexts are encouraged.

The conference organizers welcome the work of advanced doctoral students and both young and established scholars in the fields of history, political science, religion, philosophy, anthropology, and literature. 

The George Washington Center has limited funds to assist participants with part of their travel expenses. Prospective participants who may need travel assistance should include information on the amount they would like to request in their proposal. Notifications of a paper’s acceptance will be mailed in early September.