CALL FOR PAPERS 
HOPE CONFERENCE 2006 
 
LIFE WRITING AND THE HISTORY OF ECONOMICS 
 
Historians of economics are profoundly ambivalent about life writing.  
Should biography be a part of what we do? We make use of  
autobiographical material in the construction of our histories but we  
haven=92t, as a discipline, reflected upon how and why that material  
was constructed and preserved, and how it ought to be read and  
interpreted by contemporary historians. This conference is designed  
to facilitate that conversation.   
 
We intend to bring together an interdisciplinary group of 15 to 20  
scholars with interest and expertise in life writing. The range of  
material that might engage the conferees is large, and might include  
such paper topics as:   
 
=95 How should we treat autobiographical material in the construction  
of histories? =95 How are heroes and villains created for popular  
(economists, historians) consumption? =95 What relationship exists  
between scientific biography and literary biography in the history of  
economics? =95 What do we need to know about property rights and  
ethical issues surrounding the use of non-public material,  
particularly material that concerns living subjects? =95  How do people  
generally, or scientists in particular, present their lives in  
autobiographical material? Do economists present their lives in a  
similar fashion? =95  How is autobiographical material subsequently  
used to reconstruct history? =95  With respect to oral histories and  
interviews, can (and should) we systematically collect and interpret  
autobiographical material? =95  Are there particular issues related to  
living subjects and recent history? =95  Why and how do economists  
write autobiography? =95  What relations exist between biographer and  
subject? Biographer and reader? Reader and subject? =95 What can  
historians of economics learn from scholars in other disciplines?   
 
Of course, this list is simply suggestive, and the organizers will  
welcome potential contributions on related subjects as well.   
 
The conference will take place at or near Duke University, Durham, North 
Carolina, in mid-April 2006. (In the past, HOPE Conferences have been held= 
 from 
Friday afternoon through Sunday morning). We will to be able to pay local 
expenses (food, airport transfers, lodging, etc.) for participants, but no= 
t for 
transportation of conferees to or from Durham, North Carolina.  
 
Proposals for papers (not to exceed five hundred words) and complete conta= 
ct 
information should be sent to both conference organizers, Evelyn Forget an= 
d Roy 
Weintraub, by October 15, 2004 (see contact information below). Papers wil= 
l be 
selected and authors will be notified by November 30, 2004. The complete p= 
apers 
are due March 1, 2006. 
 
All conference sessions will be plenary and the number of papers will be l= 
imited 
to 15 to 20 to ensure adequate time for general discussion. All papers wil= 
l be 
circulated to all conference participants in advance of the conference. Pa= 
pers 
will be refereed for inclusion in a special supplement to History of Polit= 
ical 
Economy (HOPE), and will be published as a special volume by Duke Universi= 
ty 
Press. 
 
For further information, please contact Evelyn L. Forget, Community Health 
Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba, 750 Bannatyne Ave., 
Winnipeg MB CANADA R3E 0W3 ([log in to unmask]) or E. Roy Weintraub, 
Department of Economics, Duke University, Box 90097, Durham NC, 27708-0097= 
 USA 
([log in to unmask]).