Call for Papers: Fifth Annual Conference on the History of Recent Social Science 

 **University of Zurich, Switzerland** 

*June 8-9, 2018* 

This two-day conference of the Society for the History of Recent Social Science (HISRESS) will bring 
together researchers working on the history of post-World War II social science. It will provide a forum 
for the latest research on the cross-disciplinary history of the post-war social sciences, including but 
not limited to anthropology, economics, psychology, political science, and sociology as well as related 
fields like area studies, communication studies, history, international relations, law and linguistics. We 
are especially eager to receive submissions that treat themes, topics, and events that span the history 
of individual disciplines. 

The conference aims to build upon the recent emergence of work and conversation on cross-
disciplinary themes in the postwar history of the social sciences. While large parts of history of social 
science scholarship still focus on the 19th and early 20th centuries and are attuned to the histories of 
individual disciplines, there is also a larger interest now in the developments spanning the social 
sciences in the early, late, and post-Cold War periods. Though each of the major social science fields 
has a community of disciplinary historians, research explicitly concerned with cross-disciplinary topics 
remains comparatively rare. The purpose of the conference is to further encourage fruitful cross-
disciplinary conversations of recent years. 

Submissions are welcome in areas such as: 
* The uptake of social science concepts and figures in wider intellectual and popular discourses 
* Comparative institutional histories of departments and programs * Border disputes and boundary work 
between disciplines as well as academic cultures 
* Themes and concepts developed in the history and sociology of natural and physical science, 
reconceptualized for the social science context 
* Professional and applied training programs and schools, and the quasi-disciplinary fields (like business 
administration) that typically housed them 
* The role of social science in post-colonial state-building governance * Social science adaptations to 
the changing media landscape 
* The role and prominence of disciplinary memory in a comparative context 

The two-day conference will be organized as a series of one-hour, single-paper sessions attended by all 
participants. Ample time will be set aside for intellectual exchange between presenters and attendees, 
as all participants are expected to read pre-circulated papers in advance. 

Proposals should contain no more than 1000 words, indicating the originality of the paper. The deadline 
for receipt of abstracts is February 4, 2018. Final notification will be given in early March 2018 after 
proposals have been reviewed.Completed papers will be expected by May 13, 2018. 

The organizing committee consists of Jamie Cohen-Cole (George Washington University), Philippe 
Fontaine (École normale supérieure de Cachan), Catherine Herfeld (University of Zurich), and Jeff 
Pooley (Muhlenberg College). 

All proposals and requests for information should be sent to: [[log in to unmask]]. For more 
information on the Society for the History of Recent Social Science (HISRESS), see www.hisress.org.