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| Image Source: National Archives (Ratification of Treaty of Amiens) |
History, Politics, Law: In Conversation—Doctoral workshop
Bentham House, UCL /
online
16 July 2022
To mark the publication of History,
Politics, Law: Thinking through the International (CUP 2021) the editors are convening a forum
for reflection on the interdisciplinary conversations reflected in this volume
and other recent works, including Martti Koskenniemi’s To the Uttermost
Parts of the Earth: Legal Imagination and International Power, 1300–1870 (CUP,
2021).
The event will have two components: a day of
panel conversations and a book event on 15 July, open to all; and a smaller
by-application doctoral workshop on 16 July, c. 9am–4.30pm not open
to the public.
The doctoral workshop will, like the panels of
the previous day, pursue a methodological conversation through questions
emerging in concrete projects. However, the doctoral workshop will allow for
more in-depth engagement with written work, circulated in advance. This work
need not be polished papers; indeed it would preferably be work-in-progress,
with which participants are still grappling. We are open to work on all
periods, and from diverse disciplines, engaged in some way with histories of
law.
The workshop will have c. 12 participants. We
are able to fund travel from within the UK and potentially further afield,
depending on the mix of those requiring travel funding; and a dinner and one
night’s accommodation in London (possibly two, for those whose travel would
otherwise complicate online attendance at the previous day’s workshops). For
those from outside the UK, or for whom in-person travel is not feasible, we are
happy to facilitate remote participation (and please note that one of the
editors will also be remote, so you will be in good company!).
Format of workshop
In the workshop itself, we aim to have at
least 30 minutes focused on the work of each participant, with the sequence
arranged in such a way as to draw together participants who might be working on
common periods or themes, or whose work might raise similar questions. Starting
from the assumption that we have all read the work, we will ask participants to
present each others’ projects very briefly (c. 5 mins), offer participants an
opportunity to make any corrections or further observations which might inform
discussion, and then have c. 25 mins of commentary from readers including
Annabel Brett and Martti Koskenniemi, and Q&A with other participants.
Indicative schedule
Evening of 15 July: dinner for in-person
participants
9–11am: discussion of projects (participants
1–4)
Coffee
11.30–1pm: discussion of projects
(participants 5–7)
Lunch (at UCL)
2–4.30pm: discussion of projects (participants
8–12)
To express interest in participating …
Please send a 500–1000-word expression of
interest by 23 May 2022 to megan.donaldson@ucl.ac.uk,
sketching the project in which you are engaged, and specific aspect(s) on which
you would like to focus. We will confirm invitations by c. 27 May
(taking into account not only the interest of individual projects but also
complementarity between possible participants). We ask that participants then
send up to 10,000 words of writing for discussion by 24 June (a
hard deadline), to be shared with all participants in the doctoral workshop.
Participants can send significantly less than this, if they prefer: the idea is
to send draft text which will allow others to grasp the rough direction of the
project, and the way in which you are working with materials, as well as
specific ‘methodological’ problematiques of interest.
