The World History Association Ninth International Conference, meeting at Northeastern University in Boston on 22-25 June 2000, focuses on three plenary sessions addressing major issues in the current study of global connections in history.
The opening plenary session emphasizes the importance of new research in world history, through the balance of two presentations. Victor Mair reviews recent work on Eurasian cultural connections in pre-modern times, while Dennis Flynn and Arturo Giraldez address new research on global economic connections in early modern times. The opening plenary session meets in historic Faneuil Hall in Boston's civic center.
The second plenary presents major efforts to advance the conceptualization of gender as a global factor, by a distinguished senior historian and by an accomplished young scholar. Gerda Lerner and Pamela McVay each address key issues in the study women in world history.
The third plenary illustrates the accomplishments and the further potential of historical linguistics in revealing both broad patterns and specific details of the past. Christopher Ehret links African examples to data on other world regions to show the benefits of expanded linguistic study.
DETAILS OF WHA PLENARY SESSIONS:
Plenary 1. Thursday, 22 June, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Faneuil Hall, at City Hall Plaza
WORLD HISTORY AS A RESEARCH FIELD
"Eurasian Interactions: Their Implications for World History"
Victor Mair, University of Pennsylvania
"Cycles of Silver: Global Economic Unity through the mid-Eighteenth
Century"
Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giraldez, University of the Pacific
Prof. Mair's numerous studies of language and literature make him the leading interpreter of pre-modern connections among China, India, and Iran. He edited The Mummified Remains Found in the Tarim Basin (1996), and this work led to television documentaries for NOVA and the Discovery Channel on linkages in Eastern Eurasia.
Profs. Flynn and Giraldez have stimulated the current wave of research linking the global economy of the 17th and 18th centuries through attention to flows of silver. They are co-editors of Metals and Monies in an Emerging Global Economy (1997) and other works.
Plenary 2. Friday, 23 June, 11:00 a.m. - 12:45 p.m.
Snell Engineering 108, Northeastern University
GENDER IN WORLD HISTORY
"Women's History as Part of World History"
Gerda Lerner, University of Wisconsin-Madison, emerita
"Strategies for Including Women in World History"
Pamela McVay, Ursuline College
Prof. Lerner, a pioneer and prolific author in the study of women's history, followed her studies of white and black women in U.S. history with wide-ranging studies including
The Creation of Patriarchy (1986) and subsequent works.
Prof. McVay, a specialist in the early modern history of the Netherlands and Indonesia, has published in such journals as Itinerario, The Sixteenth Century Journal, and Thematica. She is an active contributor to H-WORLD.
Plenary 3. Saturday, 24 June, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Snell Engineering 108, Northeastern University
HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
"How Linguistic Evidence Helps History Go Global"
Christopher Ehret, University of California - Los Angeles
Prof. Ehret is a leader in the reconstruction of early African history through analysis of linguistic evidence. In addition to numerous specialist articles and books, he has written An African Classical Age (1998), a survey of Eastern Africa showing the broad uses of evidence on language.
The full conference program is on-line at the conference website: http://www.whc.neu.edu/wha2000 .
Conference registration may be completed by visiting the conference website.
For those seeking housing in conference hotels (Hilton and Colonnade) or in university dormitories, it is advisable to register early to get the desired placement. Information and dormitory registration are also available at the conference website.
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