The National History Center, an initiative of the American Historical Association, invites applications from historians (in the United States and abroad) at the beginning of their careers who are interested in participating in an international seminar on the history of decolonization in the 20th century. The seminar, to be held July 6–August 2, 2008, in Washington, D.C., will, like the first two seminars on the theme, held in 2006 and 2007, focus in particular on the transitions from colonies to nations in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean.
The seminar, which the Center is conducting in active collaboration with the Library of Congress, and with the support of a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foun-dation, will be directed by Wm. Roger Louis, Kerr Professor and Director of British Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and a past president of the American His-torical Association. The seminar will be held in one of the Library of Congress buildings.
The 15 participants selected to participate in the four-week seminar will receive a small stipend that is intended to cover daily living expenses (food, local travel, and so on). The Center will meet the costs of accommodation that the Center will arrange. The Center will also reimburse (subject to limits) travel costs incurred by the selected participants for traveling between their workplace or place of normal residence and Washington, D.C., and back.
Aims: The seminar will be an opportunity for the participants (a) to pursue research at the Library of Congress, the National Archives, and other repositories of historical re-search materials in Washington, D.C., on projects within the overarching theme of de-colonization; (b) to exchange ideas among themselves and with the seminar leaders; (c) to produce a draft article or chapter of a book with the guidance of the faculty leaders, who, together with the participants themselves, will offer comments and critiques on the evolving draft papers.
Seminar Leaders: Wm. Roger Louis will lead the seminar as resident director, along with other resident senior historians and visiting faculty.
Requirements: Applicants should preferably have a recent PhD (that is, one obtained after January 1, 2000) and be at the beginning of their careers. Applications from ad-vanced PhD students who are nearing completion of their dissertations are also encour-aged.
Applicants should note that all the academic activities (including discussions and writ-ten work) will be in English. Applicants must, therefore, be fluent in English.
Those selected will have to undertake that they will actively participate in the seminar for its entire duration.
Selected foreign participants must make their own arrangements to obtain the necessary U.S. visas; the National History Center will provide any documentation that may be re-quired.
Applications and all supporting materials should reach the Administrative Officer of the National History Center by November 1, 2007. They may be mailed to The National History Center, 400 A Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003-3889 or e-mailed to decol08apply at nationalhistorycenter.org. Details about the application process, the format for the required letters of recommendation, the seminar, and the National History Center can be obtained from the National History Center’s web site, www.nationalhistorycenter.org.
