[Discussion] Art of the State: Sovereignty Past and Present

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

*Art of the State: Sovereignty Past and Present*
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An international conference organized by
Douglas Howland (History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee) and
Luise White (History, University of Florida-Gainesville)

The Center for 21st Century Studies announces an international 
conference, *The
Art of the State: Sovereignty Past and Present,* to be held October 
21–22,
2005, at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The conference dispenses 
with
the idea that sovereignty accrues naturally to a state. It seeks to 
interrogate
sovereignty as a set of practices that are historically contingent--a mix of
both international and intra-national processes including 
self-determination,
international law, and natural right. Participants examine a number of 
diverse
contexts outside of the normative center of Western Europe in order to 
explore
how states construct themselves and how state forms seek to be 
sovereign. Rather
than try to find one overarching and totalizing definition of 
sovereignty--one
that is ahistorical and transnational--the conference seeks to disclose the
strategic sovereignties that have informed histories and shaped 
territories in
the modern world. This represents an alternative to recent literature on
nationalism, which too often treats nationalism as a precursor to the 
formation
of modern states. The conference seeks to take recent debates about nations,
national identity, and the political relationships between the two and 
relocate
them in a broader history of sovereignty, territory, and legality. We 
hope to
explore the different ways in which sovereign political forms have been 
defined
and define themselves. The conference will be open to the public. Full 
details
about the conference, including registration materials and information about
accommodations, are available on this web site:
http://www.21st.uwm.edu/conferences.shtml

Kate Kramer, Deputy Director
Center for 21st Century Studies
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
POB 413
Milwaukee WI 53201

t. 414.229.4141 / f. 414.229.5964
Email: ctr21cs@uwm.edu

Visit the website at http://www.21st.uwm.edu