Conference on the Seven Years' War

The Omohundro Institute of Early American History, Niagara University, and Brock University, are preparing to host a conference titled "Contest for Continents: The Seven Years' War in Global Perspective" from 22 to 24 October 2009 "to examine the Seven Years' War (the French and Indian War, 1754-1763) as a global conflict." As the press release continues,

With nearly one million battlefield deaths and fighting on four continents and in three oceans, the Great War for Empire stands as the first world war. The conference will address the conflict as one that transcended the national and imperial categories that have traditionally been used to evaluate it. The object is to study the war both globally, involving North America, South Asia, Europe, the Caribbean, West Africa, and the Philippines, and in transnational perspective, including its military, diplomatic, political, cultural, economic, and social aspects.

The organizers are seeking to have a conference crossing multiple disciplines, nationalities, and imperial boundaries "and will welcome paper proposals from a variety of disciplines and scholarly approaches." Sessions of the conference will be held on the university campuses of Brock (St. Catharines, Ontario), Niagara (Niagara Falls, New York), and Old Fort Niagara (Youngstown, New York).

Proposals for papers are invited from "advanced graduate students as well as more more senior scholars" for both complete panels and individual papers "on any aspect of the Seven Years' War in any of its theaters, especially submissions that treat the war thematically across geographic boundaries." The organizers stress that the geographic element includes North America, Eastern and Central Europe, and South Asia. Submission details from the organizers: "To apply, send a 500-word synopsis of your proposal along with a short c.v. to ieahc1@wm.edu, as an attachment in MS Word. You may direct questions to program co-chairs Thomas A. Chambers (chambers@niagara.edu) and David Schimmelpenninck van der Oye (dschimme@brocku.ca). The deadline for submissions is June 30, 2008."