Migration and Modernity: The State of Being Stateless, 1650-1850

The editors invite contributions for an essay collection on exile, migration, and statelessness in the “middle modern” period (~1650-1850), a time when the consolidation of the nation-state made more visible the movement--sometimes voluntary and sometimes forced--of peoples across and within political and geographical borders.

Essays might focus on:

By providing a history of statelessness, exile, and migration from the mid-seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth century, the collection will address a series of questions that continue to inform debates surrounding the geographic movement of populations and individuals today. Under what circumstances were migration and exile understood as opportunities for intercultural exchange or transculturation, and in what conditions were they depicted as states of terminal loss? What did it mean to be stateless in an age before the emergence of participatory democracy? How might attending to the motif of exile ask us to revise established narratives of the rise of the modern nation-state or the emergence of globalization?

Please send a one-page abstract for an essay of 5,000 to 7,000 words, along with a 2- to 3-page academic CV, to deluc1jm@cmich.edu and js37@uw.edu by May 15, 2016. Completed essays will be due by May 15, 2017 for a projected publication date of 2018. Queries about potential topics are welcome.