Repression, Revolution, and Ruckus:

Public Histories of Structural Violence and Resistance

Forty-Seventh Annual Susman Conference March 28, 2025 Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2025

In association with the Rutgers University, New Brunswick Department of History, we invite abstracts for a conference on “Repression, Revolution, and Ruckus: Public Histories of Structural Violence and Resistance.” We encourage graduate students and non-affiliated scholars of diverse disciplinary approaches to both history and the past to submit papers that approach the repression of liberatory politics, the resistance of oppressed peoples, or the practices of liberation that exceed our current political vocabulary. Put another way, proposed papers should analyze the nightmares of our world and/or what Robin D.G. Kelley termed the “freedom dreams” of those working against them. While the political landscape of today seems to crush optimism, we seek to understand both how structures of violence and repression have historically emerged and how the oppressed have remained steadfast in their resistance, hope, and humanity. We believe that resistance is an active word and therefore requires engagement beyond the academy, emphasizing the need to consider the publics served by and in solidarity with scholarly work, and thus invite projects that fall within and without the frameworks of “traditional history.” Public work applies to form as well as content and we leave you to underscore the public elements of your work in your proposal.

Possible themes and topics include, but are not limited to:

Structural Violence and Its Legacies: Interrogating the long-term effects of racial capitalism, ableism, colonialism, anti-Blackness, patriarchy, environmental destruction, and other forms of systemic violence. What is the origin point of violence? In what ways does structural oppression shape the movements that resist it and vice versa? In what ways can we consider structural violence in its granular manifestations?

Revolutionary Struggles and Resistance Movements: Exploring historical and contemporary forms of resistance, from the launching of revolutions to everyday acts of defiance. How have movements for liberation, decolonization, and social change shaped collective identity?

Public History and the Politics of Memory: Investigating how history is publicly consumed, represented, and contested. How are histories of structural violence and resistance shaped by media, education, monuments, and public commemorations? How are these histories narrated, remembered, and memorialized on the grassroots level?

Ruckus and Disruption: Understanding the role of noise, disruption, chaos, and “ruckus” in resistance movements. How do acts of protest, civil disobedience, and disruption challenge the status quo, both in the moment and in the memory of it? What role does “noise” (both literal and figurative) play in shaping collective memory and catalyzing social change?

Global and Local Perspectives on Repression and Revolution: Probing histories of violence and resistance from a global perspective while also attending to the specificity of local contexts. How do the global dimensions of empire, capitalism, and colonialism intersect with local struggles for justice, dignity, and human rights? How do we define community in global systems of power and domination?

Gender, Repression, and Resistance: A special theme in honor of Women’s History Month Examining how gender, sexuality, and identity intersect with and texture experiences of structural violence and resistance. How have women, queer, trans, and gender-nonconforming people navigated and resisted systems of oppression, both historically and in contemporary struggles? What role does gendered violence play in shaping histories of revolution and repression?

We seek to make this conference accessible and look forward to meeting the access needs of participants as fully as possible. Please reach out if we need to address any gap that would prevent your participation. People who are precariously employed and non-university-affiliated scholars are encouraged to submit abstracts.

We will form panels from individual papers and provide commenters, but we welcome submissions of pre-formed panels. Panels should include a minimum of two presenters and one chair/commentator. Abstracts of no more than 500 words should be submitted with a 1-page CV as a Word document or PDF to susmanconf@history.rutgers.edu by February 1, 2025. Selected participants will be notified of their acceptance by mid-February. Full papers must be submitted by March 7, 2025. The conference will take place in Van Dyck Hall on Rutgers-New Brunswick’s College Avenue campus.

Please join us after the conference for a keynote lecture delivered by Dr. Ashleigh Lawrence- Sanders (Ph.D., Rutgers University, 2019), Assistant Professor of History at University of Colorado–Boulder. Dr. Lawrence-Sanders’ scholarship focuses on histories of Black culture, Black radicalism, and collective memory. Her work has been published in the Journal of African American History, Journal of Southern History, Al Jazeera, NPR, and Black Perspectives. She is currently working on a book project, tentatively entitled They Knew What the War Was About: African Americans and the Memory of the Civil War.

Proposals and questions may be sent to susmanconf@history.rutgers.edu.