Davis Seminar: Fall 2020 Schedule

Davis Center Seminar
Revolutionary Change

"René Mederos, 1959-1969 Decimo aniversario del triumfo de la rebelion Cubana (1969)"

The Shelby Cullom Davis Center Seminars present weekly programming on a variety of topics related to the Center's current theme. Visiting Fellows from academic institutions near and far help to create a rich understanding of the topic from diverse yet overlapping perspectives. The theme for the academic years 2020-21 and 2021-22 is “Revolutionary Change.”

This fall, because of the pandemic, seminars meet online via Zoom from 10:15 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. Eastern Time (USA), and are open to all Princeton University affiliates. The papers are pre-circulated and can be accessed beginning one week before the date of the seminar. The seminar starts with a brief comment by an invited commentator, and a response from the author, after which the floor is open for questions from attendees. You may access the papers here (Princeton University credentials required).

The first three seminars of the year (September 4, 11 and 18) will be devoted to a special symposium on the theme of “Living Through Revolutionary Change.” Each seminar will feature two short papers by Princeton History Department faculty, each examining the experience of men and women living through periods of violent, disruptive change. The subjects include war, economic crisis, famine and plague, colonial conquest, regime change and urban revolt.

September 4

Sheldon Garon, Princeton University
“Why No ‘1918’ in 1945?  A Transnational History of Fomenting Revolutionary Change in War”

Harold James, Princeton University
“The Seven Crises of Globalization: From the 1840s to Covid"

Commentator: Philip Nord, Princeton University

September 11

William Chester Jordan, Princeton University
“’If evil comes…’ Tribulation and Courage in the Fourteenth Century”

Vera Candiani, Princeton University
“From the Indigenous Township to the Modern University: The Revolutionary Potential of Self-Governance in Latin America"

Commentator: Jennifer Rampling, Princeton University

September 18

Michael Gordin, Princeton University
“When the Post-Soviet Revolution Came for Soviet Science"

Alison Isenberg, Princeton University
“Uprisings”

Commentator: David Bell, Princeton University

September 25

Massimiliano Tomba, Davis Fellow and University of California, Santa Cruz
“Anachronism and Revolution”

Commentator: Edward Baring, Drew University

October 2

Federico Marcon, Princeton University
“Fascism’s Counter-Revolutionary Revolution”

Commentator: Ruth Ben-Ghiat, New York University

October 9

Jonathan Gienapp, Stanford University
"The Lost Constitution: How a Transformative Vision of Sovereignty and National Power Was Embedded in the American Constitution, and Then Forgotten"

Commentator: Matthew Karp, Princeton University

October 16

Julia Gaffield, Georgia State University
“Freedom or Death: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and the Haitian Revolution"

Commentator: Marlène Daut, University of Virginia

October 23

Kirsten Weld, Davis Fellow and Harvard University
“Ruins and Glory: The Long Spanish Civil War in Latin America”

Commentator: Tony Wood, Princeton University

October 30

Gary Bass, Princeton University
“Pan-Asianism, India, and the Tokyo War Crimes Trial”

Commentator: Eri Hotta, Independent Scholar

November 6

Kate Cooper, Davis Fellow and Royal Holloway, University of London
“Religious Radicals in Roman Africa: The Usual Suspects or Agents of Revolutionary Change?”

Commentator: Jack Tannous, Princeton University

November 13

David Howell, Harvard University
“Japan’s ‘Aristocratic Revolution’ Revisited”

Commentator: Robert Hellyer, Wake Forest University

November 20

Donna Murch, Rutgers University
“Crack in Los Angeles: Policing the Crisis and the War on Drugs"

Commentator: Matthew Lassiter, University of Michigan


Image credit: "René Mederos, 1959-1969 Decimo aniversario del triumfo de la rebelion Cubana (1969)"