March 3, 2013
Dear Maxine,
As promised in your original invitation, here is a longer note providing more detailed
information on the organization of the conference “The Companies: Continuity,
Transition or Disjuncture?”
The idea for the conference took shape in response to our recognition that the early
modern chartered companies – which we believe to be deeply relevant to our increasingly
connected, global and organizationally fluid world – were attracting a new wave of
scholarly interest.
We hope to explore the renewed relevance of the companies by creating a forum in which
participants can think through the larger stakes of why the companies present an exciting
arena for continued research. On a more mundane level, we aim to stimulate a collection
of papers on these semi-sovereign organizational forms, to be published as a collected
volume or special journal edition that will illuminate the core theoretical concerns
currently driving research on and interest in the companies.
The conference will take place on Sunday May 5th, culminating in an informal dinner that
evening. We have designed the conference as a relatively small working group, intended
to foster constructive engagements that will spur the papers produced in the months after
the conference. As we now see it, the conference itself will be organized into five
modules, four of which will be led by two participants each. We are planning on
organizing the modules according to four broad framing concepts in order to help
participants orient towards a productive group conversation: (1) Agency; (2) Global and
Imperial Connections; (3) Institutions & Organizations; and (4) Sovereignty and Political
Power. These are subject to change, but we hope they provide an initial impetus, and help
us categorize the speakers into modules. Because you and your group represent several
related projects we are planning on allotting the fifth module to your larger project.
We have also asked conference participants to produce a no more than three-page memo
two weeks before the conference date (April 21). Our goal is to circulate the memos to all
participants before the conference so as to facilitate discussion and debate. The other
participants have been asked to focus their memos on the above-mentioned themes;
however, again, this does not seem as if it will necessarily be entirely appropriate for
your group. One possible configuration would be one memo introducing the other
participants to the stakes of your larger project, then additional individual memos
produced by your team members that address the themes identified above, or
alternatively they may wish to go into more detail regarding their specific research
projects and the relationship to the larger team concerns. Or indeed you may wish to
produce only one group memo. Ultimately, we would like to leave this decision up to
your discretion.
We also ask that you and your team send us short biographical statements (2 or 3
sentences) at your earliest convenience for inclusion in the conference program and
distribution to the other conference participants.
In closing, we would like to express our enthusiasm that you have agreed to take part in
the conference. We are very much looking forward to what we expect to be a rich and
productive dialogue.
Sincere regards,
Emily Erikson &
Julia Adams