ISA West Annual Conference - Pasadena 2011

Theme: The Individual and the International
September 23-24, 2011, at the Pasadena Hilton; Pasadena, California, USA
  Douglas Becker , ISA-NE President  |    Robert E. Williams, Jr., Program Chair

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSION OF PROPOSALS: MONDAY, AUGUST 1, 2011

Reserve Your Room for the Conference by MONDAY, AUGUST 22, 2011

Please submit all paper, roundtable and panel proposals via your MyISA account.

Questions concerning the ISA-West 2011 Conference should be directed to Robert E. Williams, Jr. at
ISAWEST@gmail.com.

The Individual and the International

The 2011 ISA-West Annual Meeting will be held September 23-24 at the Pasadena Hilton in the heart of Pasadena, California.  We invite paper, panel, and roundtable proposals on any aspect of international studies, including those related to pedagogy within the discipline.

We especially welcome proposals related to this year’s theme, The Individual and the International.  The theme draws attention to the recent emphasis both in policy and in scholarship on individual agency in the international system.  For a decade, the United States has attempted to capture or kill one man—Osama bin Laden.  Efforts to combat terrorism, transnational crime, corruption, human rights abuse, and many other global problems often focus on particular individuals with the success of those efforts measured by the indictment, capture, ouster, or death of those responsible.  On the positive side, individuals have come to play significant roles in efforts to solve transnational problems.  Over the course of the past decade, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has given more money to the global campaign to make vaccines and immunizations available in the developing world than the United States government or any other entity.  With these facts in mind, the conference organizers encourage the submission of proposals for individual papers, complete panels, and roundtables that consider the following questions:

• Is the international system, with its contemporary concern for human rights, human development, and human security, experiencing a shift in emphasis from states to the individual?
• Does the recent policy emphasis on individual agency require scholars to rethink the way we theorize international relations?
• Will the twenty-first century be the century of international criminal law, that is, a period in which individual responsibility becomes fully accepted as a normative foundation of the international system?
• Has the human rights movement run its course, or are there new possibilities available both for the definition of human rights and for their enforcement?
• If there is in fact greater scope for individual agency in the international system today, does this signal the end of state sovereignty?

Three best paper citations—one each for faculty or independent scholars, graduate students, and undergraduate students—will be awarded at the plenary session on Friday evening.

Proposals may be submitted via MyISA.  Click “My Submissions” on the ISA-West conference page to submit a proposal.  If you do not already have one, you will need to create an account in order to access MyISA.  Please note that you need not be a member of the International Studies Association in order to create an account.  Questions about submissions and registration may be directed to the conference organizers at isawest@gmail.com.

Faculty members presenting papers will be asked to serve as chairs and discussants.  Please indicate your areas of expertise when you register via MyISA. 

Please note that those whose proposals are accepted must register before September 1, 2011.  Any accepted participant who fails to attend the conference will, except in case of emergency, be excluded from participation in future ISA-West conferences.

We have reserved a block of rooms at the Hilton Pasadena Hotel at the discounted room rate of $119 per night. You must reserve your room by August 22nd to qualify for the conference rate.

The deadline for the submission of proposals is August 1, 2011.

Robert E. Williams, Jr.
Pepperdine University
Program Chair