CFP: New Directions in the Study of the American Apprentice (9/15/06; OIEAHC-SEA, 6/7/07-6/10/07)

Subject: CFP: New Directions in the Study of the American Apprentice /
OIEAHC-SEA (9/15/06; 6/7-10/07)
Date: August 23, 2006
From: Nancy Zey (nancyzey_at_mail.utexas.edu)

SOCIETY OF EARLY AMERICANISTS (SEA & OIEAHC) CONFERENCE 2007
Williamsburg, Virginia June 7-10, 2007

PANEL: New Directions in the Study of the American Apprentice

Characterizations of the America apprentice tend to paint an image of a
white and male youth bound to a master to learn a specific trade. A
Benjamin Franklin--someone plucky, resourceful, slightly mischievous,
and prone to running away. By the early nineteenth century, however,
such figures were disappearing from the urban landscape as
industrialization caused a decline in workshop modes of production and
wage labor replaced the old paternalistic mode of vocational training.
While there are many truths to these depictions, the story of
apprenticeship in America is far more complex. Apprentices bore many
different faces--female, Indian, African American, infant and adult,
well-to-do and destitute, bound and free--which scholars are now
beginning to explore more thoroughly. This panel invites papers
examining apprentices and apprenticeship in America from the earliest
days of European colonial settlement through the first decades of the
nineteenth century, when newly-freed blacks entered another form of
slavery under the guise of "apprenticeship." What was the nature of
apprenticeship throughout the Americas? How did transatlantic
experiences shape the way apprentices worked and lived in the New World?
Which previously neglected threads must historians consider when
crafting the narrative of the American apprentice? What
characterizations can be added to the story? Because thousands (if not
millions) of Americans experienced this form of labor and education, it
is important to address questions such as these and chart new directions
in this field of study.

To submit a proposal for this panel, please send a one-page summary of
your paper and a short c.v. to Nancy Zey (nancyzey_at_mail.utexas.edu) by
September 15, 2006.

Nancy Zey
University of Texas
nancyzey_at_mail.utexas.edu

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Received on Mon Sep 04 2006 - 18:53:10 EDT