While frameworks of national identity and statehood have long played prominent and decisive roles in the histories of the Nordic and Baltic region, alliances within and beyond the region—intellectual, artistic, political, philosophical—have always tied people together across linguistic, cultural, and political boundaries. Transnational alliances have inspired and sustained local activities and activism, sometimes challenging nation-state hegemonies, sometimes reinforcing them. From the continental engagements of the Nordic “Modern Breakthrough” to the economic and security calculations of the European Union and NATO alliance, to the trans-Indigenous common cause of Sámi and North American Indigenous activists, broader alliances have served as sources of innovation and needed support. Alliances with like-minded artists and polities beyond the boundaries of the nation state—not least with emigrant communities in North America—have provided new ideas and new energies for endeavors on the local level.

Today, some voices have questioned the utility of alliances or have called for the jettisoning of certain alliances in favor of others. Do alliances undermine or compromise the autonomy of local or national causes? What are the tradeoffs of seeking, maintaining, or breaking alliances? Although alliance repositioning is perhaps now most prominent on the level of international politics, the organizers of this conference invite presenters to consider from interdisciplinary perspectives how processes of alliance making and alliance breaking play roles in culture and society more generally, exploring the causes, contexts, and mechanisms for shifting alliances across history.

While SASS conferences tend to focus on literary and cultural studies and AABS conferences draw more scholarship in the fields of history and political science, we invite scholars from all disciplines to join this conference, to explore this topic and to foster intellectual alliances across fields and regions. As with previous AABS and SASS conferences, presentations that entail approaches and topics outside of the conference theme are also welcome.

The conference will feature panels, roundtables, keynote talks, film screenings, and cultural events. In addition to proposals for individual conference presentations, the organizing committee encourages submissions of organized panels and roundtables. Since AABS and SASS meet together only occasionally, sessions that combine Nordic and Baltic studies topics and expertise are particularly encouraged.

Image copyright: Jason Lindsey, Courtesy Destination Madison.