During the past 250 years, agrarian labor regimes throughout much of the world have undergone radical changes, with an impact on billions of people. The transformation of the global countryside might indeed be one of the most significant historical processes of the modern era.

The Weatherhead Initiative on Global History (WIGH) at Harvard University is planning a conference for April 2013 that is focusing on changing labor regimes within global agriculture. We are interested in exploring the diversity of labor regimes, the paths along which they changed, and—most especially—the connections between these changes in different parts of the world. We are interested in work that explores the connected histories of propertied farming, sharecropping, wage labor, slavery, cultures obligatoires, and other such forms of labor, and how they have been connected to the spatial and social spread of capitalism.

We are seeking proposals from historians, political scientists, economists, sociologists, and anthropologists at all stages of their academic career, including graduate students. We encourage proposals from those in relevant career paths or institutions outside the university. We are particularly interested in forging a global discussion of these topics, and therefore welcome especially contributions from outside North America and Europe. The conference will try to balance broad comparative papers and revealing case studies.

The Weatherhead Initiative on Global History is a newly created center that responds to the growing interest at Harvard in the encompassing study of global history. The Initiative is committed to the systematic scrutiny of developments that have unfolded across national, regional, and continental boundaries as well as to analysis of the interconnections—cultural, economic, ecological and demographic—among world societies. For further information about WIGH as well as the conference, please consult our website at http://wigh.wcfia.harvard.edu.

Proposals should include an abstract of no more than two pages and a brief curriculum vita. Please email your submissions to Jessica Barnard (jbarnard@wcfia.harvard.edu) before November 30, 2012. Travel expenses as well as accommodation will be covered.

Sven Beckert and Charles Maier

Directors, Weatherhead Initiative in Global History, Harvard University