This workshop seeks to unite scholars from multiple disciplinary perspectives to explore the political, economic, religious, and legal negotiations over the social meanings of “freedom” and “belonging.” This exploration might take many forms. One potential avenue of inquiry is to un-tether these complicated ideas from their white middle-class anchors to examine their impact on the communal identities of enslaved African Americans, Mexicans and Mexican Americans, Asian immigrants, and American Indians. Furthermore, the study of “responsibility,” its history and social meanings, and especially its connection to social belonging, offers a concrete way to connect scholarship in ethics, law, history, political science, geography, philosophy, religious studies, sociology, witness studies, psychology, media studies, literary studies, public health, and many other fields. In addition to contributing to interdisciplinary knowledge about freedom and belonging in the nineteenth century United States, this workshop seeks to organize a lasting infrastructure on the UW-Madison campus for cross- and inter-disciplinary inquiry and conversation among scholars interested in American Studies.
