Communists rejecting national isolationism to fight against fascism in the Spanish Civil War. American anti-war GIs in West Germany revolutionising rock and roll. Anticolonial activists from around the world flocking to newly independent Algeria in the early 1970s. Sargent Shriver criticising the Vietnam War and improving diplomatic relations between the United States and France.

These are some of the ways that both official and citizen diplomats have dissented from the stated position of their government to meet the challenges of nation building and international relations. Following the success of our 2026 symposium “Citizens Abroad and the International Order”, this one-day conference seeks to examine the varied ways in which dissent, broadly defined, has been employed to uphold, challenge, or restructure the nation and/or international order.

We are pleased to announce Prof. Giles Scott-Smith (Leiden University) as our keynote speaker.  We are also excited to announce that the conference will feature a new works panel featuring Prof. Judy Tzu-Chun Wu (University of California at Irvine) to discuss her and Adrienne Winnan’s recently published Moving Mountains: Asian American and Pacific Islander Feminisms and the 1977 National Women's Conference, Eline von Ommen (University of Leeds) to discuss Nicaragua Must Survive: Sandinista Revolutionary Diplomacy in the Global Cold War, and Dr. Owen Walsh (University of Aberdeen) to discuss his forthcoming book, Frontiers of Black Freedom: Internationalism, Americanism, and Anti-racist Solidarity during the 1930s.

We welcome students and scholars covering any population during any era and have reserved slots for PGRs wishing to present their work.