WORKSHOP: The American Constitution: A Conference on the 225th Anniversary of the Ratification

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AbstractThe American Constitution: A Conference on the 225th Anniversary of the Ratification Intellectual MeritThe birth of the American republic has been studied by scholars in history, law, political science, and economics. Despite over two centuries of popular and scholarly study of the Founding Era, the integration of theory and data is just beginning. This project supports a two a two-day conference that examines whether established theory and data analysis might improve research on the American Founding. Coinciding with the 225th anniversary of the ratification of the Constitution, the conference will host a number of political scientists and economists who use statistical and spatial scaling techniques as well as historians, law professors and experts in early American political thought who understand the history and legal traditions behind the event. The goal will be to attain a more scientific understanding of the American Founding that is well informed by history and law. Participating scholars will discuss the best ways to test conjectures about the American Founding, what data is needed for the next generation of studies, and the viability of applying quantitative methods to an event over two hundred years old. The conference will also disseminate an extensive data set on delegate votes at the Constitutional Convention gathered with support from the National Science Foundation (Dougherty and Heckelman 2010). Broader ImpactTo assure that the conference attains the broadest possible impact, expert presentations will be made available via webcasts, faculty from traditionally under represented institutions will be recruited through an open call for papers, graduate students from the host and other universities will be among the full participants, and undergraduates will have an opportunity to present their research in an undergraduate poster session. This will allow students to learn directly from the experts and to get feedback on their own ideas about the American Founding. All sessions will be open to the public, which will be advertised throughout the region.