UNIVERSIDAD COMPLUTENSE DE MADRID 

Contemporary History has witnessed the rise of the United States from colony to superpower. America became culturally prominent in the twentieth century, a historic achievement whose critical scrutiny inevitably segues into an enduring question: what kind of community has constituted this country and has guaranteed its leadership? Sustained in its origins by Puritan spirituality, a Romantic bond to the land, and Enlightened revolutionary ideals, American ideology has created a social texture predicated upon two pillars: the individual and the community. Today, at the outset of the twenty-first century and the new millennium, there is still a question that demands careful consideration: how can we (re)define the "American People," who inaugurated not only the first paragraph of the American Constitution but also the Age of Modernity? The twenty-first century offers an inestimable vantage point to look back on the recent American past and explore the configuration of the country’s communities.

The 12^th INTERNATIONAL SAAS CONFERENCE—to be held in Madrid in 2015—will examine the evolution of American communities by probing the effects of multiculturalism and the integration—or collapse—of social diversity, insofar as they may have aided or hindered the consolidation of communities. In the present and future contexts of global politics, it is fitting to continue raising the following questions: What international role—as a community—awaits the United States in the globalized new century? How will American communities evolve and how will they reintegrate themselves in this new global order? How will these communities be conceived or re-fashioned? How will they define or identify their common features? Will American communities be conjoined by morals, beliefs, language, or political membership?

For further information, please don't hesitate to contact us at saas2015@ucm.es