Please join the Smithsonian Latino Center, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture for a virtual symposium, The Other Slavery: Histories of Indian Bondage from New Spain to the Southwestern United States. Please see below for information and program details:

The Other Slavery: Histories of Indian Bondage from New Spain to the Southwestern United States

September 24–27, 2021

Available on-demand via: https://nmai.brand.live/c/the-other-slavery

This symposium explores hidden stories of enslaved Indigenous peoples, focusing on the legacy of Spanish colonization in the Americas and Asia and its impact on what is now the southwestern United States. Experts from a range of academic disciplines, including Indigenous studies, anthropology, and history, examine untold stories of coerced labor and peonage and the long-term impact of Indian slavery. Panelists discuss the legacies of Native American enslavement with Indigenous community leaders and cultural workers. The symposium explores the different forms and complexity of human bondage that resulted in hybrid cultures, tangled economic practices, and intricate social relationships between the Spanish and Indigenous communities. This program seeks to give a comprehensive “first voice” to these hushed stories and living legacies. 

The symposium is presented by the Smithsonian Latino Center, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, in association with the Smithsonian’s initiative, Our Shared Future: Reckoning with Our Racial Past.

STATEMENT ON HOLDING 2022 WHA ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN SAN ANTONIO

In the wake of the passage of Texas Senate Bill 8—the most restrictive abortion ban imposed since the U.S. Supreme Court established the right to abortion in 1973—two Western History Association members asked the WHA to relocate our 2022 annual conference from San Antonio outside of Texas. One also mentioned voter suppression as an additional reason why the WHA shouldn’t meet in Texas. We assume this refers to Texas Senate Bill 1, which imposes new restrictions on how and when voters cast ballots, targeting in particular past initiatives to foster voter participation in Harris County, home to Houston, the most diverse city in the U.S.

The WHA Executive Committee as well as the leadership team for the 2022 WHA annual conference have considered these requests. We are grateful to anyone who urges the WHA to maintain the highest ideals and practices of equity, inclusion, and diversity. We share deep concern about Senate Bill 8, Senate Bill 1, and other legislation that restricts the rights and threatens the well-being of women, people of color, immigrants, working people, and LGBTQ people in Texas. We are especially concerned with legislative attempts designed to restrict the teaching of race and history in public schools. But we do not think that moving the 2022 conference outside of Texas will promote the interests of those who remain most vulnerable to the sexist, racist, anti-immigrant, anti-worker, homophobic, and transphobic impulses that inform such measures. San Antonio is a majority minority city. Almost two-thirds of its residents identify as Latinx, and there are sizable African American, Asian American, Indigenous, and mixed-race populations there as well. Women, people of color, and LGBTQ people own small businesses near the conference site, and many more work in the corporate hotel and restaurant industry that flourishes in the Riverwalk area. We hope that the presence of up to a thousand conference-goers will bring some benefit to these communities, and, as we suggest below, we're actively seeking ways to engage with them in order to learn how we can best support their efforts to shape their own lives and the world around them. The 2022 Local Arrangements Committee is planning tours that highlight the histories of communities of color in San Antonio, and those tours will feature women and people of color as leaders and participants. The 2022 Program Committee is just beginning its work (the call for papers deadline is Dec. 5, 2021), but they’re exploring public forums that will highlight the history of struggles for reproductive and voting rights in Texas and the West and that will address attempts to restrict teaching about race and inequality in U.S. history. And the two committees are committed to working in concert, first, to identify local businesses, restaurants, galleries, and grassroots organizations that support the interests of vulnerable populations in San Antonio, and then, once identified, to support them in material ways.

The WHA Executive Committee and the leadership team for the 2022 conference are also concerned for the long-term health of the WHA. The WHA contracts with hotels as conference venues several years in advance, long before we can know what issues will arise in a state or city that will concern our members. These are binding contracts. We use the conference organizing service INMEX (Informed Meetings Exchange), which ensures that we’re doing business with socially responsible hotels. The WHA has a policy of meeting in union hotels, considering exceptions only every seven years (the exception gives us the option of meeting occasionally in union-unfriendly places where many of our members nonetheless live and work). The Hyatt Regency Riverwalk in San Antonio is a union hotel whose workers are represented by UNITE HERE. If the WHA cancels its contract with the hotel, our organization will incur a penalty of $299,000. That money will stay in corporate Texas, continuing to enrich the state, even as local businesses and organizations will be deprived of revenue from conference-goers, low-wage workers will lose hours and tips, and San Antonio will not feel the presence of a progressive organization whose members not only study the history but also overwhelmingly support the interests of women, people of color, immigrants, working people, and LGBTQ people. Meanwhile, the WHA will have to contract on short notice with another hotel in another city, further depleting finite resources. The cost of doing so is too high and the benefits too uncertain. For all of these reasons, the WHA Executive Committee and the leadership team for the 2022 WHA conference, with the backing of the WHA Council, unanimously support keeping that meeting in San Antonio and honoring our contract with the Hyatt Regency Riverwalk and its union workers.

WHA Executive Committee

María E. Montoya, President (2021)

Susan Lee Johnson, President-Elect (2022)

Elaine Marie Nelson, Executive Director

WHA 2022 Leadership Team

Susan Lee Johnson, President-Elect (2022)

Julian Lim, Program Committee Co-Chair

Tyina Steptoe, Program Committee Co-Chair

William Kiser, Local Arrangements Committee Co-Chair

Omar Valerio-Jiménez, Local Arrangements Committee Co-Chair

Lindsey Passenger Wieck, Local Arrangements Committee Co-Chair

WHA Council

Laurie Arnold

Erika Bsumek

B. Erin Cole

Philip J. Deloria

Anne M. Hyde

Susan Lee Johnson

Ari Kelman

María E. Montoya

Elaine Marie Nelson

Erika Pérez

Lynn Roper

Martha A. Sandweiss

Rachel St. John

Jenni Tifft-Ochoa

David Wrobel

The Center for Great Plains Studies (CGPS) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln seeks a Postdoctoral Fellow with expertise in the history of African Americans in Oklahoma and/or African Americans in the American West to carry out both quantitative and interpretive research on Black homesteading in Oklahoma. The Fellowship will extend the work of the Black Homesteader project at CGPS. The Fellow will co-publish a report and academic articles and provide digital content to the National Park Service homesteading website. The Fellow will work with a team of researchers under the direction of supervisors at both the University of Oklahoma and the CGPS AT UNL. Position is for one year, but renewable for a second year. Remote working option available; some travel required.

A PhD in African American Studies, American History, Ethnic Studies, or a related discipline relevant to the humanistic social sciences is required. Knowledge of the history of African Americans in Oklahoma and/or expertise in African Americans in the American West; familiarity with the history of federal land policies on the Great Plains; experience with quantitative census records research and archival government records; experience with data collection, archival research, and digital humanities research; and strong written and oral communication skills are preferred.

Review of applications will begin September 27, 2021 and will continue until the position is filled or the search is closed. To apply, please go to https://employment.unl.edu/, requisition F_210105.  Click “Apply to this Job” and complete the Faculty/Academic Administrative Information form. Attach a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, names and contact information for three professional references, and a writing sample no larger than 9 MB.  

As an EO/AA employer, qualified applicants are considered for employment without regard to race, color, ethnicity, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, age, genetic information, veteran status, marital status, and/or political affiliation. See http://www.unl.edu/equity/notice-nondiscrimination.

Note: Hiring date is flexible, but will be between November 1, 2021 and January 3, 2022 (at the latest). 

Direct link: https://employment.unl.edu/postings/74597

POSITION OVERVIEW

Anticipated start: July 1, 2022

APPLICATION WINDOW

Open September 13th, 2021 through Monday, Oct 18, 2021 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

POSITION DESCRIPTION

The University of California at Berkeley seeks applications for a joint tenure-track faculty appointment at the level of assistant professor in the Departments of History and Ethnic Studies in Native North American History. Region and time-period open. They particularly welcome applications from scholars who employ the methods of Native American and Indigenous Studies.

UC Berkeley is dedicating six new faculty positions to establish the university as an international center of excellence in Native American and Indigenous Studies. Building upon substantial existing campus assets—including an undergraduate major and graduate program in Native American Studies and strengths in Native American languages and literature, indigenous archaeology and cultural anthropology—their goal is to make UC Berkeley the pre-eminent institution of higher education in the field.

Candidates will be evaluated and must be suitable for appointments in both the Department of History and the Department of Ethnic Studies, which houses the Native American Studies (NAS) program. Further information about the NAS program is available at https://ethnicstudies.berkeley.edu/areas-of-study/area/native-american-studies/.

The Departments of History and Ethnic Studies and in the Division of Social Sciences, recognize the intrinsic relationship between diversity and excellence in all their endeavors and embrace open and equitable access to opportunities for learning and development as their obligation and goal. They seek candidates who demonstrate a commitment to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging through their research, teaching, and/or service. Their Division is committed to upholding the university’s principles of community so that every individual can be successful in a healthy, welcoming, and safe environment.

Additional information about programs and resources supporting the advancement of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging is available at: https://ls.berkeley.edu/about/diversity-equity-and-inclusion

https://ls.berkeley.edu/ls-divisions/social-sciences/diversity-equity-and-inclusion

And specific resources within The Department of History: https://history.berkeley.edu/resources/equity-diversity-inclusion

For information about potential relocation to Berkeley, or career needs of accompanying partners and spouses, please visit: http://ofew.berkeley.edu/new-faculty

The department is committed to addressing the family needs of faculty, including dual career couples and single parents. They are also interested in candidates who have had non-traditional career paths or who have taken time off for family reasons, or who have achieved excellence in careers outside academia.

QUALIFICATIONS

Basic qualifications (required at time of application)

Ph.D. (or equivalent international degree) or enrolled in a Ph.D. (or equivalent international degree) granting program.

Preferred qualifications

Ph.D. or equivalent international degree in History or related discipline is preferred by appointment date.

APPLICATION REQUIREMENTS

Document requirements

• Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.
• Cover Letter
• Writing Sample - no longer than 60 pages, double-spaced
• Statement on Contributions to Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - Statement on your contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion, including information about your understanding of these topics, your record of activities to date, and your specific plans and goals for advancing equity and inclusion if hired at Berkeley (for additional information go to https://ofew.berkeley.edu/recruitment/contributions-diversity).

Reference requirements

• 3 required (contact information only)

Letters may be solicited for candidates under serious consideration (the committee will inform candidates that their references will be contacted).

Apply link: https://aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF03133

Help contact: history-ap@berkeley.edu

CAMPUS INFORMATION

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are core values at UC Berkeley. Their excellence can only be fully realized by faculty, students, and academic and non-academic staff who share their commitment to these values. Successful candidates for their academic positions will demonstrate evidence of a commitment to advancing equity, inclusion, and belonging.

The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy see: http://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000376/NondiscrimAffirmAct

In searches when letters of reference are required all letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality (http://apo.berkeley.edu/ucb-confidentiality-policy) prior to submitting their letter.

As a condition of employment, you will be required to comply with the University of California SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Vaccination Program Policy https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/5000695/SARS-CoV-2_Covid-19. All Covered Individuals under the policy must provide proof of Full Vaccination or, if applicable, submit a request for Exception (based on Medical Exemption, Disability, and/or Religious Objection) or Deferral (based on pregnancy) no later than the applicable deadline. For new University of California employees, the applicable deadline is eight weeks after their first date of employment. (Capitalized terms in this paragraph are defined in the policy.)

JOB LOCATION

Berkeley, CA

The 2021 application for the Peter E. Palmquist Memorial Fund for Historical Photographic Research is now open. 

Considered one of the most important photo historians of the 20th century, Peter E. Palmquist (1936 - 2003) had a keen interest in the photography of the American West, California, and Humboldt County before 1950, and the history of women in photography worldwide. He published over 60 books and 340 articles and was a strong proponent of the concept of the independent researcher-writer in the field of photo history. With co-author Thomas Kailbourn, he won the Caroline Bancroft Western History Prize for their book, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West. Professor Martha Sandweiss, Princeton University, wrote, “He (Peter) established new ways of pursuing the history of photography, and with his collections and research notes soon to be accessible at Yale, he will be speaking to and inspiring new generations of students and researchers forever.” Established by Peter’s lifetime companion, Pam Mendelsohn, this fund supports the study of under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present, and under-researched Western American photographers before 1900.

A small panel of outside consultants with professional expertise in the field of photo history and/or grant reviewing will review the applications in order to determine the awards. Applications will be judged on the quality of the proposal, the ability of the applicant to carry out the project within the proposed budget and timeline, and the significance of the project to the field of photographic history. Each recipient of the award will agree to donate upon completion of the project a copy of the resulting work (i.e., published book, unpublished report, thesis, etc.) to the Humboldt Area Foundation to submit to the Peter Palmquist Archive at Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library and a report to Humboldt Area Foundation at the end of the grant period. We ask that award recipients acknowledge the financial assistance provided by the Palmquist Memorial Fund in publications or other work products supported by that fund.

Past recipients and their projects are featured at http://www.palmquistgrants.com/

Range of Awards: $500 - $2,000

Eligibility

Individuals researching Western American photography before 1900 or women in photography as well as nonprofit institutions conducting research in these fields are eligible to apply.

Application Guidelines

1. Complete application form and budget form.

2. Write a short statement explaining your study of either:

• Under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present
• Under-researched Western American photographers before 1900

3. Your statement must include details of your work plan, the anticipated outcome of your research, and how you will use the funds. Failure to be specific in these details may result in rejection of the application. The statement must be typed in 12-point font, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins, and no more than 1,250 words.

4. Include a copy of your resume or curriculum vitae no longer than 3 pages.

5. Previous Palmquist Grant recipients may reapply if they include the following information:

• Report the specifics of what was accomplished with the award.
• Report the specifics of how the funds were used to reach that accomplishment
• Forward to the Humboldt Area Foundation copies of any published or unpublished work(s) that resulted from the previous Palmquist Grant.

6. The Palmquist Fund will not consider requests to cover salaries or pay for hardware or equipment.

7. The recipients will be required to expend the full amount of their grants on the expenses itemized in their budgets by the end of the grant period. Normally, the grant period is one year from the date of the announcement of the recipients. In view of the hardships the Covid-19 Pandemic has imposed, for this cycle of the grants, recipients will have 18 months from their grant date to expend their grant.

No other materials (additional samples of work, etc.) will be considered; please enclose only the items listed above.

Completed applications must be postmarked by November 1_, 2021 and submitted to:

Humboldt Area Foundation • 363 Indianola Road, Bayside, CA 95524

Or

via email: grants@hafoundation.org 

Award Recipients will be notified by January 15, 2022

For more information contact:

Humboldt Area Foundation at (707) 442-2993

or visit http://www.palmquistgrants.com/

The WHA congratulates Dr. Jonathan Scott Perry for his appointment as Phi Alpha Theta's new Executive Director. Dr. Perry is an active member in the Phi Alpha Theta community, currently serving as Book Review Editor for the honor society's journal, The Historian, and has served as advisor of the Alpha-Gamma-Chi Chapter at the University of Central Floria. Dr. Perry is Associate Professor of History at the University of South Florida where he teaches ancient history.

Please join the WHA in congratulating Dr. Perry on his appointment. 

Improving the Research Experience: 
A Workshop for Graduate Students in Western American History

Thursday October 28, 2021
1:30 P.M. to 4:00 P.M.

Location: Hilton Portland (Room TBD)

Sponsored by The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University

Organized by the Western History Librarian/Archivist/Curator Group

ADMISSION BY ADVANCE APPLICATION ONLY: Application Deadline is September 20!

Graduate Student Participants Receive $250 Honorarium

Presenters:

Peter J. Blodgett (The Huntington Library)

J. Wendel Cox (Dartmouth College)

Lisa E. Duncan (University of Arizona Special Collections)

Todd Fuller (University of Oklahoma)

Sam Herley (South Dakota Oral History Center)

Tamsen Hert (University of Wyoming Special Collections)

Anne Jenner (University of Washington Libraries)

Ginny Kilander (American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming)

Matthew Daniel Mason (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)

George Miles (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University)

Suzanne Noruschat (University of Southern California Libraries)

Theresa Salazar (Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley)

Laurie Scrivener (University of Oklahoma Scholarly Services and Research Initiatives)

Benjamin Stone (Stanford University Libraries)

Gregory C. Thompson (J.W. Marriott Library, University of Utah)

Rachel Vagts (Denver Public Library)

Workshop Details

Today’s graduate students in western history confront an increasing array of unyielding obstacles in launching their careers. Each year, they must scramble to keep up with the accelerating pace of changes in everything from the descriptive tools created by libraries and archives to the proliferation of digital resources generated by cultural institutions. Moreover, given the shrinking pool of dollars for projects in the humanities, graduate students face a steadily more ferocious competition for fellowships, research awards and grants in general.  Believing as we do that the graduate student community represents an essential dimension of western history’s future, we have developed the following workshop in collaboration with the WHA as a means of helping to meet what we see as particularly crucial needs for the next generation of scholars.

Workshop Schedule
This workshop will run from 1:00 PM until 4:00 PM on Thursday, October 28 and will consist of two sessions, preceded by a fifteen-minute introduction and incorporating one fifteen-minute break. The sessions will address the following topics:

• Introduction:  overview of workshop goals (15 minutes).

• Session #1:  Fellowships, research awards and grant seeking in general (60 minutes).

• Fifteen-minute break

• Session #2:  Plotting out the research project:  individual/small-group conversations about the dissertations being pursued by the workshop attendees (60 minutes).

Workshop Participation Details:

In order to keep the size manageable for the instructors and to enhance the quality of the experience for the participants, attendance at this inaugural version will be capped at 20 graduate students, selected through advance application; preference will be given to those who are at an earlier point in their pursuit of a Ph.D. so that they will have the maximum opportunity to benefit from what they learn in the workshop. Other graduate students, however, may be admitted on a space-available basis.  In hopes of assisting those who attend the workshop with defraying conference costs, we will be able to provide each graduate student participant with a $250 honorarium thanks to the generous support of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University. You will receive this honorarium at the workshop.

Workshop Application Guide:

Graduate students wishing to apply for the workshop should prepare the following in a single pdf document:

            1. Cover Sheet:

-Student’s name

-Institutional affiliation

-Contact information (email and surface mail addresses)

            2. Description of stage the student has reached in their program

            3. Enumerate the student’s research experience to date

            4. Provide an overview of the student’s dissertation. (The overview should summarize the            topic, including chronological and geographic parameters, collections of original sources            already consulted and all research institutions that the student has visited or will visit while

pursuing the dissertation.)

Send the final, compiled pdf document as an attachment email to wha@westernhistory.org with “2021 Grad Student Workshop” in the subject line. Include your name, institutional affiliation, and contact information in the email message. Applications for the workshop are due Monday, September 20, 2021 to wha@westernhistory.org

Send Questions about the applications or workshop to Peter J. Blodgett at pblodgett@huntington.org

C-SPAN 3 will be airing Dr. David Wrobel's WHA 2020 Presidential Keynote on John Steinbeck Sunday, August 29th at 3:25pm EDT. If you miss the live viewing and would like to watch later, the keynote will be available here after it airs on C-SPAN: 

https://www.c-span.org/video/?513837-1/john-steinbeck-american-west

On July 1 of this year, the WHA opened its operations in the History Department at the University of Kansas, the organization’s new institutional host. Elaine Nelson remains in her role as the WHA Executive Director and joined the KU History Department faculty as an Assistant Professor of History. The KU History Department has an award-winning faculty with strengths in several areas of study, including western, environmental, and Native American history. The WHA will benefit from the support of the dynamic faculty, staff, and graduate students who work to maintain the department’s national reputation. We are confident that the organization’s transition to KU will allow the WHA an opportunity to continue to expand its core mission and initiatives. There are already conversations underway about how the WHA will contribute to the graduate student community and offer collaborative opportunities with faculty across a variety of KU programs.

The Interdisciplinary Nineteenth Century Studies Association (INCS) is now accepting proposals for their 2022 annual conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah from March 24-27, 2022. The theme for the 2022 annual conference is stratification: physical and social, spatial and temporal, visual and textual. INCS invites papers that consider the myriad varieties of literal and figurative layering that played out across the nineteenth century. This conference will foreground how exploratory and creative acts of digging down and building up expose new truths and generate new knowledge: both in the nineteenth century and in contemporary scholarship of the period. 

For paper proposals, send a 200-word abstract and a one-page CV to INCS2022@utah.edu by October 8, 2021. For panel proposals, provide a brief overview of the panel in an email message and attach all paper proposals and CVs. 

For more information, visit the INCS site here: https://incsscholars.org/. Those interested may also contact Jessica Straley (jessica.straley@utah.edu) or Leslee Thorne-Murphy (lesleetm@byu.edu) for more information.