Read about 2024 Grad Prize winner Darby Ratliff's experience at the Kansas City Conference:

One of the things I love most about conferences is the orchestrated serendipity. Sitting in the “Time, Temporality, and the Indigenous Environments” panel on October 24th, I felt one of my comprehensive examination reading lists come to life as Brenda Child presented on her new project, taking questions from Louis Warren, Ned Blackhawk, and Col Thrush, all of whose work I read as part of an Indigenous Studies field list. In graduate school, there is so much discussion of being in conversation with scholars and learning where one’s work fits within that field that to see it literally embodied at the Western History Association’s conference this year was such a gift. It was also a reminder that though academic work can seem to exist in a vacuum as we sift through archives or at our respective desks, there is an intensely collaborative and community-based element to it as well. 

While at first overwhelmed by the sheer number of activities, events, and panels at WHA, I quickly settled into a routine of trying to absorb as much of its opportunities as I could. One of my favourite sessions was the first “Roundtable on Keywords in Western History.”. The four keywords were “treaties,” “expansion,” “queerness,” and “Whiteness.” As someone consistently wrestling with many of the same terms in my work, it was really useful to hear established scholars in the field discussing these terms, offering suggestions for reading, and explaining their approach. I was particularly interested in Jennifer Holland’s discussion of “queerness,” given that I am both not trained in queer studies, but I am interested in the way that historians of the nineteenth century can use it as a lens of examining same-sex relationships. In particular, I was interested in her assertion that queer theory dovetails particularly well with western history, given that geographically the West can be seen as placing the fringe as the center.  

This conference was particularly special to me because my home department in American Studies at Saint Louis University covered registration for anyone in my doctoral program who wanted to attend. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m an intensely team-oriented person, and so getting to do a conference with my team allowed for a reflection-based component that was helpful for processing elements of the experience relating to my research. For example, I was delighted to discuss  the “Contested Land and Competing Futures in Indian Territory, North and South” panel with my colleague. Dr. Katie Walkiewicz incorporated their family history into their presentation, discussing the nuances of being Cherokee, matriarchal traditions, and their grandfather’s service in the Confederate Army. Dr. Walkiewicz’s background is in literature, and both my colleague and I discussed how we appreciated their approach to storytelling through family history and through history in general, since we’re both more traditional historians.  

Moreover, I was delighted to be on a panel with a friend to discuss the intersections between Native history and the Catholic Church. Carving out time to talk about religious history and empire, it was wonderful to be in conversation with Zara Surratt and Danae Jacobson. Having been encouraged to attend WHA in the first place based on the idea of putting a panel together, it was great to see it come together and for us to be able to share our work and research. Moreover, I’d never been on a panel with a a commenter before, and so I’m eternally grateful to Dr. Jacobson for her time and attention to both my paper and Zara’s, as well as the questions she posed as I work to incorporate this paper back into my dissertation, certainly with her feedback in mind. It’s always interesting to hear one’s work reflected back, and so I was amazed to hear Dr. Jacobson noted how my paper incorporated print culture–which absolutely made sense given the inclusion of a Lakota-language newspaper–pointing out something obvious that being so in the weeds with the work itself, I had not recognized. Overall, the whole conversation made me excited to return to my research and my dissertation, giving me a second wind in a process that can feel so long and isolating. 

In the elevator one night, I was talking with a fellow attendee who said that conferences are great for scheduling time to see friends each year, and I feel lucky to have heard the many enriching papers, to have participated in great conversations and, of couse, to have seen so many new and old friends, both expected and otherwise. In a true moment of serendipity, I was chatting with someone from Stanford University for the first time after the Awards Ceremony, and I asked her if she happened to know someone I used to work with. Imagine my surprise when she told me that that person was flying in that night to present at the Southern Historical Association conference the next day! It was so delightful to catch up and, because both presentations on Saturday, not only were we able to see each other, we were also able to attend each other’s panels. Altogether, it was an incredible week, and I’m grateful for the support of the WHA Graduate Student Prize for making it possible.  I look forward to attending WHA in the future and seeing the folks I met for the first time again, exchanging stories and continuing conversations started at this one in Kansas City. 

The Editorial Board of the peer-reviewed Metropolitan Museum Journal invites submissions of original research on works of art in the Museum’s collection.  

The Journal  publishes Articles and Research Notes. Works of art from The Met collection should be central to the discussion. Articles contribute extensive and thoroughly argued scholarship—art historical, technical, and scientific—whereas Research Notes are narrower in scope, focusing on a specific aspect of new research or presenting a significant finding from technical analysis, for example. The maximum length for articles is 8,000 words (including endnotes) and 10–12 images, and for research notes 4,000 words (including endnotes) and 4–6 images. 

The process of peer review is double-anonymous. Manuscripts are reviewed by the Journal Editorial Board, composed of members of the curatorial, conserva­tion, and scientific departments, as well as scholars from the broader academic community.

Articles and Research Notes in the Journal appear in print and online, and are accessible in JStor on the University of Chicago Press website. 

The deadline for submissions for Volume 61 (2025) is September 15, 2025.

Submission guidelines: www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/met/instruct

Please send materials to: journalsubmissions@metmuseum.org

Questions? Write to Elizabeth.Block@metmuseum.org

The Joslyn brings people together to explore art across time and cultures. Our vision is to broaden our collection, invigorate our programs, bolster our organization, and open our doors wider to everyone. We are art-centered, inclusive, responsible, and dynamic. Be a part of our team. The Joslyn is home to the exceptional Maximilian-Bodmer collection. Individuals working in either position listed below would have the opportunity to engage with this collection through Native community initiatives, research, and interpretation. For more on these job opprtunities click here

Curatorial Assistant, Native American Art

This position is open at the assistant level for a two-year term to support the Museum’s Native American art collections and programs. It offers a motivated individual the opportunity to gain curatorial experience and may serve as preparation for an advanced career in a museum curatorial department or for graduate study.

Assistant or Associate Curator of American Art

The position is open at the Assistant or Associate Curator level and offers a motivated individual the opportunity to create a dynamic program for American art, encompassing collections, exhibitions, research, and interpretation.

To apply for either positions, please submit your cover letter and CV via email to careers@joslyn.org , and include the job role in the subject line. Joslyn Art Museum believes in fostering diversity and equal opportunity as integral parts of its hiring practices, upholding its commitment as an Equal Opportunity Employer. Qualified candidates of all backgrounds are encouraged to apply for this position. Joslyn offers competitive compensation and a generous benefits package to eligible employees.

The 10th Annual Eastern Sierra History Conference seeks to enhance awareness, enrich knowledge, and generate recognition of the diverse and complex heritage of the Sierra Nevada region. We are seeking presentations on the history and culture of the Sierra Nevada, the contiguous geographic areas of the Sierra Nevada and the Great Basin, along with research that may have taken place outside of the region but is related to the history of the area. Selected presenters will have their papers published in the Eastern Sierra History Journal, a digital publication that is sponsored by Sierra Forever and the Claremont Colleges.

This event will be an in-person conference held at the Cerro Coso Community College in Bishop, CA. The Conference will feature keynote speakers in the morning of Friday and Saturday. The morning session presenters will have 40 minutes to speak with 10 minutes for discussion. Afternoon session presenters will have 30 minutes to present with 10 minutes for discussion. Breakfast, lunch, and light refreshments at breaks will be provided along with a dinner on Saturday evening for all speakers and conference attendees. Sierra Forever will sell relevant books during the conference.

Please submit a maximum 250 words abstract along with a brief biographical statement to Michelle Kelly, Education & Events Manager, Sierra Forever at michelle@sierraforever.org by Friday, June 27, 2025.

If you have any questions, please contact Michelle Kelly by email at michelle@sierraforever.org or by phone at (760) 920-9224.

Dr. Bob (Robert) Bonner, Marjorie Crabb Garbisch Professor Emeritus of History & the Liberal Arts at Carleton College and longtime WHA member, died on April 16, 2025.

Dr. Bonner's active involvement with our organization began as early as the 1990s, when he served on the Local Arrangements Committee for the WHA's 37th Annual Conference in St. Paul, Minnesota. His participation in the WHA continued as he attended and presented his work at several subsequent conferences and published in the Western Historical Quarterly. 

We invite you to read Dr. Bonner's obituary to learn more about his life and storied career. Memorial services took place on Thursday, April 24th, 2025, in Northfield, Minnesota. 

The Abbott-Johnson Award, created through a generous contribution from Carl Abbott and David Johnson, past PCB-AHA Presidents and Co-Editors of the Pacific Historical Review (PHR), will be awarded annually for the best article in the history of the Pacific World, its peoples, and relations (including Oceanian, Southeast Asian, Asian American, and Hawaiian history), published in the PHR or in another journal by a PCB-AHA member. The award honors Abbott, emeritus professor of Urban Studies and History at Portland State University, and Johnson, emeritus professor of History at Portland State University, for their service to the PCB-AHA, the PHR, and the field of Pacific World history.

Abbott is author or co-author of numerous books, including The Metropolitan Frontier: Cities in the Modern American West, The New Urban America: Growth and Politics in Sunbelt Cities, How Cities Won the West: Four Centuries of Urban Change in Western North America, Greater Portland: Urban Life and Landscape in the Pacific Northwest, and Imagining Urban Futures: Cities in Science Fiction and What We Might Learn from Them.

Johnson published Founding the Far West: California, Oregon, Nevada, 1840–1890, which received the 1992 Pacific Coast Branch Award for an outstanding first monograph on any historical subject. At PSU, Johnson received the Burlington Northern Award for excellence in teaching and scholarship, the John Eliot Allen Outstanding Teaching Award, and the Branford Price Millar Award for outstanding scholarship and service. He is working on a book about the only woman lynched during the California Gold Rush.

The author need not live within the region served by the PCB-AHA (the Western States of the United States and the Western Provinces of Canada) if the article appeared in the PHR. Articles eligible for our other prizes are eligible for this award. The recipient will receive $250. If the article appears outside of the PHR, the author must be a current member of the American Historical Association living or working in the region served by the Pacific Coast Branch.

We are accepting further donations to support the Abbott-Johnson Award. You can questions about submissions and donations to Michael Green, Executive Director PCB–AHA, michael.green@pcb-aha.org.

You may submit articles for consideration until April 15, 2025, to the following three committee members:

David A. Johnson, Portland State University, johnsod@pdx.edu

Megan Asaka, University of California, Riverside, megan.asaka@ucr.edu

Maile Arvin, University of Utah, maile.arvin@utah.edu

Through a collaborative effort of the Ivan Doig Center for the Study of the Lands & Peoples of the North American West, the Archives and Special Collections (ASC) department of the MSU Library, and the Friends of MSU Library , Montana State University offers a $3,000 annual award to facilitate research into collections held by ASC.  

The award is intended to defray the costs of either travel to Bozeman to conduct research; to facilitate digitization of portions of a collection to allow a researcher to work remotely; or a mix of the two. Recipients may be academics (including graduate students) or independent scholars who are residents of the United States. We are unable to pay for any costs above the award amount. 

Recipients should have a proven track record of accomplishment (or promise, in the case of graduate students) in their scholarly or creative work.  Applicants may use any of the unrestricted holdings of the MSU Archives and Special Collections, including manuscripts, MSU archives, the Trout and Salmonid collection, or Special Collections books. 

The awardee will share the preliminary results of their work in a public online presentation for MSU students, faculty, staff, and the Friends of the Library during the academic year following the award and will complete a creative or scholarly work within one calendar year from the date of the award. A copy of the work should be submitted to the head of Archives and Special Collections on completion.

Applications should consist of: 

• A cover letter;  
• A statement of purpose of no more than 1500 words describing the project, the collections the researcher plans to consult, and the anticipated final product;  
• A budget for travel, digitization, or a combination of the two;  
• A 2-3 page curriculum vitae. 

Send applications to the Head of Archives and Special Collections, Jodi Allison-Bunnellby April 14, 2025.  

Applications will be evaluated by a joint committee composed of the director of the Doig Center, a member of the ASC faculty, the Head of ASC, and a member of the Friends board.  

Criteria for evaluation: 

• Evidence of an appropriate range and depth of ASC collections to be used;   
• Significance and originality (or a fresh treatment) of the proposed topic; 

• Quality of writing and organization; 
• Applicant’s past record of successfully publishing or otherwise disseminating academic or creative works, or in the case of graduate students, demonstrated promise of success; 
• A well-supported budget for travel, digitization, or both. 

The award will be announced by May 1, 2025. Recipients will receive $1,500 at the start of the research and $1,500 after their public presentation is completed. We highly recommend travel in early to mid summer, when awardees can access campus housing. Lodging in Bozeman is extremely expensive.   

The Merrill G. Burlingame Archives and Special Collections at MSU features manuscript collections on the West and the Greater Yellowstone, with particular strengthsin agricultural history; the world’s most comprehensive collection of trout and salmonid books; select records of MSU history; area-focused books; and a substantial collection of angling oral histories.  

2025 Pacific Northwest Labor History Conference: “Labor in a Hostile Political Environment: What Can Labor History Teach Us?”

April 25-26, Portland, Oregon

Registration Open Now at pnlha.org

Friday night, April 25 Oregon AFL-CIO, 3645 SE 32 nd Ave., Portland

6:00-8:00 p.m. Panel Discussion: “How Labor History Helps Us Understand and Face the Current Attacks on the Labor Movement”

Graham Trainor, President, Oregon AFL-CIO

April Sims, President, Washington State Labor Council

Sussanne Skidmore, President, British Columbia Federation of Labour

Tour, Reception and Social Hour

Saturday, April 26, NECA/IBEW Electrical Training Center, 16021 NE Airport Way, Portland

8:00-5:00 pm Plenary Sessions:

“The Other Operation Dixie: Public Workers and the Future of the Labor Movement”

Will Jones, Professor of History, University of Minnesota

“Malevolent Bargains: The Politics of Immigration Restriction (1920s/2020s)”

Dan Tichenor, Professor of Political Science, Director, Wayne Morse Center on Public Governance, University of Oregon

Bob Bussel, Professor Emeritus, Labor Education and Research Center, University of Oregon

Responses from Oregon Trade Unionists

Workshops/Panels:

•Pages from British Columbia Labor History

•Black Oregonians and the Civilian Conservation Corps

•Teacher Strikes in the PNW in Historical Perspective

•Young Workers On the Move

•Class and Racial Violence in the PNW

•Labor and the Environment

•Julia Rutilla, PNW Radical

•New Research in Labor History and Labor Strategy

•How to Do Local Union History

[Agenda subject to change. See PNLHA website for Updates]

Register now at pnlha.org

Early Bird (by April 1): $45

Students: Free [with student ID]

Pedagogy in an Age of Uncertainty: AI, Inclusive Teaching, and the Politics of Knowledge

Proposal Due: May 23, 2025

Conference Date: August 18 - 21, 2025

Location: Virtual on Whova

H-Net is pleased to announce that “Pedagogy in an Age of Uncertainty: AI, Inclusive Teaching, and the Politics of Knowledge” will be our theme for the fourth annual Teaching Conference. This year’s theme invites presenters to explore the challenges of teaching and learning amid rapidly evolving technologies, the complexities of knowledge production in an era of misinformation and censorship, and ongoing debates over diversity and inclusion at all levels of education.

We welcome individual, panel, and roundtable proposals, and encourage interactive sessions such as digital posters, assignment charrettes, and other innovative formats that foster engagement and discussion.

This year, our keynote speaker will be Robert Cassanello, Associate Professor of History at the University of Central Florida.

The conference will be held in a virtual format during the week of Monday, August 18th, 2025. Presenters will have the opportunity to be recorded for future reference via the H-Net Commons. Selected presenters will also be invited to publish their work in the H-Net Conference Proceedings publication.

All proposals should include a title, CVs and email addresses for all presenters, and an abstract of no more than 200 words. No pre-recorded sessions will be accepted. Submissions are encouraged to focus on any of the following issues: 

1. Innovative pedagogical approaches to fostering critical thinking, media literacy, and inclusive and equitable learning environments in today’s polarized political landscape.

2. Challenges and strategies related to the use of digital resources and artificial intelligence.

3. Public-facing educational programs and resources (H-Net, National History Day, literacy initiatives, etc.) that strengthen civic engagement, historical literacy, and interdisciplinary collaboration and can enrich existing humanities efforts on the local, state, and national levels.

4. Difficulties relating to government mandates at all educational levels.

Email submissions to brothe10@msu.edu by Friday, May 23, 2025.

As H-Net is a proponent of open source access, the conference will be free and open to all.

The National Archives Foundation still welcomes applications for the Fifth Annual Cokie Roberts Fellowship for Women's History. Applications will be accepted through April 14, 2025.

LEARN MORE

The Cokie Roberts Research Fund for Women’s History will award up to $12,500 to support annual fellowships for applicants who will perform new research at the National Archives to elevate women’s history. Applicants can be based anywhere in the U.S. The recipients of the fellowship will perform original document research from the National Archives on women’s history for a published book, article, essay, film, short series, or art piece developed for the general public.

How to apply: The application window is currently open and will close on April 14, 2025. Interested applicants must submit the following information through an online form: Project Proposal Responses – Applications require written responses to project proposal questions. These questions include: An abstract or executive summary of your project proposal; any prior experience conducting research at the National Archives; an overview of your proposed research topic and why the topic is important to you; and when and where you hope to publish your final work. Resume/CV (no more than three pages) One (1) letter of recommendation (supporting your application/project) Three (3) samples of your work. Contact fellowship@archivesfoundation.org for more information.

APPLY NOW

Curious about past recipients? You can learn more about prior awardees and their respective projects and topics at the fellows page here.