What are YOU doing from September 15-17? Because AskHistorians is hosting an academic conference – and we want you to be there!
From the American Historical Association to the National Council on Public History, AskHistorians is no stranger to the conference scene. But this September, the tables will be turned: we’re inviting historians from across the world to take part in the inaugural AskHistorians Digital Conference!
You can expect video presentations and discussions featuring some of your favourite regular posters alongside experts and professional historians, accompanied by AMAs, special events and a keynote by Dr Alex Wellerstein (our very own u/restricteddata). The papers will be recorded, closed-captioned, and not pay-walled – it’s an academic conference, but for everyone!
This is a huge new step for AskHistorians. Due to Covid-19, quarantine, and social-distancing rules, in-person gatherings like academic conferences have been cancelled or moved online. Amidst these disruptions, we realized that /r/AskHistorians has something unique to offer: a whole digital platform already dedicated to sharing historical knowledge… with one of the largest and best-informed groups of history fans in the world! Our community is a natural home for historians to share their research and ideas online in these strange circumstances.
The conference theme reflects this: “‘Business as Unusual: Histories of Rupture, Chaos, Revolution, and Change’”. This event and the times we live in are unusual – but then so are many of the lives, events and phenomena historians study. While relatively few world events have been as disruptive as those that have unfolded this year, human history is full of examples of people attempting to make do under difficult, changing circumstances. We hope to be able to share histories that are insightful, fascinating and help us all reflect on what we’re going through.
Rather than simply trying to adapt a traditional academic conference into a new kind of digital space, we are hoping to really push the boundaries of what a conference can achieve. Our mission has always been about breaking down the artificial barriers that exist between those who produce historical knowledge, and those who want to learn more about the past. Above all, we hope that by offering a window into how historians of all types go about their craft, we will help open up the processes of historical research to history lovers beyond academia.
It is also (to our knowledge) the first time that a scholarly conference will use Reddit as a platform. We are uniquely equipped to integrate video and text, presentations and Q&A sessions, live events and networking spaces, all taking place in a space used every day by many thousands of avid history fans. And above all, the conference will be free and as accessible as we can possibly make it.
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In order to achieve all this, however, we are going to need your help. We’ve been working hard behind the scenes in recent weeks and months on conceptualizing and planning this conference, in the hope of achieving something special for our users. We are amazingly excited to be taking this step. But, we will need funding to make it all happen the way we envisage.
We are not a wealthy organisation, and none of the organisers can call on the kind of institutional support that would usually bankroll a conference like this one. While we’re knocking on plenty of doors to try and secure sponsorship, we are also reliant on the goodwill and support of our users. If you think this conference is something that should happen and would like to contribute, click the link below! Every contribution is appreciated, though we completely understand that not everyone – particularly just now – is in a position to give much or at all. If you want to contribute but can’t afford to, you can also help us out by spreading the word on social media! For those who can donate, we’re offering a range of limited edition swag and the chance to be part of behind-the-scenes events and conversations. Your money will go solely towards covering the cost of the event, such as platform fees and merchandise costs - not for paying the organisers or participants.
We are incredibly excited to be hosting our first conference in September and hope that you feel the same way. If you’re interested in submitting a paper, or want to learn more details about the format, you can check out our Call for Papers here. If you want to stay updated on how the conference is unfolding - speakers, topics, early access to events and more! - you can sign up to receive newsletter updates here. In the meantime, feel free to ask questions, leave comments, and above all, spread the word!
I can't donate monetarily at the moment, but if you all need volunteers for anything I'm happy to verify I'm a responsible human and help out however would best help!
You're amazing.
I really dig this direction. Basically building up to a history think tank with a primary focus on being good history to the people.
$2,071 raised
69% of $3k goal
Aha! We knew Redditors must have had an ulterior motive here...
(in all seriousness, we have all been blown away by the responses here, and the contributions we've received so far - thank you so much to everyone who has donated, commented, upvoted and shared!)
Man, this makes me wish I had friends so I could use social media and then tell them with the social media I don't use.
Super excited and will be (literally) shouting from the mountain top about it, though. Huge thanks to all working on this, from contributors and behind the scenes to We The People making donations and participating in discussions. Y'all. Are. Awesome.
Ask not what r/AskHistorians can do for you, but what you can do for r/AskHistorians!
The best subreddit gets even better. Donated. Great work to everyone who contributes, both mods and the excellent historians who come here and contribute excellent stuff.
Thank you /r/AskHistorians!
A surprise to be sure but a welcome one we (lurkers) shall watch your career with great interest
This is exciting! I just completed my MA thesis about Britain's response to their own democratic movement in the wake of the French Revolution.
I am Super Hyped for this!
I Love It, I'll Take Everything <3
This is a fantastic idea, I can't wait to see how it goes!
Don't think I've ever donated to anything before, but it wouldn't be right of me to ignore a request from a community that's been so important to me as a historian! I just gave £10 and I'm really looking forward to this going ahead!
How are you guys preparing for getting rid of the History Channel ?
Oh man, I've talked up AskHistorians at so many museum conferences, but now it's just gone full circle. Donated, this is very exciting.
I'm one of the moderators at /r/MuseumPros along with /u/redpotato, so let us know if we can do anything at all to assist!
Thank you, you should run small donation drives once in a while. It's a public service if I ever saw one, and thankfully the exposure is well enough for fundraising to be effective. Donated a bit.
I’m curious what exactly funding is needed for? It seems like this format lacks any of the expenses associated with traditional conferences.
There are no venues to rent, no meals to buy, no transport to arrange, etc.
This is super exciting! I'm a first-year PhD student working on a paper that fits the brief - I don't think I'm anywhere near ready to share anything but could be overthinking it.
I love this idea! I was wondering if you would have any degree requirements to apply? I'm an undergrad in History and I think I have a good paper that could fit the change theme, as it analyzes the change in interpretations of a significant event, and I would love to participate in this Conference
Thank you for the initiative; judging from AH's usual standard (as the best public general interest sub on reddit) this will be interesting.
The only thing I missed in this post was exerpts from the 'Call for Papers' - so, if you don't mind, I'll post some quotes here.
From: https://www.askhistorians.com/2020-digital-conference
=======================================
TOPICS OF INTEREST INCLUDE, BUT ARE NOT LIMITED TO:
• Digital history as a response to disruption
• Disruptions in the source record and how this affects research
• Disruptions versus ruptures
• Experiences of catastrophe or revolution
• Historical artistic and literary depictions of catastrophe, real or imagined
• Responses to disruptions and disasters (personal or societal)
• Ruptures and revolutions in historical memory
• The ordinary versus the extraordinary, including perspectives on ways to investigate that difference in the twenty-first century
“Business as Unusual” will be held on 15—17 September 2020 and will feature a keynote presentation by Dr. Alex Wellerstein of the Stevens Institute of Technology.
Please send proposals for papers ten minutes in length to
askhistorians@gmail.com
by 11:59 PM EDT on 10 July 2020.
Proposals should include an abstract of no more than 200 words describing your paper and a short biography of no more than 100 words. Applicants will be notified of the committee’s decisions no later than 10 August 2020. This is a free conference. No fees will be collected to present or to attend.
The Conference
Our aim is to provide the depth and rigour of a traditional academic conference while maximizing the opportunities of a digital environment, including the participation of a large and diverse audience.
Accepted papers will be grouped into thematic panels of 3–4 papers per panel. These panels will be pre-recorded prior to the actual conference date and then released at regular intervals on the AskHistorians forum during the conference, followed by a live, AMA-style online
Q&A to allow the audience to engage directly with presenters. Recorded panels will also be released as a standalone episode of the AskHistorians podcast series.
Papers
We ask that speakers prepare a ten-minute talk that introduces and contextualizes their topics and key findings. Papers should be aimed at an audience that has limited existing knowledge.
We also ask that visual aids are kept to an absolute minimum. If vital, they must be prepared as a separate, downloadable document rather than as a slideshow. This will mean gathering any copyright releases that are necessary for images contained in these visual aids as such gocuments will effectively become open-access once they are made available for download.
Panels
Panels will be recorded in the weeks ahead of the conference itself.
The group recording will cover each speaker’s paper, as well as a roundtable conversation led by the panel chair, drawing out commonalities, parallels, and divergences for further discussion.
At a convenient time ahead of recording, chairs will meet with their panelists to go over the format, ensure that all parties are familiar with the technology to be used, and identify potential lines of discussion to cover in the recording.
Conference
Across the three days of the conference, recorded panels will be posted at regular intervals. Once your panel goes live on our forum, our audience – historians and the public alike – will be invited to ask the speakers about their papers and research more broadly.
During the conference, we will also be running public and private networking and social events for participants.
Afterwards
In the weeks and months following the conference, we will release each panel recording as a standalone episode of our long-running podcast series. In the meantime, we hope that participants will consider sticking around and getting involved with our day-to-day activity
Ugh, I wish I had the time to make a worthwhile contribution! Here's to hoping we'll see another conference next year, hopefully adjacent to molinology!
If a US UP were theoretically interested in supporting this conference, would somebody DM me with more information?
Sorry if this sounds patronizing, but have you put a good deal of thought into planning/testing the technology you will use for this conference? I would hate to see this awesome event run afoul of common mistakes I have run into as a help desk technician.
Obvious-in-hindsight problems I've encountered include:
The biggest piece of unsolicited advice I can offer is please test everything way ahead of time. If possible, have the actual presenter perform the test under real world conditions.
The worst case scenario if no testing is done: On the day of the meeting, the presenter tries to use an unfamiliar interface, at a remote location, with a guest account, on a laptop that has not been updated nor rebooted in 6 months. The presenter then spends 10 minutes pushing random buttons, 10 minutes calling the help desk, 10 minutes waiting while the help desk calls a sysadmin, 10 minutes waiting for a sysadmin to run up a flight of stairs to reach the conference room, then 10 minutes telling the waiting audience that they will need to reschedule the entire meeting.
Very cool, y'all. Looking forward to this!
Tangential but I was wondering what the source of that page cover photo is. Is that Hong Kong? I'd love to see the original.
Wow how exciting! Great job all of you behind the scenes organizing it!
Neat
Ok, I've chipped in!
I've got a bunch of vacation unused this year (darn Covid). Do you all think it makes sense to use a few days for the conference so I can attend virtual presentations to my hearts content?
Business as Unusual: Histories of Rupture, Chaos, Revolution, and Change
With a theme like that I think I gotta dust off that chapter about Charles needing a bull...
...After I finish my thesis ofc
Donated and signed up! Only a small amount but it’s something!
Do we currently have to be in an academic program to submit a paper? I currently have an abstract about empathy and its impact on American history and public policy but I'm not in a program atm. I do have my Masters in Poly Sci and hope to obtain my JD or PhD in psychology in the future. I hope to write a book about it, even if it goes no where. I know it's not pure history but its interdisciplinary.
How exciting! I’ll be looking forward to this!
I'd be super keen to volunteer! Is there somewhere we can sign up or someone to talk to about it?
This is one of the best subs on this site. Thank you mods and contributors!
Wonderful idea; is Reddit equipped to handle this conference, platform wise? Would there be such platform costs on Zoom, discord etc?
Very cool mods. Thank you all so much for cultivating such an incredible sub and doing things like this.
This is awesome! I'm not a huge history buff on my own time (although I have a particular passion for art history), but this is one of my favorite subreddits because it is such a fun way to learn new things. You guys do an awesome job with your moderation!
Rather than donating, are you open to skilled volunteer work? I am a professional graphic and web designer, so I could potentially help with design for flyers and other graphics, email design & coding, or video editing.
I'm having a lot of trouble making a donation. The site is really not designed for mobile and after I entered my information (twice), it won't let me press continue. Instead, it insists on making me log in. I really hate PayPal a lot. It seems I once had an account but I don't want to link payment to it because I never want to use PayPal again.
I'll try from a laptop later. Best of luck and I'm really excited about this.
Hey, I tried to contribute $100, but it appears I have to have a Facebook account to do so. I loathe Facebook. And I am very cautious, to the point of paranoia, about exposing my identity to the internet.
Any suggestions?
Clicking 'get mugged' doesn't list the $50 level as a rewards option. Are y'all out of the mugs, or is something else going on?
*Ninja-edit: also, I freaking love the [removed] sticker idea. The self-awareness of those stickers is hilarious.
I have a paper I wrote that I kinda want to share but sadly it doesn't fit the theme at all
This sounds great—can’t wait to see how it goes!
Looking forward to it. Donated.
Just before I click the donate button. Can I ask how much you are aiming to raise and what will happen if you surpass this target?
This is so awesome! I’m not able to donate but I’ll do my best to spread the word to my irl friends so that more people would be able to enjoy this opportunity.
Thank you, organizers! ☺️
oh damn im so hyped
This is an interesting idea. I have a question: what are the minimum requirements for a presenter? Can people present their BA thesis, MA thesis, PhD thesis...? I think it would be good to know for people wanting to take part.
Thank you!
Sounds like fun
Are the mugs all gone already?! 😭
Omg!! This is AWESOME!!
Hey, super cool that this is happening and really looking forward to it taking place and being a part of it (as an audience member). I do have a couple of clarification questions regarding donation tiers and benefits.
For the $25 tier under “I just want to chat” it says “Fortunately, we cater for everyone here: get guaranteed access to all conference networking events, but none of the clutter.” I’m just curious what guaranteed access to networking events means and how that’s different from what’s already available. Also, do I still get stickers or is it an either/or type thing?
Anyways, like I said really excited to see AH putting itself out there more and plan on donating, it’s the least I can do for all that this sub has given me. However, it might be worthwhile to add a $5 dollar “Just Because” tier I’m sure plenty of people even those relatively strapped would be happy to pitch in $5 even for limited/no perks just as a sign of support. At least it seems worth a shot.
This is a great idea and I'll try to drop in as I can. Unfortunately, it comes during orientation periods for my research post, so I can't actually take part myself, but if we do it again I may well be able to.
We are absolutely blown away by the support we have seen today! Given the overwhelming interest we have discussed how to provide more opportunities to you all. As such, we decided to add an additional tier "I Just Want to Chat!", which includes no swag, but provides access to all of the networking events we'll be holding, as well as a few more slots for the swag option too!
We've scaled our goals to reflect the added requirements on our end. Your support has been really amazing, and with the additional funding it should allow us to expand our 2020 Conference in ways that we, with our modest planning, could not have imagine possible. If there are extra funds after taking care of 2020 Conference costs, that will go toward future AH programming and a 2021 Conference.
It cannot be the first ever. Just the first. 😁
Uh... IDK. I'm a kid who likes history. It's free to listen and discuss right?
I hope this won't get buried!!!
Put a Utip link, not everyone is able to give money because not everyone is from a rich country or have money to donate, and maybe not everyone has social media neither any influences. This doesn't mean those people don't want to contribute. Utip or any other platform that give you money for time (watching ads, survey whatever) seems like a great idea for me. Even if you rack up 10 bucks from 1000 people they'll have the feelings they contributed, and for some 10 bucks is a fortune in itself.
This community is really important to me I spend hours learning about history from subject I wouldn't even think about, even if I'm more a leech it's probably the case of thousands of others that would like to contribute by giving you time like most of the historians here give us.
Is this subreddit an "organization"? How does that work exactly? Is it registered somewhere?
Sort of wish it was a different theme. This ones been done to death.
