A few months back, AskHistorians decided to take one of our biggest steps ever: to try and host a conference. Not just our first conference, but to our knowledge the first conference ever held on Reddit.
We wanted this conference to reflect who we are. We hoped to get excellent scholars from inside and outside academia, to put together panels that reflect the diversity of perspectives, topics and approaches that get discussed on our subreddit every day. We hoped that both our community here, and the history community more broadly, would respond enthusiastically.
We’re very happy to now report that these hopes have all been fulfilled.
First of all, a huge thanks to our community here. When we launched our conference a couple of months ago, we had no idea what to expect. But not only did that thread receive over 200 comments, everything was so positive that there was not one removed comment. Even better: our crowdfunder hit what we thought was an immensely ambitious goal - $3000 - in less than 24 hours. As things stand, we’re 97% of the way to our stretch goal of $5000 AS THINGS STAND WE JUST HIT 5K! We’re all immensely grateful that so many of you were willing to support us in such a tangible way.
We also received a great response to our call for papers, from historians you read every day on the subreddit, as well as many more who have had to have Reddit explained to them carefully and slowly (“No, it’s not all Nazis”). We received so many applications that the organising committee has had a very difficult time selecting who to accept.
But, after much discussion, negotiation and heartbreak, we managed to put together the conference we dreamed of. Without further ado: we’re very, very pleased to share with you all the final line up of papers for our first-ever conference!
Be the Change that Others Don’t Want: Affirming and Resisting Racial Hierarchies in Midcentury North America
Ryan Abt: Everyone I Don’t Like is Hitler: The Appropriation of Anti-Nazi Axioms by American Fascists, 1944-1949
Stephanie Hunt: Bringing the Millennium to Birmingham: To Kill a Mockingbird and Racial Protest in Alabama’s Magic City
Tyler Wentzell: Fascists in Hogtown: Toronto’s Reaction and Resistance to the National Unity Party during the Summer of 1938
Building the Nation, Dreaming of War: Nation-Building through Mythologies of Conflict
Andrei Oprea: War: The Defining Catastrophe of 17th Century Moldavia
Cullan Bendig: ‘Behold the Heresiarch’: Jan Hus, Mythologies, and Nationalism in Postwar Czechoslovakia
Buğra Can Bayçifçi: The Balkan Wars from an Ottoman Perspective: Rupture as Creative Destruction?
Liam Connell: “Building a nation, dreaming its destruction”: Australian Federation and Fantasies of War
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse: Imagining Mass Destruction
Victoria Cooper: The End of the World As We Know It: Social Disruption and Catastrophe in Medieval Literature and Modern Analogues
Malcolm Craig: The Nuclear 1979: Revolution, Islam, and 'The Bomb'
Kenneth Reilly: More Powerful Than The Atomic Bomb: Dinosaur Extinction and Nuclear Warfare
Joshua Porter: Samantha Smith: Citizen Diplomacy in the Cold War
In Whose Trenches? Violence, Voice, and the Experience of War from Below
Matilda Greig: The Extraordinary Experience of Battle, as told by Napoleonic Soldiers in Spain
Patrick O’Brien: “Gilded Misery”: Reconsidering Emotions and Community during the American Revolution
Hediye Özkan: The Rupture Between the South and North: The Diary of Nancy Emerson and War Discourse
Edwin Tran: Crossing Sect and Race: Civilian Ingenuity during the Lebanese Civil War
Indigenous Histories Disrupting Yours: Sovereignties, History, and Power
Ali Al-Jamri: Countering Cultural Erasure Through Community History: The Baharna as a Case Study
Wayne Buchanan: Rupture and Resilience: The Muckleshoot People
Kyle Pittman: Inherent Sovereignty: Disruptions to Indigenous Nationhood
Miguel Rivas Fernandez: Remembering Malinche: The Evolving Role of Language in the Events and Memory of the Early Spanish Conquest
Laugh with the Sinners, Cry with the Saints: Historical Women and Cultural Propaganda
Joshua Anthony: Through Chimalmantzin’s Eyes: A Family History of the Conquest of Mexico
Ronald James: Sex, Murder, and Myth: How a Soiled Dove Earned a Heart of Gold
Lois Leveen: When Black History Becomes Multiculti Clickbait, Manure Happens: "Mary Bowser" as a Case Study
Cait Stevenson: Elisabeth Achler’s Dirty Laundry, or, the Medieval Saint and Her Suffering Sisters
Pick Your Poison: Climate, Disease, and Human Disaster from the Middle Ages to Today
Adam Bierstedt: Galt margr óverðr þessa ófriðar: The Samalas Eruption, Unusual Weather, and the end of the Icelandic Commonwealth.
Daria Berman: The Anti-Jewish Riots in the First Castilian Civil War
Chris Day: Computing Cholera: Topic Modelling Catalogue Entries for the Correspondence of the General Board of Health (1848-1871)
Christopher Rose: The Importance of Epidemics for Social History
Power and Projections of Trauma in the 19th and 20th Centuries
Melissa Brzycki: Young People in the Chinese Great Leap Forward and its Aftermath, 1958-1962
Adam Franti: His Gallant Soul Had Fled: Death, Remembrance, and Race in Early America
Stephanie Montgomery: “A Den of Monsters”: Women, Crime, and the City in 1930s China
Katie Truax: Dealing with Catastrophe: Medical Men and the Diseases of Women in 19th century Britain
We’re very happy with this line up of papers and panels – despite the tough decisions, we feel they reflect the diversity of perspectives, subjects and approaches that make this subreddit what it is. As well as grad students and academics, we'll also be hearing from archivists, activists and public historians. We hope that you’re all as excited as we are to hear what they have to say - let us know in the comments!
This isn’t the last time you’ll hear from us before September 15th - there will be more news to share about the schedule, live events and other ways to get involved. If you want to keep in touch regarding the conference’s progress, including first dibs on access to networking and social events, you can sign up to receive our newsletter here.
Not entirely related to the panel announcement, but always worth saying:
The other co-directors on the conference committee and I would like to recognize, in particular, /u/crrpit for stepping up to organize and manage the conference. We're doing something that to our knowledge hasn't been done before, and crrpit is just owning the job of leader.
Second, if you've seen any of the STUNNING promotional graphics (the banner on the conference website scrolls through them--that's all /u/facepoundr (@SovietGhosts on Twitter). Truly, all hail!
We also have the world's most amazing digital events coordinator, Joanna Klatzman Higgison of Touche Digital Events. We would be fumbling in a pitch-black void without her, for real.
~~
And definitely don't miss the women's history panel--we're going to rock it. :D
I'm really glad y'all put this together. With everything being crazy re: academic conferences generally I feel like there's never been a better time to take this step. Bravo!
While I've seen a bit about this peripherally, I'm not SUPER well informed. Is this going to be a series of videochat conversations that redditors can watch? Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick here?
I am super excited and looks like we have an incredible line up of papers and panelists!
Assuming that many (all?) of these are members here, could we have (with their permission) usernames, so that we can, as it were, put a name to a face?
I'm really proud of this community for taking this step. I'm excited for the event and hope everything goes great.
I have a question. Actually, it's more of a comment. The comment is more of a self-promotion speech.
Just kidding. I want to say this is an amazing thing you all have done, and I will be carving out time to enjoy as many of these panels as possible. I'm amazed at this coming together and how great the product is. Well, I'd be amazed if it wasn't /r/AskHistorians. It's still impressive.
Edit: I'm also spamming the few networks and groups of academics I have any access too. This deserves recognition.
Edit Edit: By "spamming" I mean, of course, "politely sharing the link with a positive note about the conference."
This is by far my favorite subreddit. Thanks for putting in all this work, can't wait.
there was not one removed comment
Is it really an r/askhistorians thread if there aren't any removed comments?
This has all the makings of an excellent conference, and a timely format with everything going on in the world.
Fantastic work team, we love to see it!
So excited for this! It's been amazing watching this community grow. Best part of Reddit by far.
This community makes me more enthusiastic about becoming a historian myself. Great job
Thank you so much for organising this conference! I am usually a silent listener because I don’t trust my historical knowledge enough to provide a satisfactory answer for this subreddit. But it is that rigorous moderation that makes this subreddit so great and it’s amazing to see Moderators actually taking their subreddit seriously, so thank you! The topics sound amazing and I am looking forward to hearing the talks.
I’m looking forward to it! These look like some interesting topics!
Is there a hashtag for the conference yet? If not, may I suggest #businessasunusual ?
Thanks to all moderators and contributors of this conference, for sharing such wonderful opportunity! Since I am not familiar with reddit-held event, I am curious about the platform that the conference will be held upon. Would it be on-reddit, live stream, or some other kind of streaming services? Or would the presentations be recorded and discussion forum held afterewards? I am so fascinated and eager to see such a wonderful event happen in these hard days. Once more, thank you so much!
This is incredibly cool.
The agenda looks mind blowing! Thank you!
I hadn't heard about the conference before but this sounds great! I'll definitely be tuning in.
This is amazing. Kudos to all involved!
Everything looks super interesting! Thank you to everyone who makes this possible and sharing your knowledge with the rest of us!
I am very excited for this event. All the panels, papers and presenters sound fabulous!
I received the email about the networking sessions during the 2020 Conference. Looks great.
I was glad to see there were sessions for informal learning institutions, but there are a large number of other informal education channels not covered here - media publications, event producers, podcasters, youtubers, etc. Is there likely to be a histcomm breakout for those audiences?