On behalf of the organising committee, welcome to the AskHistorians Digital Conference 2020! We’re thrilled to finally be able to share the work that we – and a small army of volunteers, moderators and guest historians – have been putting into the conference over the last few months. It promises to be a special few days. No one has ever held this kind of event using Reddit, and needless to say we’re excited to see what happens next.
If you’re interested in the background, rationale and other details of the conference – as well as comprehensive information about the participants, papers and panels – please check out our conference programme, designed by the immensely talented u/Soviet_Ghosts. Otherwise, feel free to start diving into today’s offerings!
This thread contains an overview of today’s events, with direct links added as soon as they go live, as well as an explanation of how to get involved. If you have any questions, leave them below and we’ll address them as soon as possible.
Networking 1 (8:00 am, ET): Session on Academia I
Panel 1 AMA (10:00 am, ET): Indigenous Histories Disrupting Yours: Sovereignties, Histories and Power
Keynote Address (1:00 pm, ET): The Atomic Bomb and Visions of the New Post War Order
Panel 2 (4:00 pm, ET): How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Apocalypse: Imagining Mass Destruction
Networking 2 (8:00 pm, ET): Session on Academia II
Watch talks: The main body of the conference is made up of eight panels of 3-4 speakers, which have all been recorded in advance. Each speaker gets 10 minutes to discuss their own research, followed by a group discussion led by an expert moderator. Today’s panels have already been released via our YouTube channel – these recordings will be available indefinitely, so you’ll always be able to catch up on anything you missed.
Ask questions: Each panel will have its own AMA-style thread where you can ask the speakers and moderators anything you’d like to about their work. These will go live according to the schedule above, and will continue as long as the participants feel like answering more questions!
Attend live events: While most panels are recorded, some conference events are live. Today’s keynote address by Prof. Alex Wellerstein will take place live on Zoom – you can still register to attend here, but if it’s full don’t worry – we’ll be releasing a recording as soon as possible once it’s done.
Throughout the conference, we’ll also be hosting live networking sessions for participants and audience members to attend. Anyone is welcome to sign up for whichever event they wish – the full list can be found here. Today’s sessions are focused on Academia, broadly defined – they are aimed primarily at people undertaking (or interested in) academic degrees or careers in history, but anyone interested is welcome!
Be part of the conversation: We’ll be treating these daily conference megathreads like our Friday Free-For-Alls – you’re welcome to use them to discuss the conference, leave questions or comments or chat informally about the day’s papers, though keep in mind that our rules about civility are still very much in force. You can also follow updates on Twitter via @AskHistorians and #AskHistorians2020.
This is a VERY good idea. I can see this spreading to other niches outside of history.
Please don't remove this comment and ban me.
Really looking forward to this! Both of today's panels are excellent and I'd definitely recommend giving them a watch.
I am super impressed with those panel videos.
Classes prevent me from attending much of today's events but I highly encourage others to attend, a lot of effort has been put into this!
Huge thank you's to the folks who made all the captions. I can be hard of hearing and they make a huge difference.
The recordings are a great idea. Makes it much easier to fit all the videos into my schedule!
I'd love to give a huge shoutout to all our organisers and panelists today! /u/restricteddata's keynote address was world-class and it as a privilege to be in the virtual audience.
I haven't had time to watch all of the Indigenous Histories panel, but the two speakers I've heard, Ali Al-Jamri and Wayne Buchanan, were both absolutely excellent as well.
I'd also like to add that the academic mingle earlier today was delightful, and I had the privilege of learning from a woman named Angela about a form of drama / theatre called Playback Theatre, and its potential as a venue of exploring and sharing oral histories and personal stories. It was incredibly insightful and a glimpse into a fascinating world.
Thanks for everything you are doing!
I am digging the keynote so far as the Prof. Wellerstein both knows what he is talking about which is common for this subreddit, but also is a charismatic and compelling speaker, which some historians aren't Not sure I can watch the whole thing as I have an appointment that I can't be late for. Might have to finish it on the recording. Got to get back to it.
I wish the keynote address wasn't right in the middle of the workday so I could watch it live, but ah well. Looking forward to catching the recordings tonight!
I was so keen to watch, but I an unfortunately in the middle of nowhere on a self-imposed writing retreat to knock out some chapters for my dissertation, and the internet here isn’t good enough to do any livestreaming. Wishing you all the best and when I’m back in civilisation I’ll see if I can catch up on the recordings!
Thank you for making these presentations easy to access. I'll have to work tomorrow, but appreciate the fact I can come back to watch the recordings. Looking forward to it!
Thanks so much for this! And also for recording for us poor plebs for whom it is midnight... Can't wait to watch everything!
I'm thoroughly enjoying these presentations. Thank you, presenters and moderators, for your hard work!
I want to thanks you for setting this up and making it accessable to everyone.
A great idea, thank you to all who have put in all this hard work!
Really looking forward to all the contributions! A lot of effort by wonderful people went into this and I'm delighted to witness it! Unfortunately, the time zone differences in combination with my own schedule will prevent me from enjoying everything live, but I'll catch up on those talks that I'm going to miss.
I would like to thank everyone who put the time and effort to make this possible. It's been wonderful and I cannot wait for my own panel, 'Building the Nation', to air tomorrow. Networking sessions have been a blast too. Never would I ever have a chance to chat about Ottoman history and then indigenous history within two minutes in another networking event!
Well done guys, truly. This is incredible.
I'm teaching today but having this to look forward to this evening is fantastic. Thank you for the degree of accessibility added by having these panels recorded.
This is hard for me to attend as an Aussie, so thank you for posting the panels on your YouTube!
We're really doing it!!great work guys
These are super well done team, thanks for this work!
I've been really enjoying the panels, conference, and the keynote! I managed to watch the keynote at 12 AM and in the end i was dizzy, but it's really worth it
Thanks for everyone who joined me at the table, I've made a fellow undergrad friend who surprisingly shared a lot of the same problems and thoughts as I am, and it's reassuring to feel that I'm not alone
Big shout-out to u/BugraEffendi, who I finally managed to see in flesh. Looking forward to your panel at the 18th!
Thank you for this! It's getting me all kinds of excited about history, and some of the panelist AMA threads have given me some great book recommendations already.