It’s hard to believe that we’re already at Day 3 of the conference!
We’re incredibly pleased with how the conference has been going. We’ve already heard from a fantastic array of historians about their research, and their talks have already chalked up thousands of views, as well as sparking some great discussions in the Q&A threads and networking events.
Just as importantly though, we’ve loved hearing from participants and viewers alike about the experience. We’re stowing away plenty of lessons to learn for next time, but we’re confident that the basic principle - that good historical scholarship has a public, that opening up these conversations is important and worthwhile - has been vindicated. Thank you to everyone who has watched talks, asked questions and joined in the live events.
If you’ve had difficulty keeping up with all the discussions and talks that have been released so far, we don’t blame you - but the good news is, you’ve got all the time in the world to catch up! Which is lucky, because today will see another three great panels go live, with the roundtables and keynote recordings still to come.
I’d like to also make special mention of the AskHistorians META session this afternoon at 2 pm Eastern Time. This will be a chance for everyone who has participated in the conference to offer their thoughts on the last few days, and for any established or budding historians watching to find out more about our community and how to get involved.
You can find the previous megathreads for Day 1 and Day 2 here.
Networking (8:00 am, ET): Session on Ancient History
Networking (8:00 am, ET): Session on Medieval History
Panel 6 AMA (10:00 am, ET): Being the Change that Others Don’t Want: Asserting and Resisting Racial Hierarchies in Midcentury North America
Networking (2:00 pm, ET): AskHistorians META
Panel 7 AMA (4:00 pm, ET): In Whose Trenches? Violence, Voice, and the Experience of War from Below
Panel 8 AMA (4:00 pm, ET): Building the Nation, Dreaming of War: Nation-Building through Mythologies of Conflict
Networking (8:00 pm, ET): Session on Early Modern History
Networking (8:00 pm, ET): Session on Modern History
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. All of the 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: 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 different periods of history. If you work on a particular era, or just happen to be interested in particular time periods, come along!
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. Finally – if you can stomach it! – you can even leave comments on YouTube.
***
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. We’ve also been featured on Reddit’s community blog, Upvoted! Otherwise, feel free to start diving into today’s offerings!
It hit me last night after the networking session that this is the closest I’ve come to “meeting” people in many months.
We have some really interesting panels today that I'm pretty excited for, not to mention the final networking events. The AskHistorians META one especially is going to be a blast. Make sure to join in between 2 and 4pm EST folks!
I shouldn't ask because I'm barely caught up with everything else I want to watch, but is there an estimate on when to expect the keynote recording to be available?
The META networking event is starting right now folks! Jump on in and come talk to me/us! https://t.co/eRfHXv936D
Now that everything is done and dusted, I just wanted to say thanks to the entire committee for organising a fantastic public history event. It's really been a model of how to do this kind of thing, and there are some great lessons that I'm going to take away from it. I'd also like to thank all the panellists, panel hosts, and the AskHistorians community for such great papers, hosting, questions, and engagement. Well done everyone!
Malcolm
Whew. What a blast! Thanks so much to all the organizers and participants. I truly enjoyed this conference and look forward to the future!
Just wanted to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. I've been going through a quite severe depression, and I came across AskHistorians about half a year ago and... It (and you) has helped me immensely. Reading all the posts here is so fascinating, and it helped ground me and rediscover some curiosity again after such a long mental paralysis... And the conference is amazing, I've been missing such events in my field as well as in general. It's not only fascinating information that I love learning, but the therapeutical effect of focusing on something else than covid, election, whatever depressing news, and seeing people who genuinely love their work... Just... Sorry for the rant, but thank you for what you're doing and how you're doing it.