Many, if not most, and perhaps all of you will probably remember that AskHistorians embarked upon the ambitious venture of hosting a digital conference last year. Our decision to do so was based, in large part, upon the dynamic and ever-evolving reality of early pandemic life. As conference after conference was cancelled in order to keep people safe, we at AskHistorians looked at the situation and realized that as a digital public history forum—in fact the largest digital public history forum in the world, we were uniquely well placed to fill this conference void.
And so we did it. And we did it well. So well, in fact, that the organizers of last year’s conference were invited to submit a piece to the academic history journal, History, reflecting upon what it was like to organize a born-digital history conference and the impact such a conference might have on the future of public history more broadly.
So, If you haven’t already checked out the panels from last year’s conference, what are you waiting for?! There was a lot of great work featured in these panels, which you can find on our YouTube channel and in the following threads:
But, all of this has been to say that the AskHistorians Digital Conference is now officially out of beta, and we’re ready to do it again!
This year’s conference will take place right here on the subreddit between the 19th and the 21st of October. Please save the date! Our theme, “[Deleted] & Missing History: Reconstructing the Past, Confronting Distortions” engages with all the ways that we as historians grapple with and confront historical narratives that are deliberate or accidental misrepresentations of the past. From propaganda to poorly researched media of all kinds, the historical past has often been represented and misrepresented in some pretty spectacular and awful ways. Everyone loves to complain about bad history and our conference this year is an opportunity to do exactly that. All periods of human history and all physical locations are welcome subjects for the conference.
You can find our full Call for Papers (CfP) here with details on how to write an abstract if you’ve never done one before and how to apply. So far, we have distributed this CfP to 422 institutions in eleven countries, but nothing would make us happier than receiving proposals from our users here. As with our forum, criteria for selection will not be based on job title, degrees, or publications, but on how well you are able to communicate in-depth, up-to-date historical knowledge about the subject(s) in which you are an expert.
Not sure if you’re ready to commit to a full ten-minute paper? That’s ok! There are still plenty of ways in which you can participate. For one, we hope to see you here in October, listening to papers, asking questions, and participating in the special activities that we have planned. We are also asking for our community’s help with making this conference as good as it can be. While we are already seeking support and sponsorship from various institutions, the strength of this subreddit has always been its users. And so, it is to our users that we turn once again. We have set up a Fundrazr campaign to raise money to cover the costs of hosting the conference. This support will allow us to push our conference even further than we did last year by utilizing new and better digital platforms and making the conference as accessible and inclusive as possible. Contributors will be offered the chance to pick up some exclusive and limited-edition AskHistorians swag and be a part of behind-the-scenes events.
We are incredibly excited to be hosting this conference again and hope that you will join us in this excitement. Feel free to ask questions, leave comments, and spread the word. We look forward to receiving your abstracts and will keep you updated as our plans continue to unfold!
Just want to add that we especially encourage submissions from scholars in underrepresented groups: scholars of color, women of all races, scholars with disabilities, &c. And we'd love to see paper topics that discuss historically marginalized groups and individuals. Last year we had dedicated panels for indigenous histories and historical women's stories; this year, we hope to have such a rainbow of subjects that we couldn't compartmentalize groups if we tried!
Wooo! I am so very, very pumped for this.
Would there be interest in a paper on teaching marginalized, missing, and distorted history at the secondary level from an old ex-mod???
This looks fantastic and I cant wait!
But say it aint so, no mugs in the fundraiser this year? Guess I'll just have to go overboard on totes and usb drives.
Get hyped everyone! This is going to be fantástico!
So well, in fact, that the organizers of last year’s conference were invited to submit a piece to the academic history journal, History, reflecting upon what it was like to organize a born-digital history conference and the impact such a conference might have on the future of public history more broadly.
Is there a link to this, or is it not published yet? Would love to give it a read.
I hear from the folk that this is going to be great. Legendary even. Perhaps of mythic proportions!
YES!
I think next years conference should be held at a historical online location. Like here, right now.
I am not gonna say I am excited, but I am very excited.
Long time reader and deeply appreciate y’all’s expertise, love for your work and the time you put in to share it with all of us common folk.
Maybe I'll submit a paper this time. I hesitated last year but finally didn't. I have an idea, however I'm not sure it would fit.
Donated! So exciting! The last one was fabulous. The talks were great, and I LOVED the GLAM networking events.
As always, just let us at /r/MuseumPros know if you need anything, you've got our full support!
This is going to be great!
Have you guys thought about reaching out to r/badhistory? Though it's kinda the opposite format as askhistorians (posts with someone's write-ups rather than questions), I think it would fit the theme of this conference well
As a PhD student, this is fab that you guys are putting on a virtual conference. :D
Thank you for all the work you have all put into this. I think it's innovative and I find your commitment to quality over qualification to be inspiring.
Excellent! The networking sessions last year were great as were the panels! I'm looking forward to seeing all of you plus new faces again!
Hooray! I hope to be involved this year. :)
Historical Women and Cultural Propaganda was one of the most interesting threads I've ever read (right next to the historian of emotions post). If you missed it, it was fascinating even to me who knows next to nothing about history.
I really really can't wait to see what other amazing things will be posted this year!
6 months away and I’m already so pumped!
this looks exciting!
I'm wracking my brain for something that would be a good fit, hopefully I'll come up with something. If not, I'll happily volunteer!
Per usual, you're always welcome to cross-promote on r/MuseumPros.
Omgggg so excited!!!!
Can’t wait!
Last year was superb- I hope I think of something to pitch for 2021.
This is super cool.
I'm currently mulling over several threads of research and work that I've been working on, and how I can spin/redirect them into something for this.
The call for papers makes me cry a little since I'd have an old paper I always wanted to expand upon... alas I ended up outside of academia and now I don't have the time to do it as a hobby. Sucks! But looking forward to the conference, extremely interesting topic!
I'm donated because I love AskHistorians, and this is the sort of thing I like to support. That said, sometimes my mind is more like a colander than a trap, and I'm not sure I'll remember to attend (I did make sure the 'send progress emails' thing was checked, though, so maybe...). So, I really wanted to say, here, thank you to everyone who writes detailed and well-researched answers here. It really helps me satisfy my curiosity about history, and it's a lot easier to access on this level to my lowly engineer self than trying to figure out which source to trust myself!
Lands exactly on my birthday ik what I’ll be doing that day
Awesome!
Any way to make the CFP easier to read? It’s cut off on mobile.
Is submitting as a panel/finding a panel encouraged for this? Or will the organizers do that after selecting submissions?
This seems like the perfect theme to justify submitting a paper on Irish American nationalist conspiracy theories in the early twentieth century... Normally I have to do much more to justify my work in conferences outside of Irish Studies 😅
Awesome birthday gift! I look forward to it!
Hi! Silly question but I was wondering what the contents of the paper (not the abstract) should be - presumably there is the usual presentation material, but anything we should submit? I'm assuming the reference to a 1500 10-minute paper is to do with spoken content, but I know some organisers prefer an (article-ish) draft to be submitted. Thanks in advance - was thinking of submitting something on the silencing of student movements in SE Asia (especially Singapore).