AI and History Conference 2026

What does AI mean for historical research and our discipline?

Johns Hopkins University and the American Historical Association invite historians, educators, graduate students, archivists, and others interested in historical practice to join us October 15–16 in Baltimore for the AI and History Conference 2026.

This is not simply a conference about the latest AI tools. It is an opportunity to think critically about the growing role of artificial intelligence and computational methods in historical research, teaching, archives, and the discipline. What can these methods make possible? Where do they fall short? How do historians evaluate AI-generated results against historical evidence? What new methodological, ethical, pedagogical, and professional questions do these technologies raise? And how do we ensure that computational approaches are rigorous, sustainable, and grounded in historical practice?
The conference brings together historians working at different levels of engagement with computational methods, from those just beginning to explore these approaches to scholars already incorporating them into their research. Sessions will address topics including AI and archival research, text mining, OCR, spatial and network analysis, teaching with AI, evidentiary standards, copyright and intellectual property, graduate training, publishing, and the future of computational history.

Whether your views on AI are enthusiastic, skeptical, or curious, whether you are already using AI or simply trying to understand what it means for our field, there is a place for you in this conversation.

The goal of this event is not to tell historians what to think about AI. It gives historians the opportunity to think together and to shape what comes next for the discipline.