Event Details

End: February 1, 2022
Contact: michael.green@pcb-aha.org
More Info: https://www.pcb-aha.org/archives/1546

Call for Papers

The 115th Annual Meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association

Reckoning with the Past: Naming, Memorializing, and Remembering

August 10 – 12, 2022

Portland State University

Portland, OR

The 2022 Program Committee invites proposals for panels, roundtables, and individual papers on any subject, but particularly those addressing the conference theme, “Reckoning with the Past: Naming, Memorializing, and Remembering.”  The commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre in 2021 highlighted the public struggle over how to remember, and memorialize, the history of racial violence and trauma. Events in Tulsa resonated with similar struggles around the world that reckoned with the history of colonialism, enslavement, genocide, and systemic racial violence. The Program Committee encourages participants to explore these struggles over historical memorialization and commemoration in diverse geographic regions and time periods. Panels or papers might consider the naming or renaming of public spaces, the destruction or construction of monuments, or the creation or elimination of national holidays. We especially invite panels and papers that consider the relationship between memorialization and quests for legal justice and economic reparations for survivors; conflicts over historical curriculum in public education; generational trauma; and struggles for sovereignty and self-determination. 

The Program Committee encourages proposals that enable conversations across specialist and institutional boundaries and that engage the audience. We welcome submissions from a diversity of history practitioners, including all faculty at 2-year and 4-year institutions, graduate and undergraduate students, Phi Alpha Theta regional award winners, specialized scholarly societies and associations, library and archival specialists, public history and museum specialists, non-traditional scholars, and K-12 teachers. 

Anniversaries may provide inspiration for panels and roundtables. These include, but are not limited to, Brazilian independence and the founding of the Empire of Brazil (1822); the end of the New Zealand Wars and the establishment of Yellowstone National Park (1872); the founding of the Irish Free State and the start of the Irish Civil War, Egyptian independence, the founding of the USSR, and the Colorado River Compact (1922); the independence of Pakistan and the Republic of India, the “First Freedom Ride,” Jackie Robinson’s and Wataru Misaka’s desegregation of professional baseball and basketball, the Truman Doctrine, and the start of the Cold War (1947); the establishment of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in Australia, Richard Nixon’s visit to China, the US Congress’ passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, the start of the Watergate Scandal, and Bloody Sunday in Northern Ireland (1972); the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War, the independence of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (East Timor), the first major SARS epidemic, and the establishment of the US Department of Homeland Security (2002); the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007); and the inauguration of Donald Trump (2017). 

To make inquiries about the conference, please email PCB-AHA executive director Michael Green at 

michael.green@pcb-aha.org. 

More information on submitting proposals, connecting with prospective panelists, and attending the conference (venue, registration, lodging, etc.) will be available at www.pcb-aha.org  as these details are finalized. You can submit proposals at https://form.jotform.com/212645708059157.

Panel proposals must include a contact person; a title and 250-word abstract of the panel or roundtable; a title and brief description (100 words) of each presentation; a one-page C.V. for each participant, which includes an email address and affiliation; and any A/V requests. The Program Committee also welcomes individual paper submissions, which should include a title, a 250-word abstract, and a one-page C.V. with email address and affiliation. 

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING PROPOSALS: FEBRUARY 1, 2022.

Decisions regarding acceptance will be conveyed no later than March 1, 2022. Please note that submission of a proposal constitutes a commitment to attend the conference if the proposal is accepted. Upon acceptance, graduate student presenters will receive information about how to apply for competitive travel subventions.