The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) invites proposals for its 2026 annual conference. The deadline for proposals is December 1, 2025.
2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. In historian David Armitage’s construction, it was a declaration of interdependence as much as independence: a strategic and legalistic move aimed at securing international recognition of the rebelling colonies as legitimate members of the global community of states. As a foundational act, it inspired numerous emulations abroad, while at home, it was also always partial and exclusionary, necessitating continual rearticulation under the pressures of violence, racism, empire, and capitalism. Special consideration at the 2026 conference will therefore be given to panels that consider questions of independence, sovereignty, and interdependence in the context of the United States’ relationship with the world.
The Program Committee is particularly interested in proposals that address the following topics as they relate to the 250th anniversary: independence, sovereignty, and interdependence; environment and extraction; geographies/boundaries; violence and legitimacy; capitalism; colonialism; foundations and re-foundations; memory and commemoration; technology; practice and performance; democracy and authority; power and diplomacy.
SHAFR is dedicated to the study of the history of the United States in the world, broadly conceived. This includes not only foreign relations, diplomacy, statecraft, and strategy, but also heterogenous approaches to Americans’ relations with the wider world, including but not limited to global governance, transnational movements, religion, human rights, race, gender, political economy and business, immigration, borderlands, the environment, empire, and – more broadly – the projection of U.S. power and the various ways it has been received, negotiated, contested and resisted. SHAFR welcomes those who study any period, from the colonial era to the present. Given that the production, exercise, and understanding of U.S. power takes many forms and touches myriad subjects, the Program Committee welcomes proposals reflecting a broad range of approaches and topics.
Please visit the conference website (https://shafr.org/shafr2026) to access the application portal, Panelists-Seeking-Panelists Forum, and criteria for travel awards.