The History Graduate Society at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is pleased to announce our second annual Student History Conference. While the conference is hosted by the History Department, it is an interdisciplinary conference and students from all disciplines are encouraged to submit their work.
The theme for the conference is Narratives of the Urban Past. UIC has a complicated history in relation to its home in the heart of Chicago, which includes the displacement of the Latinx, Black, and poor communities of the Near West side and the destruction of the historic Hull House. This history has inspired us to consider the relationship between academics and the urban environment.
We encourage students of all disciplines to consider their work in relation to urbanity. How do we define the urban and the rural? How does doing research of urban spaces influence our writing and the stories we tell? How is urbanity experienced differently throughout the globe? How is public memory and history shaped by the urban environment? How are experiences and relationships to gender and sexuality by urbanity and/or rurality? What challenges are faced by those doing museum work in or about urban spaces?
This conference is an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to present their original research, gain experience in public speaking, and attend professional development panels on academic and non-academic topics. The conference will offer both in-person and remote options. We are encouraging a wide range of submissions including: papers, digital humanities projects, posters (undergrads only), roundtable discussions, and professional development panels.