Friday Overview – 126th Annual Meeting

Today’s main event at the 126th annual meeting is the General Meeting (8:30–10:30 p.m., Sheraton, Chicago Ballroom VI), featuring Anthony Grafton’spresidential address and the presentation of the recipients of the AHA’s 2011 prizes and awards, including the eighth Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Public Service Award to Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (accepted on her behalf by Judge Diane P. Wood).

Read on for a roundup of sessions, open forums, and films taking place today at the 126th annual meeting.

Locations and Hours
Below are the Friday hours for various annual meeting areas. Find the complete overview of location hours for this week, as well as hotel floorplans, online.

• Registration, Sheraton, River Exhibition Hall B, 8:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
• Job Center, Marriott, Grand Ballroom, Salon I, 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
• Exhibit Hall, Sheraton, River Exhibition Hall, 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
• Shuttle between the four meeting hotels, 7:30 a.m.–midnight
• Messaging and Internet Center, Marriott, Grand Ballroom, Salon 1, 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.
• Quiet Rooms, Sheraton, Ohio Room and Marriott, Great America Room,9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Sessions
Below are just a few of the sessions taking place today.

• Did We Go Wrong? The Past and Prospects of the History Profession
  9:30–11:30 a.m.
  Sheraton, Sheraton Ballroom V
• Digital Humanities: A Hands-on Workshop
  9:30–11:30 a.m.
  Sheraton, Chicago Ballroom IX
• Hardtack and Software: Digital Approaches to the American Civil War
  9:30–11:30 a.m.
  Sheraton, Sheraton Ballroom II
• Current Events in Historical Perspective
  The Goldberg Center for Excellence in Teaching is sponsoring a three-part series of sessions on current events in historical perspective:
  • Part I: Global Strategy and Politics (9:30–11:30 a.m., Sheraton, Parlor E) takes a look at current events in Afghanistan, the Google revolution in Egypt, and the Obama administration’s humanitarian efforts.
  • Part II: Social History (2:30–4:30 p.m., Sheraton, Parlor E) discusses Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton in relation to the women’s liberation movement, the history of anti-unionism, and community responses to marital violence.
  • Part III: Urban Affairs, takes place Saturday (9:00–11:00 a.m., Sheraton, Parlor E), and looks at Chicago and its Skyway, Detroit as the Motor City, and charter schools in California.
• Historians, Journalists, and the Challenges of Getting It Right
  The National History Center offers the first in four-part series of sessions on “Historians, Journalists, and the Challenges of Getting It Right”: American Biography and the Cold War (9:30–11:30 a.m., Sheraton, Chicago Ballroom X).
• Jobs for Historians: Approaching the Crisis from the Demand Side
  1:00-2:30 p.m.
  Sheraton, Chicago Ballroom VI
  Newly addedto the program at the beginning of December, this session will feature outgoing AHA President Anthony Grafton as chair, and a panel made up of Jesse Lemisch (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY), Edward Balleisen (Duke University), John Dichtl (National Council on Public History), and Lynn Hunt (UCLA). Please note: this session is being held in the Sheraton’s Chicago Ballroom VI (a move from the session’s original location).
• The Future Is Here: Pioneers Discuss the Future of Digital Humanities
  2:30–4:30 p.m.
  Sheraton, Chicago Ballroom X
• Multi-racial, Multi-ethnic Chicago: Social Relations in the Twentieth-Century City
  2:30–4:30 p.m.
  Sheraton, Michigan Room B
  Made up of junior and senior scholars that focus on African American, Latino, and Irish Chicago, this panel highlights new cutting-edge work on the racial and ethnic history of Chicago.

Open Forums

• LGBTQ Historians Task Force Open Forum
  4:45–5:45 p.m.
  Sheraton, Parlor E
• National History Center Open Forum and Reception
  5:00–7:00 p.m.
  Sheraton, Parlor C
• Graduate and Early Career Committee Open Forum
  5:30–6:30 p.m.
  Sheraton, Colorado Room

Film Festival

• A Film Unfinished
  12:00–2:00 p.m.
  Sheraton, Sheraton Ballroom I
  At the end of World War II, 60 minutes of raw film was discovered in an East German archive. Shot by the Nazis in Warsaw in May 1942, and labeled simply “Ghetto,” this footage quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record of the Warsaw Ghetto. However, the later discovery of a long-missing reel, which included multiple takes and cameraman staging scenes, complicated earlier readings of the footage. AFilm Unfinished presents the raw footage in its entirety, carefully noting fictionalized sequences falsely showing “the good life” enjoyed by Jewish urbanites, and probes deep into the making of a now-infamous Nazi propaganda film.
• My Perestroika
  4:30–6:30 p.m.
  Sheraton, Sheraton Ballroom I
  The film follows five ordinary Russians living in extraordinary times—from their sheltered Soviet childhood, to the collapse of the Soviet Union during their teenage years, to the constantly shifting political landscape of post-Soviet Russia. Together, these childhood classmates paint a complex picture of the dreams and disillusionment of those raised behind the Iron Curtain. Filmmaker Robin Hessman will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterward.

Reception

• Reception for Two-Year Faculty
  5:30–7:00 p.m.
  Sheraton, Missouri Room
  Sponsored by Milestone Documents, the AHA cordially invites faculty teaching at two-year and community colleges to attend a reception in the Sheraton’s Missouri Room.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.