Today, Thursday, January 7, 2010, is the first day of the 124th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association. The theme this year is “Oceans, Islands, Continents.” See the online Program for a complete list of sessions.

If you’ve made the trip to San Diego, welcome!  And if you couldn’t make it to the meeting this year, you can stay up-to-date with Annual Meeting sessions and events over the next few days (January 7th through the 10th) with daily morning overviews right here on AHA Today.

Here are a few things going on at the Annual Meeting today:

Locations and Times

• Registration for the meeting is located in Douglas Pavilion A on the ground level of the Hyatt and will be open today from 12:00–7:00 pm. If you’ve already registered for the meeting, stop by to pick up your registration badge. If you haven’t registered, come by to do so, or register online.
• The Job Center is located in the Marriott’s Marriott Hall on the lobby level and is open today from 12:30–6:00 pm. (Admission to the Job Center requires an AHA registration badge).
• The Exhibit Hall is located in the Hyatt’s Douglas Pavilion and will be open today from 3:00–7:00 pm. (Admission to the Exhibit Hall requires an AHA registration badge)

Sessions
Here are just a few of the sessions taking place today. See a list of all of today’s sessions in the online Program.

• Misbehaving Women: Sex Radicals and Nonconformists Who Made U.S. History.
  3:00–5:00 pm, Manchester Ballroom A (Hyatt)
• Is Google Good for History?
  3:00-5:00 pm, Manchester Ballroom D (Hyatt)
• Rethinking American Disability Movement History
  3:00-5:00 pm, Maggie Room (Hyatt)
• Slaving Paths: Rebuilding and Rethinking the Atlantic Worlds, Part 1: Mirages of Freedom in Atlantic Post-Slave Societies
  3:00-5:00 pm, Manchester Ballroom F (Hyatt)
• Vampires: Dead, Undead, and Rumored Undead
  3:00-5:00 pm, Edward B (Hyatt)

Events of the AHA Working Group for Historical Perspectives on Same-Sex Marriage
To implement a resolution passed at the 2009 annual meeting, the AHA Council formed a working group to create a miniconference to explore historical perspectives on same-sex marriage at the 2010 meeting in San Diego. Today, one session is taking place:

• Land of the Free and Home of the Brave: Same-Sex Marriage in Canada
  3:00–5:00 pm, Manchester Ballroom G (Hyatt)

Film Festival

• Manifest Destiny: To Conquer or Redeem
  5:30-7:30 pm , Randle Ballroom D (Hyatt)
  To Conquer or Redeem tells the dramatic story of the Spanish-American and U.S.-Philippine Wars in the context of continental expansion and conquest. As part one of Manifest Destiny, a documentary series on U.S. foreign policy, this film tracks the evolving role of exceptionalism as a rebellious colony grew into a continental power and then an overseas empire.

Opening of the 124th Annual Meeting
The Opening of the Meeting, presided over by AHA President Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, will be held at 7:30 pm in the Elizabeth Ballroom F of the Hyatt.  The plenary session, Musical Encounters in the Early Atlantic: An Exploratory Performance, will follow.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.