The call for papers is now open for the HOTCUS Winter Symposium 2025, which will take place at the University of Gloucestershire on Friday 21 February 2025 and reflect on the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II and the significant impact of the war on American life, history, and culture.

If submitting an individual paper proposal, please submit a 250 word abstract plus a short, one page C.V. to [email protected] by Sunday 1 December, 2024. If you are proposing a panel, please submit an abstract for each contribution. If you would like to discuss a possible format for a panel or individual contribution to the conference, please contact the email address above. Interested scholars are invited to share ideas and look for possible panel members via the following online form: Panel Finder.

The organisers are hoping to develop an edited collection or journal special issue with interested presenters, so please do let us know if this is something that interests you when applying to present your work at the conference.

For more information, please see the website: https://hotcus.org.uk/events/winter-symposium/2025-winter-symposium/

The 2025 HOTCUS annual conference will be held at the University of Lancaster, 18-20 June 2025. We are delighted to announce that Professor Andrew Preston (University of Cambridge) will be our keynote speaker. 

A call for papers will be released in December 2024. HOTCUS will be pleased to welcome proposals for individual papers, but particularly encourages interested members to consider developing innovative panels and roundtables, including state of the field discussions, reassessments of key texts, and fora that explore issues in research, career development, and pedagogy. To facilitate early development of proposals, HOTCUS has set up an online form (Google Doc) where potential applicants can share ideas and invite collaboration.

Postgraduate and early career scholars should also save the date for our workshop with Professor Preston, which will take place on June 18, 2025. Full details will be circulated as part of the main CFP, but this is an invaluable opportunity to share a piece of work in progress for discussion and feedback from Professor Preston and other HOTCUS members at the Annual Conference. Postgraduates and early career scholars are welcome to apply to present work at both the main conference and the workshop.

Full particulars of the CFP are available here: https://baas.ac.uk/conferences/baas-2025-university-of-hertfordshire-23-25-april-2025/

We invite submissions for the 70th Annual Conference for the British Association for American Studies (BAAS) at the University of Hertfordshire, which will be held between 23rd and 25th April 2025. We look forward to welcoming the American Studies community to Hatfield. 

Alongside our usual practice of accepting work in any area of American Studies, as this year will be the 70th anniversary of BAAS, we also aim to have two key strands within the conference: 

1. ‘1955’: We will be thinking about 1955 as a flashpoint year. We welcome proposals about key 1955 events/culture (e.g., the opening of Disneyland; the Montgomery Bus Boycott; Emmett Till’s murder; On the Waterfront at the Oscars) and their aftermath/longue durée. 
2. ‘American Studies Today’: We want to think about the history, shape, and development of American Studies (especially in the UK), as well as the discipline’s present and future in an era of higher education crisis. 

Beyond these themes, proposals are welcomed on any subject in American Studies, though as ever we encourage – and will prioritise – non-traditional formats.

Proposals should be sent to [email protected] by Friday the 22nd of November 2024. Full details of submission requirements can be found here: Full particulars of the CFP are available here: https://baas.ac.uk/conferences/baas-2025-university-of-hertfordshire-23-25-april-2025/

Call for Targeted Research Panels 

We are pleased to invite applications for two Targeted Research Panels for this year’s conference. Targeted Research Panels aim to support, promote, and feature the production of research by people of colour, LGBTQ+ communities and disability communities. BAAS will provide funding of £5000 over three years, to facilitate research culminating in panels/presentations at Hertfordshire and an additional BAAS conference. 

The deadline for Targeted Research Panel applications is 8th of November 2024. The convenor will submit a proposal for a fully formed panel as outlined in the 2025 BAAS Annual Conference Call for Papers in addition to a short statement of no more than 500 words explaining how the proposed panel addresses the production of research by people of colour, LGBTQ+ communities, disability communities and scholars without regularised institutional support. 

Email submissions should include ‘Targeted Research Panels’ in the subject line, and be sent to [email protected], copying in [email protected].  

To discuss ideas informally, please contact the conference organisers and/or the BAAS TRP lead Dr Christine Okoth ([email protected])

Academics at UK universities and Higher Education Institutions are now invited to collaborate with the British Library on jointly supervised PhD studentships fully funded for four years through the AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Partnerships scheme. We are seeking proposals for four PhD projects, to start in October 2025, developed on the basis of our specially selected research themes listed below.

Academic applicants are invited to submit proposals to develop one of the following themes:

1. The music collection of Paul Hirsch (1881-1951): The collecting practices of a Jewish emigré to England in the WWII period (PDF, 249kb)
2. Online fan communities: Collecting practice and inclusion in a national collection (PDF, 250kb)
3. Eighteenth-century knowledge work in the Harleian Collection (PDF, 244kb)
4. Beyond the Burger: USA food stories in the British Library’s oral history and food industry literature collections (PDF, 221kb)

Beyond the Burger —

https://www.bl.uk/more/research-collaboration/cdp-hei-food-stories-2025.pdf

The project provides a unique opportunity to assess the ways that food culture in the UK between 1945 – 2010 has been influenced, experienced and shaped by the USA food culture. The research will examine the Library’s collections to trace the adoption, absorption, resistance and adaption of American food culture in the UK. Through in-depth analysis of two collection areas, the research will focus on the interplay between American food systems and the creation of British culinary culture since 1945. It will ask to what extent and in what ways did USA food culture influence food in the UK and how is this revealed and represented by the Library’s collections in terms of which food sectors dominate and which are missing or have significant gaps.   

How to apply

Before submitting your application, please refer to the Information for HEI applicants (PDF, 194kb) and the relevant research theme profile, and ensure you are aware of the specific characteristics of the AHRC CDP scheme, the selection criteria, and the envisaged timetable.

Applicants must be academics of postdoctoral standing based at UK universities or HEIs, and be supported by the applicants’ institutions.

Applications should be submitted via the online application system on the website which will go live shortly. If you would like to be notified when the system is live, please email [email protected].

Applicants will be asked to upload a short CV for each academic supervisor. All materials must be submitted by the deadline of Friday 29 November 2024, 12.00. Late applications cannot be accepted.

SHAW 2025 Conference

Leeds Beckett University and the University of Leeds

Friday 11th July 2025

The Society for the History of Women in the Americas (SHAW) welcomes proposals for its annual conference, co-hosted by Leeds Beckett University and the University of Leeds.

This year’s conference invites papers on any topic relating to histories of women and gender non-conforming people in the Americas, but encourages proposals for papers, panels or roundtables that explore the subject of emotion. How do we reflect on, train and engage the emotional aspects of our research? How can histories of emotion deepen our understanding of historical events? And how is the archive or the classroom an emotive space?

The conference welcomes proposals from academics at any stage of their career, especially graduate students, as well as those active in civil society groups.

We invite 250 word abstracts for papers of 20 minutes length. For full panels and roundtable discussions, please include descriptions of all papers proposed.

Please submit abstracts along with a 100-word biography of each proposed speaker to [email protected], by Friday 6th December 2024.

Financial assistance for this year’s conference will be limited and priority will be given to PGR presenters who are without access to funds at their home institution.

The Scottish Association for the Study of Americas 2025 conference Call for Papers is open for submissions! Graciously, this year the conference and workshop will be hosted at The University of Edinburgh.

The conference will be held at the University of Edinburgh on March 1, 2025 and the postgraduate workshop will be held on February 28, 2025.

Importantly, this year we are also conducting our bi-annual postgraduate workshop (February 28, 2025) with our conference following the next day (March 1, 2025). Please see details at https://buff.ly/3r0Da1V and remember to submit by January 10, 2025! We can’t wait to hear from you all!

We are pleased to announce the organization of an international conference entitled “21st-century United States: A Historical Assessment” which will be held on November 20-21, 2025, at Université Paris Cité, Paris, France.

The Call for Papers is available here.

Proposals may be submitted in English or French. They should not exceed 500 words, be accompanied by a short biographical note and sent to [email protected] by March 1, 2025. You will hear back from us by April 15.

We are looking forward to reading your proposals,

Best,
Tamara Boussac (Université Panthéon-Sorbonne), Hugo Bouvard (Université Paris Cité), Esther Cyna (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin) and Anne Légier (Université Paris Cité)