Smoking Guns

Sources That Inspire and Shape Our Research

ECR/PGR event, Thursday, September 2, 2021

As archive facilities reopen their digital and in-person services, researchers face old and new challenges with primary-source management. With the combination of new public and private health concerns and professional obligations, it is all too easy to forget why we became students, early career scholars, and budding historians. This event is designed to remind us.

The Event: A roundtable of six postgraduate and early career researchers working in twentieth-century US history will discuss the primary source(s) that have most informed their past and/or current research: their “smoking guns.” In their five-minute presentation, panelists may also wish to consider specific challenges they may have faced in their research, such as (but not limited to) digital and non-digital archive access, pandemic safety protocols and policies in the UK and/or abroad, as well as other academic challenges. Thirty minutes will be reserved for panel presentations, followed by a thirty-minute Q&A session. This event will take place online, Thursday, September 2, 2021, from 1500 – 1600 BST.

Submission Guidelines: Please submit a title, abstract (max. 300 words), a copy of the corresponding primary sources (limited to one or two sources), and a CV in PDF format. Include your full name and contact information, including institutional affiliation. The deadline for submissions is August 16, 2021. Please email your submissions to HOTCUS ([email protected]) and any questions to Dr Nicole Gipson ([email protected]). Selected panelists will be required to provide a 40-word academic biography before by August 23, 2021.