Milton Plesur Graduate History Conference
Each year, the GHA hosts the annual Milton Plesur Conference, a graduate conference named in honor of the late Milton Plesur, a distinguished professor of History who taught at the University at Buffalo from 1955 to 1987. The conference has no overarching theme, and all works of historical inquiry are considered, with no restrictions placed upon the themes, chronological periods, or general areas of study that the papers can cover. Like the GHA, the conference embraces interdisciplinary approaches to the study of history, and graduate students from a number of different disciplines have presented papers on a wide variety of historical topics since the conference was first held on April 15, 1993.
Each year, the GHA also invites a prominent historian to give a keynote presentation, with past presenters including Paul Deslandes (2012), Jelani Cobb (2011), Jon Sensbach (2010), Susan Myers-Shirk (2009), Nan Enstad (2008), Penny Von Eschen (2007), Victoria De Grazia (2006), Hasia Diner (2005), Matthew Guterl (2004), David Thelen (2003), Joseph A. McCartin (2002), and Volker R. Berhahn (2001).
Graduate students from all disciplines and universities are encourage to submit paper proposals.
For more information about Milton Plesur, see the University at Buffalo's "Changing Lives" website, which hosts page in his honor.
Picture courtesy of the University at Buffalo's ubchanginglives.org website.
2013 Milton Plesur Graduate History Conference
- Traversing the Borderlands:
- Past, Present, & Future
- Traversing the Borderlands:
- Past, Present, & Future
- University at Buffalo
- The State University of New York
- Buffalo, NY
- April 6, 2013
The Graduate History Association (GHA) of the State University of New York at Buffalo would like to place a call for papers for our annual Milton Plesur Graduate History Conference. This international conference is designed to enable graduate students from North America, Canada, and elsewhere to share current research with fellow students and faculty members in a number of fields, including History, American Studies, English, Comparative Literature, Classics, Global Gender Studies, African-American Studies, and Disability Studies.
The GHA is pleased to announce that our keynote speaker will be Dr. Barbara Krauthamer, Assistant Professor of History at UMass Amherst. 2013 is the 150th anniversary year of the Emancipation Proclamation and Dr. Krauthamer’s forthcoming book is the first full-length study of chattel slavery and the lives of enslaved people in the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian nations. Her keynote will address the complicated and often unexpected histories and legacies of slavery and emancipation in the Native American South.
We seek original research paper submissions that transcend the borders of nation-states and traverse boundaries – be they disciplinary, methodological, cultural, real or imagined – from a wide range of topics, time periods, and approaches. Additionally, paper proposals that complement the central aspects of Dr. Krauthamer’s work are encouraged.
This year we hope to form a panel to address the future of the Humanities at large as it pertains to employment opportunities within and outside of academia in the face of crippling budget cuts, increasing atomization and privatization of education, and the promotion of all things digital. In doing so, the organizers wish to mirror a trend which has arisen in major conferences such as the AHA and MLA. Aside from offering graduate students an opportunity to get substantive feedback on their individual projects in a collegial setting, the 22nd Annual Milton Plesur Conference hopes to allow attendees to engage in meaningful conversations about the future of studying and writing about the human condition, past and present.
Please send your proposal, including a 250 word abstract (with title), curriculum vitae or academic biography, and contact information to Jake Newsome (wjnewsom@buffalo.edu). The deadline for paper proposals is Friday, February 1, 2013.
Click here to view the 2013 Milton Plesur Graduate Conference call for papers (PDF)
Past Conferences
Click here to view the 2012 Milton Plesur Graduate Conference call for papers (PDF)
Click here to view the schedule for the 2011 conference (PDF)
Click here to download the 2010 Milton Plesur Graduate Conference call for papers (PDF)
Click here to view the schedule for the 2010 conference (PDF)