Dear Colleagues and Friends, 

It has been my pleasure to serve as the WHA-Graduate Student Caucus Chair for the last year. I enjoyed making new connections with grads from programs all across North America. I continue to work to make the WHA a welcoming and accessible conference for grad students. In April 2025, at the spring council meeting, I successfully lobbied the WHA Council to address structural issues which have negatively impacted the conference experience and voted to stop an increase in graduate student registration rates. 

Our team has accomplished so much in just one year! Abi, while researching in France, promoted the WHA and increased our organization’s visibility internationally. She organized the upcoming WHQ Zoom Workshop where grads will pitch their academic articles to the new WHQ Editor, Jared Orsi. Annie continues to grow the GSC’s social media presence with student spotlights and videos. Hailey revived the GSC Newsletter and worked to streamline the communication between graduate students and the WHA Office. Justin organized a diverse and intersectional panel on gender and sexuality in the west. David continues to fundraise to keep meals and social events at the WHA affordable. David has increased the amount of funds raised by almost 25% (technically 24%) compared to last year! We continue to receive support from some long term donors as well as adding another donor who intends to donate annually.

As we turn towards another year we welcome a new board. Abi Scott and Annie Delgado were both reelected to serve a second year as Vice Chair and Social Media Coordinator, respectively. We welcome Dale Mize as Outreach and Membership Coordinator and Matthew Beil as DEI Coordinator to the WHA Graduate Student Caucus board! 

Your 2025-2026 GSC Board:

Chair: Leah Cargin, University of Oklahoma

Vice Chair: Abi Scott, University of Kansas

Social Media Coordinator: Annie Delgado, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Outreach and Membership Coordinator: Dale Mize, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

DEI Coordinator: Matthew Beil, University of Kansas

Fundraising Coordinator: David Morales, University of California, Davis

I am looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones this fall in Albuquerque!

Best Regards, 
Leah Cargin
WHA Graduate Student Caucus Chair

The Alliance for Texas History is pleased to announce the creation of a new publication, the Journal of Texas History. The JTxH will showcase the history of Texas and the Greater Southwest and will include the many histories of its people and culture.

Serving as co-editors are Rebecca Sharpless, professor of history at Texas Christian University, and Benjamin H. Johnson, professor of history at Loyola University Chicago. Felipe Hinojosa, professor of history at Baylor University, will serve as the book review editor. A public history review editor will also be selected. An additional group of scholars with a wide range of expertise has been appointed to serve as members of the Editorial Board.

With this announcement, the Alliance begins a process that will soon showcase the best work on Texas history in all aspects. Our outstanding editorial board will ensure that the Journal of Texas History fosters inclusivity and excellence in ideas and methodology. The journal will be an open-access publication made publicly available through Digital Commons and the support of our hosts at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.

If you are interested in submitting an article for the new journal, please review the Call for Manuscripts and send an email query to submissions@jtxh.org.

New NEH Grant Program: Rediscovering Our Revolutionary Tradition  

A new grant program from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Rediscovering Our Revolutionary Tradition, honors the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the nation’s principles of equality, liberty, and government by consent. The program supports activities to preserve and improve access to primary source materials that document: 

1) The history of American independence and the establishment and/or expansion of the nation. Projects will include the experiences of states, territories, and communities—in the original colonies and beyond—in joining the nation. Or: 

2) The history of U.S. government—from federal to local, from federal and state constitutions to governors’ papers and court records. 

Projects may work with collections that include archival records; documents and rare publications; art and material culture; and photographs and sound recordings. Supported activities include conservation treatment and rehousing, digitization and description, transcription and translation, and updating existing digital resources to ensure long-term public availability. 

 

Application deadlines: September 4, 2025, and January 15, 2026 

Maximum funding: $350,000 (individual institutions); $750,000 (consortia) 

More information: https://www.neh.gov/program/rediscovering-our-revolutionary-tradition 

 

Questions? To arrange a phone consultation, please email preservation@neh.gov or call 202-606-8570. 

ACE Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship: The Fallout of Fallout – Documenting and Contextualizing the Downwinders Experience in rural Nevada and Utah

During this one-year Fellowship program, one Mellon Humanities Fellow will research, document, contextualize, and interpret the first-hand experiences of area residents who lived through a decade (1951-1962) of above-ground nuclear tests that blanketed the region in radioactive fallout. The project gives voice to communities impacted by this first phase of the Cold War through recording and sharing of oral histories, while also analyzing what influence these events still have on the region decades later. By placing these events in the context of American history, the Fellow’s scholarship will enable the heritage areas to appropriately and accurately interpret the region’s significance in an important chapter of our history.

This opportunity is generously supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation through American Conservation Experience (ACE).  

Employer: American Conservation Experience (ACE) 

Location: Eligible for remote/telework flexibility with significant travel for research and interviews in eastern Nevada and southwestern Utah. The Fellow is expected to reside within Great Basin National Heritage Area or Mormon Pioneer National Heritage Area or along the I-15 corridor between Salt Lake City, UT and Las Vegas, NV. Cedar City, Utah (cedarcity.org) is the town most central to the study area. 

Term: Position is fully funded through August 31, 2026.

Start Date: Late August 2025, exact date negotiable.

Salary & Benefits:

Compensation: Annualized salary $70,304 for Year (40 hours/week for 52-weeks). Paid bi-weekly, a two-week pay period. 

Medical/Health Benefits: ACE offers competitive medical and ancillary plans (health, mental health, dental, vision, flexible spending accounts, and other supplemental benefits). Fellows are also eligible to participate in ACE's 403b retirement plan, which includes a 1% employer contribution for participating, contributing staff.

Holidays, Vacation, and Sick Time: As a Fellow, you will be eligible to accrue up to 80 hours of paid vacation time during your year of continuous employment. Additionally, ACE observes 13 paid annual holidays and provides 10 days (or 80 hours) of paid sick time annually.

Additional Benefits: Outdoor Perks - As an ACE Fellow, you will be eligible to receive pro deals which include deep discounts on outdoor gear providing 30 - 50% off retail prices on 100s of established outdoor gear brands.

To Apply: Please submit here: 1) a cover letter stating interest and vision for the fellowship (letters may include a summary of the dissertation, a statement of personal research interests and plans, discussion of past engagement with public humanities, discussion of willingness to participate fully in NHA research and education programs); 2) comprehensive curriculum vitae; 3) writing sample accessible to the general public; 4) confirmation of Ph.D. award by August 31, 2025; and 5) names and contact information for 3 professional references. 

Deadline to apply: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis but no later than July 21, 2025.

Every time I return from the Western History Association’s annual meeting, I feel rejuvenated. WHA is one of the most welcoming and convivial communities for graduate students, and I’ve been fortunate to call it one of my intellectual homes for six years now. The friends and mentors I’ve been fortunate enough to make here and see each year make being a graduate student so much more joyful and sustainable. The Kansas City conference was no exception.

WHA is also a place where it’s easy for graduate students to make new friends to share our intellectual journeys with. I was excited to join a panel with Abby Gibson and USC and Saffron Sener from Harvard to discuss our work on the haunted West, specifically the haunted Native West. With the happy coincidence that WHA meets in October, we not only wanted to share our work, but make it fun, seasonal, and thought-provoking ahead of Halloween. Plus, what fun would it be to be a space historian if I didn’t get a chance to do some history of ufology before focusing on my dissertation? It was a chance for me to practice my historical storytelling skills, something my advisor puts a premium on, while also raising critical questions with the panel. How did ghost stories set in the West about Native Americans or appropriated from Native American traditional stories—shared around campfires at summer camp, circulated in newspapers, and even enshrined onto place names on maps—serve to promote American innocence in settler colonialism while also furthering the dispossession of Native lands?

Though I’m in Oregon now, I did my MA in Utah, which is no stranger to hauntings or aliens. The supposedly haunted history of a 500-odd acre ranch in the middle of the Uinta Basin in Utah once called the Sherman Ranch (now more famously known as Skinwalker Ranch) was my target of analysis. I was interested in investigating this “remote” site in the middle of nowhere that was haunted by the “curse of the s-walker.” Certainly, that’s the impression one gets from the ranch’s current owners and the History Channel, both of whom often claim that the site is avoided by “the Natives” even to this day. But when I put my BS in Geography to work (by opening Google Maps) I found the ranch was practically right down the street from Ute Indian Tribe’s offices in the middle of the second largest Indian reservation in the United States. Remote? Perhaps. But not nowhere. My research from there took me through territory I didn’t expect, examining a conspiracy (and, arguably, a scam) tying together the paranormal, odd aerospace tycoons, drought, and recessions in the cattle market.

I found that the haunted Native West is not a harmless trope, but one that can be weaponized by settlers for enormous economic gain while bloodlessly narrating Native people off of the land, even in the middle of literal Indian Country. After all, what’s the harm in breaking off this piece of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation if the stories we tell say Utes didn’t want the land in the first place? Abby then gave her paper on ghost stories of the “Great American Desert” and how hauntings paired with geographic knowledge about the American West (or lack thereof) in the nineteenth century. Our adventures in historical geography then ended with Saffron’s interrogation of places in the United States with the word “devil” in their names. What should have been recognized as sacred places of spiritual power, honoring Native histories, were instead demonized and sanitized, now uncritically accepted as part of our geography. In an age of alternative facts and pseudohistory, we must ensure that Native histories and traditional stories do not get appropriated and weaponized to continue the cycles of dispossession against Native people.

As I transition to focusing on my dissertation research, I’ll miss the opportunity to continue to poke around the history of the American West with these fun research side quests. However, even as I switch from ghosts and aliens to eclipses and telescopes, I know that I can continue to rely on the community at WHA to improve my scholarship in ways that are helpful, critical, and joyful.

Crisis Moments Grants 

Deadline: September 19, 2025 

The Albert Lepage Center for History in the Public Interest at Villanova University is pleased to  announce a funding opportunity to support public-facing historical projects related to the theme  of “Crisis Moments.” 

The Center will fund up to 8 projects of up to $5000 that creatively engage with the broad range  of questions related to the theme of Crisis Moments that can further public understanding of  contemporary crises of planning, policy, and material reality in the United States and around the  globe. This theme could encompass any number of historical topics. Examples include but are  not limited to: constitutional crises; crises of knowledge, education, and higher education;  women’s ways of coping and other interpretations of everyday crisis management; crises of  representation; climate crisis; border crises; manufactured crises; the AIDS crisis; housing and  cost of living crises; transportation and planning crises; and more. The theme is not limited by  geography or time (for instance, crises in the Ancient Mediterranean, medieval Europe, 20th  century Asia, or postcolonial African states, or the U.S. after the Cold War are all potentially  eligible). What is most important is historical focus on the occurrence and/or resolution of crises;  historical methodology; and a strong component of public engagement.  

Grants in the past have gone to such varied projects as podcasts, documentary films, oral  histories, historical tours, monograph research, dissertations, digital and physical exhibits, online  archives, digital mapping projects, and workshops, among other projects. 

The Center seeks submissions from a diverse pool of applicants that are original and imaginative  in content and form. The Center is always interested in funding proposals that adopt a global  approach and highlight issues of class, gender, race, activism, corporate influence and political  power. We strongly encourage members of minority and underrepresented populations to apply. 

About the Grants 

Grants in the amount of up to $5,000 (depending on scope, size and need) will be awarded to  projects that promote historical research, scholarship, teaching and public dialogue about  historical perspectives on labor. 

Our goal is to provide seed money and/or to help advance a project from conception to  execution. The Center is, therefore, willing to support work that may require initial funding to  get off the ground. 

Project outcomes include: a series of blog posts or podcasts, digital and in-person exhibits, an  oral history archive, a series of op-eds, a mapping project, an educational workshop, a  multimedia resource, a collaboration with local environmental organizations and other creative  ideas. 

Application and Selection Process

Applications are due to the Lepage Center by 11:59 p.m. EST on September 19, 2025.  Applications should be emailed as a single attachment (PDF) to lepage@villanova.edu and  should not exceed 15 pages. 

Applications must include: 

• A title 

• A project abstract (250 words) 

• A project description, purpose, and its contribution to history in the public interest (1-2  pages) 

• A plan of execution, including deliverables, partners, and expected outcomes (1-2 pages) • A proposed budget (1 page) 

• Resumes of principal participants (the total of resumes not to exceed 10 pages) In evaluating applications, the Lepage Center will consider: 

• The track record of the applicant(s); 

• The importance of the project goals, the originality of the method and perspective, and  the fit and relevance to the Center’s mission; 

• The feasibility of the proposal; 

• The capacity of the project to shed light on current events; 

• The articulation of an approach to historical thinking about the past that meets  disciplinary standards and perspectives 

Proposals will be reviewed by an internal committee with award decisions to be made by the last  week of October, 2025. 

A one-time disbursement of funds will occur in Fall 2025. 

Eligibility 

Proposals are limited to scholars, researchers, historical institutions and nonprofit organizations  in the United States. Global perspectives and transnational partnerships are encouraged. 

While not limited to professional historians or history institutions, proposals that feature  historians and demonstrate an approach to studying the past that broadly fits disciplinary  standards and ethics of professional history will be favored. 

Grantee Deliverables 

Grantees should be amenable to having their projects featured on the Lepage Center website,  social media and other communications; acknowledge the Lepage Center’s support in their  public-facing materials; and amenable to participate in a Lunch at Lepage or virtual panel  discussion with other grantees describing their grant work between Fall 2027 and Fall 2028. 

Fine Print

Grant awards are subject to federal, state and local tax regulations. Each grantee is responsible  for reporting taxable stipend payments and for remitting any tax due with their personal or  institutional income tax return. For specific questions about your tax responsibilities, please  contact the Internal Revenue Service, an accountant or an income tax service. IDC to be capped  at no more than 5% of the grant. 

For any questions, please contact lepage@villanova.edu

The Alliance for Texas History wishes to enlist a public history editor for its new publication, The Journal of Texas History. The journal will be an open access publication available through the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries and by print-on-demand. JTxH will publish two issues a year, beginning in summer 2025.

The person in this role will identify museum exhibits, historical markers, podcasts, documentaries, digital history resources, and other projects that seek to bring serious historical scholarship and knowledge of Texas history to the public. The public history editor will develop standards for reviews of these projects, identify reviewers with appropriate expertise, assign and edit the reviews; and participate in the Journal’s editorial board meetings (held at least biannually). 

The public history editor will be supported by Journal of Texas History co-editors, Benjamin Johnson and Rebecca Sharpless, and reviews editor, Felipe Hinojosa. Resources and recommendations will also be available via the databases and email lists of the 600+ member-strong Alliance for Texas History.

We seek a historian familiar with Texas’ public history scene, broadly defined, and with enough publication experience to plausibly edit reviews. A willingness to work in a team with the other volunteer editors and an appreciation for the wide range of subjects within Texas history are essential.

To apply, please send a cover letter describing your interest in the position along with a CV to reviews@jtxh.org by August 15 for first consideration. This is an unpaid position. For general inquiries about the journal or the Alliance for Texas History, please email contact@atxh.org