The LGBTQ+ History Association is pleased to announce a call for papers for its fourth conference, the Queer/Trans History Conference* 2026 (#QTHC26), to be held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor from June 2 to 5, 2026. 

*Yes, this is a new name! The LGBTQ+ History Association has always interpreted “queer” as an umbrella that included queering of gender identity and expression, but it is important to name the work that we do more explicitly. With this name change, we’re affirming that this conference is a place to have the conversations about how sexuality, gender, and transness intersect and diverge. Also, in a political moment when the U.S. federal government is actively erasing trans history, we are committing to defending history, resisting fascism, and continuing to tell stories from the queer and/or trans past. 

Scholars working on any aspect of the queer and/or trans past, in any region of the world, during any period, are encouraged to apply. This conference highlights historical approaches to queer/trans scholarship, and while interdisciplinary approaches are welcome, we are soliciting proposals that explore queer/trans lives in the past. There is no specific theme; rather, we hope that this gathering will simply showcase the best of current work and new directions in the fields of queer and/or trans histories, including panels addressing historiographical debates or states-of-the-field. We encourage queer/trans scholarship on racial formations and racial capitalism, colonialism and empire, disability and embodiment, paid and unpaid labor, and practices of kinship and intimacy. Moreover, we are interested in panels that look beyond the twentieth-century United States. To promote robust conversations, we encourage panels organized by theme rather than region.

We particularly encourage panels and roundtables that respond to the political crises and technological changes impacting how we research, study, and teach queer/trans history today. In an era in which the teaching of history, ethnic studies and gender/sexuality studies faces increased scrutiny and backlash, we welcome panels and roundtables that explore critical reflections on queer/trans history in the classroom, from K-12 through higher education. As the US National Park Service deletes trans history content from government webpages, we encourage submissions that discuss queer/trans public history projects today. As the media through which queer/trans history knowledge circulates continue to diversify, we welcome panels that discuss how historians are using podcasts, online exhibitions, blogs, documentaries, social media rolls, Signal threads, Zoom webinars, and other formats to tell stories about the queer/trans past. 

Dorm rooms and on-campus hotel rooms will be available to make this conference as affordable as possible and registration fees will be minimal. 

A note from the conference co-chairs:

We want to thank members who’ve reached out to express concern about hosting the 2026 conference in the United States. We’re working to address those concerns, and particularly to make the conference as accessible as possible given the circumstances, including offering fully virtual options, sponsoring visas, and helping keep the costs of the conference as low as possible. We encourage folks to keep reaching out to us--this process is collaborative, and there would be no QTHC without all of you.

There is no perfect solution. While the U.S. is a place that international scholars may want to boycott or feel is unsafe to travel to, it is also a place that is hard for our trans and/or immigrant members to leave and return to. We also believe it is important to keep discussing trans and queer histories in the United States when the federal government is actively trying to erase these fields of inquiry. We considered several options and went with one where we had a dedicated local organizer with the capacity to facilitate the logistics on the ground. We want this conference to be accessible for as many people as possible. Ann Arbor has a generally welcoming climate for LGBTQ folks, ample institutional resources, interesting archives, and a richly documented local/regional LGBTQ history, so we’re excited about this opportunity. 

We see a future for the QTHC that continues to move around, and if you and your institution can host for 2028, please be in touch with the LGBTQ History Association co-chairs! We are open to a Canadian location for 2028, and look forward to an ongoing discussion with our membership to explore how best to facilitate accessible transnational dialogue about the queer/trans past in the years to come.

Guidelines for Submission

We are accepting proposals for:

1.      Fully in-person panels (three papers, a chair, and a comment; chair and comment roles can be fulfilled by the same person), roundtables (three to five speakers who will speak for 5-10 minutes each, plus a chair), workshops (an event in which one or more facilitators present on a topic and engage the audience in hands-on activity or constructive dialogue; examples might include  “Writing for the Public with the Editors of Nursing Clio,” “How to Launch a Podcast with Dig: A History Podcast,” “Writing a Book Proposal,” etc; workshops will require attendees to pre-register, and a max participant threshold should be set in the proposal), or single papers. 

2.     Fully virtual panels (three papers, a chair, and a comment; chair and comment roles can be fulfilled by the same person), roundtables (three to five speakers who will speak for 5-10 minutes each, plus a chair), or single papers. In response to member feedback about hybrid panels and prohibitive costs around technical support, we have decided not to accept hybrid proposals that require conference support to implement the hybrid experience. 

Our hope is that with options for fully virtual panels we can support opportunities for scholars who feel unsafe traveling to the United States to gather, share scholarship, and connect. 

We will consider individual paper submissions, out of which the program committee will assemble a very limited number of panels (either fully virtual or in-person). See below for ways to connect with others working in your field.

Panels and roundtables will be 1.5 hours. We encourage all full panel submissions to include at least one graduate student where possible. All panels should include a diversity of scholars in terms of institution, rank, and identity. Please only apply as part of one panel or roundtable. (The exception to this rule is for the role of chair or commentator, which may be performed by someone who is also giving a paper or appearing on a roundtable.) You do need to include someone to perform the chair, with an optional commenter. 

You may reach out to conference co-chairs for help in locating a chair and/or commentator: email conference@lgbtq-ha.org. In order to assemble panels, feel free to use the LGBTQHA listserv to connect with others working on similar topics (LGBTQHA@groups.io; if you are not already a member, you can register here: https://groups.io/g/lgbtqha) or use the hashtag #qthc26 on BlueSky or Facebook. 

Full Panels should include, in one Word document:

· Title of panel

· Panel abstract (300 words max.)

· Title and abstract for each paper (300 words max.)

· One-page CV or biographical statement with contact information for each participant

· Chair (required) and Commenter (optional) roles specified

Roundtables should include, in one Word document:

· Title of roundtable

· Panel abstract (300 words max.)

· Abstract for each contribution (300 words max.)

· One-page CV or biographical statement with contact information for each participant

· Chair role specified

Workshops should include, in one Word document:

· Title of workshop

· Workshop description  (300 words max.)

· Maximum number of participants 

· Expectations of participants (Do they need to bring a book proposal in progress? A laptop or other equipment? Sturdy walking shoes?) 

· Support that the facilitators would need from the conference staff

· Workshops can run up to 3 hours; please make a note in the proposal of the desired run time. 

· One-page CV or biographical statement with contact information for each facilitator

Single paper submissions should include, in one Word document:

· Title of paper

· Paper abstract (300 words max.)

· One-page CV or biographical statement with contact information

Please submit all proposals by November 1, 2025 to conference@lgbtq-ha.org. The QTHC 26 program committee will make decisions and send notifications in December. All presenters are expected to be (or become) members of the LGBTQ History Association by the time of the conference. Membership information is here.

The Huntington Library is now accepting Research Fellowship Applications for the 2026-2027 fellowship year for Long-Term, Short-Term, and Travel Grants/Exchange Fellowships.  

Long-Term fellowships are open to all scholars with a PhD, and available for one term (4-5 months) with a $25,000 stipend or one academic year (9 months) with a $50,000 stipend. Short-term fellowships (1-3 months) with stipends of $4,000 per month are open to graduate students, faculty, postdocs, working artists, creative writers, and independent researchers working on a scholarly project served by The Huntington's collections. Travel Grants/Exchange fellowships (1 month) with either a $4,000 stipend or room and board provided by the host institution are available to scholars at any stage from ABD onwards for research outside of North America, particularly with exchange partners in the UK, or in continental Europe or Latin America.

For more information about the types of fellowships, see https://www.huntington.org/available-fellowships   

For details of eligibility and the applications process, see https://www.huntington.org/fellowships and for answers to frequently asked questions, see https://huntington.org/fellowship-faqs  

Applications are due by 11:59 PM PST on November 15, 2025. 

The California Supreme Court Historical Society (CSCHS) encourages all students working on California legal history (NOT just the history of California courts) to apply for this prize. Papers may include elements of digital humanities and may also be co-authored. This is a GREAT WAY to get attention for your hard work!

$5,000 first-place, $2,500 second-place, and $1,000 third-place prizes will be awarded to the best papers on California state or colonial history, broadly considered. Recent winners include a study of the death penalty in California, the evolution of California land law, the desegregation of Stanford Law School, and disability law and the campaign for independent living. as well as a jointly authored paper on Chinese adoption practices and their role in immigration decisions after the Chinese Exclusion Act.

We accept papers of at least 7,500 and not more than 15,000 words, including notes and other explanatory matter. The competition is open to students and recent graduates in history and/or law, provided that they did not have full-time academic employment at the time the paper was written. The paper should also be unpublished; prize winners will likely receive an offer to publish in California Legal History, CSCHS’s journal.

Papers may be self-nominated or sent in by a professor or supervisor. To ensure anonymity, the author’s name should appear only on a separate cover page, along with the author’s mailing address, telephone number, email address, and the name of their school.

Submissions are due by July 1, 2026 and should be sent to director@cschs.org with the subject line “Smith Prize.” The winners will be announced in August 2026, and an award ceremony (likely over Zoom) will be held in August or September.

For the Prize Committee: Sarah Barringer Gordon, Laura Kalman, Stuart Banner

The University Libraries at the University of Nevada, Reno is pleased to announce the Bruce and Nora James Visiting Scholar Award for the Study of Nevada Politics and Public Service. The $5000 James Visiting Scholar Award supports travel, lodging, and meal expenses for a scholar wishing to explore the vast Nevada-centric political and public service archival collections at the University of Nevada, Reno – currently comprising over 200 collections. The collections touch on both state level issues as well as regional and federal topics. The Award is open to both emerging and established scholars.

To apply and learn more, please visit https://library.unr.edu/places/knowledge-center/special-collections/projects-and-initiatives/james-award.   

Applications are due November 2, 2025 with onsite study expected in summer of 2026.

Dear Members of the Western History Association,

With sadness and heartfelt sympathy, I regretfully write to inform you that Dr. Quintard Taylor, Scott and Dorothy Bullitt Professor Emeritus of American History at the University of Washington and a former WHA President, died yesterday. 

Dr. Taylor made significant contributions to the field of western history and the WHA over the last five decades. In addition to his many publications and founding the BlackPast.org, he presented his work at numerous conferences, served as chair and commentator of sessions, published in the Western Historical Quarterly, and lent his time to the WHA Council, as well as the Sara Jackson Graduate Student Award Committee and multiple Program Committees. He was awarded with Honorary Lifetime Membership in 2005.

In 2011, Dr. Taylor served as the WHA's first Black President, presiding over the WHA in its fiftieth year as an organization. At the Oakland Conference, he organized the first Presidential Plenary. This event is now a highlight of the WHA's annual conference. 

I corresponded with Quintard in June, when he made generous comments about the WHA. In closing he lamented about not being at the Albuquerque conference, remarking, "Needless to say, I really believe in the work of the WHA."

The WHA benefited immensely from Dr. Taylor, and he will be sorely missed throughout the association as a scholar, friend, and colleague.

I invite you to read this message, published by his colleagues at BlackPast.org, to learn more about Dr. Taylor's career and impact. 

Sincerely,

Elaine Nelson, WHA Executive Director

The Alliance for Texas History will hold its Annual Conference on May 27-29, 2026, on the campus of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, TX. The Alliance invites proposals for papers, sessions, and roundtables. Submissions may be individual papers or complete sessions. Student sessions are strongly encouraged.

A Call for Papers for our 2026 conference is issued and active. Please use the Program Proposal form for all submissions. The deadline is November 18, 2025.

The program committee, co-chaired by Stephanie Cole and Deborah Liles, supports topics that cover all aspects of Texas history, including, but not limited to, social, economic, political, cultural, preservation, and material culture, along with topics that address Texas history generally but are aligned with influences on Texas history. We hope to receive sessions that explore a wide range of Texas history topics, including teaching and curriculum, historiography, biographical studies, underrepresented regional communities, literature, publishing, and historical consciousness in the new century.

For more information, visit the website at www.atxh.org/2026-conference. 

Considered one of the most important photo historians of the 20th century, Peter E. Palmquist (1936 - 2003) had a keen interest in the photography of the American West, California, and Humboldt County before 1950, and the history of women in photography worldwide. He published over 60 books and 340 articles and was a strong proponent of the concept of the independent researcher-writer in the field of photohistory. With co-author Thomas Kailbourn, he won the Caroline Bancroft Western History Prize for their book, Pioneer Photographers of the Far West. Professor Martha Sandweiss, Princeton University, wrote that Peter "established new ways of pursuing the history of photography, and with his collections and research notes soon to be accessible at Yale, he will be speaking to and inspiring new generations of students and researchers forever.” Established by Peter’s lifetime companion, Pam Mendelsohn, this fund supports the study of under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present, and under-researched Western American photographers through the Great Depression. 

A small panel of outside consultants with professional expertise in the field of photo history and/or grant reviewing will review the applications in order to determine the awards. Applications will be judged on the quality of the proposal, the ability of the applicant to carry out the project within the proposed budget and timeline, and the significance of the project to the field of photographic history. Past recipients and their projects are featured at palmquistgrants.com.

Range of Awards: $500 - $2,000

Funds must be used for research; grant funding may not be used to cover salaries, pay for books, hardware, or equipment, or for production costs such as printing and bookbinding, podcasts, blogs, etc.

November 15, 2025 is the deadline for submissions. Grant recipients will be announced in mid-January 2026. If selected, recipients will be required to submit a digital copy of their work to HAF+WRCF, once complete. 

Eligibility:
Individuals and nonprofit institutions conducting research in either of the fields below are eligible to apply: 

• Under-researched women photographers internationally, past and present.
• Under-researched Western American photographers through the Great Depression.

Application and information can be found at The Humboldt Area Foundation

Research Travel Grants Offered by the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

The American Heritage Center (AHC) at the University of Wyoming offers annual travel grants of up to $750 each to provide support for travel, food and lodging to carry out research using AHC collections. Application due date for the fall cycle is October 31, 2025. Funds must be spent by August 31, 2027.

Subject areas in the Center’s collections include Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West and a select number of national topics: environment and conservation, mining and petroleum industries, air and rail transportation, popular entertainment (particularly radio, television, film, and popular music), journalism, and U.S. military history.

The AHC’s Toppan Rare Book Library consists of more than 50,000 items, majority of which are printed books, although there are newspapers, magazines, broadsides, illuminated manuscripts, and other materials. Collecting subjects include the American West, British and American Literature, exploration and travel, religion, hunting and fishing, historic children's books, and examples of the book arts.

Persons interested in AHC travel grants should complete an application at http://www.uwyo.edu/ahc/grants/index.html and email it to Toppan Rare Book Curator Dr. Mary Beth Brown at mary.brown@uwyo.edu. Applications are due no later than October 31, 2025.

The next cycle of travel grants has a due date of March 31, 2026.

Information about the AHC

The AHC is a public research institution located on the campus of the University of Wyoming in Laramie. The Center houses collections of local, regional, and national significance. Its holdings emphasize the American West from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. It has extensive collections in western political history, mining and petroleum, popular entertainment (including Hollywood and comics), environment and natural resources, journalism, and military history. The AHC also serves as the University of Wyoming's rare books library and university archives. With more than 90,000 cubic feet of materials and 3,500 collections, the AHC stands among the largest non-governmental repositories in the nation.

The Society for Applied Anthropology (SfAA) invites abstracts (sessions, papers, posters, and videos) for the Program of the 86^th Annual Meeting in Albuquerque, NM, March 17-21, 2026. The theme of the Program is “Everyday Practice of Applied Anthropology.” For meeting information visit www.appliedanthro.org/annual-meeting

The 2026 SfAA Annual Meeting offers researchers, practitioners, and students from diverse disciplines and organizations the opportunity to discuss their work and consider how it can contribute to a better future. SfAA members come from a host of disciplines -- anthropology, geography, sociology, economics, business, planning, medicine, nursing, law, and more. The annual meeting provides a fertile venue in which to trade ideas, methods, and practical solutions, as well as an opportunity to enter the lifeworlds of other professionals.

The deadline for abstract submission is October 15, 2025. For additional information on the theme, abstract size/format, and the meeting, please visit our web page www.appliedanthro.org and click on annual meeting.

The Western Association of Women Historians (WAWH) invites you to submit a paper, panel, or other proposal for the annual conference to be held April 23-25, 2026 in Sacramento, California. The WAWH is dedicated to fostering collegial interaction with a particular focus on women in the profession, but all historians are welcome, as are all areas of history. 

CALL FOR PROPOSALS: Please visit the conference webpage for information about submitting proposals for panels, roundtables, workshops, or posters. The deadline for submissions is October 5, 2025.

AWARDS: Our annual awards application period opens October 6, 2025. The WAWH grants 4 awards for publications, 1 for teaching, and 3 to graduate students. Learn more on the awards page.