I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to attend the Western History Association Conference in Kansas City this past October, an experience made possible thanks to the WHA Graduate Student Award. It was my first WHA Conference, and my first in-person conference as a graduate student, and I didn’t really know what to expect. In addition to a more general fear of putting myself and my work into the world beyond my graduate program, I was nervous to even share a space with scholars whose work I have read and admired for years. I somewhat expected (and maybe even hoped!) that I would go the whole conference without talking to a single other person. 

I learned quickly, however, that the WHA conference is not a space that would abide me sticking to myself. In fact, I think I spent most of the weekend meeting and talking with other people, and I am so glad that I did! I was pleasantly surprised to find that despite the professional nature of the conference, all the conversations I had felt friendly and even casual. I got much more confident as the week went on–I certainly would never have guessed at the beginning of the week that I’d work up the confidence to introduce myself to Elliot West at the hotel bar! I feel like those kinds of spontaneous interactions are promoted by the inclusive and positive culture of the WHA conference, and I am so appreciative of all the scholars who took the time to speak with me and welcome me to the WHA community.

In addition to the social aspect, I found that the conference was intellectually crucial as I continue to develop a proposal for my dissertation project. Despite the wide-ranging methodological and geographical areas of studies captured under the umbrella of the WHA, I found that each time slot had multiple panels that I wanted to attend and felt relevant to my academic interests. In addition to the panel that I participated in, I went to ten different panels from subjects as wide-ranging as Native women, Greater Reconstruction, and the political economy of settler colonialism. Though some were highly attended, I found that my favorites were the more intimate panels where I felt comfortable asking questions and introducing myself to panelists afterwards. This kind of close engagement with each panel continues to pay off: I still go back to my notes from the Conference as I craft fellowship applications and my dissertation prospectus. The information and methodologies that I was introduced to at the conference have been extremely helpful as I work to situate my own work in the broader field of Western History. 

Steeping myself in this scholarship felt particularly significant for me, as I come from a university that does not have much representation of Western history among the faculty or course offerings. I had hoped that being an active member of the WHA would help make up for this, particularly in terms of learning from other historians of the West and starting to build a network of colleagues. And it certainly has! There were many events at the conference that allowed me to meet and learn from like-minded historians and educators, from the Coalition for Western Women’s History Breakfast to the Public History Reception. All these events were structured to promote conversation between historians at different levels of their careers and in different kinds of historical professions. I spoke to many folks who referred to the WHA as their “home conference” that they come back to year after year. After returning from Kansas City, I immediately started working on assembling possible panels because I was excited about the possibility of the WHA becoming my “home conference” as well. 

Perhaps the best part of the WHA was the opportunity to get to meet other graduate students from across the country who will hopefully be my colleagues for years to come. I found that the conference does a lot to promote graduate student attendance and engagement. One thing I appreciated was how the conference promotes the inclusion of scholars at different stages in their careers in panels. For this reason, many of us who were in Kansas City were not only spectators, but participants, which was really empowering. Sharing one’s research at any stage of one’s career is scary–that graduate students are made to feel comfortable sharing their work at various stages of progress speaks to the culture of the WHA and the strength of graduate student representation. In addition to promoting graduate student presence and involvement, the conference schedule also builds in specific events for graduate students to meet one another and to participate in the Graduate Student Caucus. The very existence of the WHA Graduate Student Award is another great example of the WHA’s commitment to graduate student involvement and leadership in our community of historians.

Attending the 2024 WHA Conference was an extremely positive experience for me, and I look forward to experiencing it all over again in Albuquerque!