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NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS

The WHA Office often receives notifications about awards, scholarships, fellowships, and events that might be of interest to our members. We are also happy to share the news and accomplishments of individual members and programs.


When our staff receives requests to post news and announcements, you will find them here and on our social media platforms. Please email us if you wish to be included in our news and announcements feed! 

  • Thursday, July 07, 2016 9:00 PM | Anonymous

    Visiting Research Chairs for American Scholars: University of Calgary Department of History seeks Fulbright Canada Scholar

    The Department of History seeks a Fulbright Canada scholar who will conduct research in the social and cultural history of Western North America, taking advantage of the extensive resources available in Calgary, both those at the University of Calgary’s special collections and at the Glenbow Museum and Archives. The social and cultural history of Western North America is one of the Department of History’s main areas of strength. Department members researching the region include George Colpis (environmental history,social, economic, and cultural history of the fur trade), Warren Elofson (ranching), Elizabeth Jameson (women, labor, gender), Heather Devine (First Nations and MéƟs) and Nancy Janovicek (social movements, women, gender). The Fulbright scholar will also have an opportunity to work with colleagues in departments of English and Art whose interests lie in on the culture of Western North America. The University of Alberta seeks a researcher who can contribute to the academic life of the department by teaching a seminar in his or her area of expertise, conducting research in the social and cultural history of this region, and developing interdisciplinary connections across the Faculty of Arts. Click here to download detailed information about this opportunity or visit www.fulbright.ca  and hist.ucalgary.ca for more information.

  • Thursday, July 07, 2016 8:58 PM | Anonymous

    The State Historical Society of Missouri announces two Center for Missouri Studies fellowship opportunities for the calendar year beginning January 1, 2017. Each fellowship carries a stipend of $5,000 for a project that results in the completion of a 6,000 to 8,000-word scholarly essay, exclusive of notes, on one of the two topics listed below. Essays must be completed by the end of calendar year 2017 and must reflect significant scholarship in primary sources, evidence familiarity with appropriate secondary sources, and contain endnotes that comply with The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th edition. The finished product will be considered for publication in the Missouri Historical Review, although completion of the project is no guarantee of publication. In addition, successful applicants will be asked to make a public presentation based on their project at a mutually agreed upon time and place.

     Topics for 2017 Center for Missouri Studies Fellowships:

     1.      History of Native Americans in Missouri

     2.      History of Latinos/as in Missouri

     Deadline for Completion of Application: September 1, 2016

     Application Process: Applicants are encouraged to complete the online form available at http://shsmo.org/thecenter/fellowships/apply. A successful submission should include a title, proposal, list of main primary sources, proposed timeline, and evidence of applicant’s ability to complete such a project. In addition, applicants must submit a curriculum vitae no more than two pages in length.

     Award Announcement:  December 1, 2016

     For more information, please contact John Brenner, Managing Editor, brennerj@shsmo.org.

     Sincerely,

     The State Historical Society of Missouri

    1020 Lowry Street, Columbia, MO 65201

    573.882.7083 | shsmo.org
  • Thursday, June 09, 2016 1:19 PM | Anonymous

    CALL FOR PAPERS
    Newberry Colloquium
    D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies
    Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois

    May 12-­‐13, 2017

     Violence and Indigenous Communities:
    Confronting the Past, Engaging the Present

    Studies of violence against Native peoples have typically focused narrowly on war and massacre. These narratives often cast Indians as simple and passive victims, become trapped by stale debates about the definition of genocide, and consign violence to the safety of the past. While recognizing the reality of war and massacre, this symposium invites paper submissions that take new approaches to the study of violence. We particularly encourage papers that rigorously examine the nature of violence in past and present-­‐day Native communities and explore the intersections of violence with a broad array of themes such as:

    •  Historical memories, legacies, and mythologies of violence
    •  Theft and destruction of homelands and environments
    •  Appropriation of fine arts and cultural heritage
    •  Gendered and sexual assaults on bodies, families, and communities
    •  Enslavement and captivity
    •  Violence within and among Native communities

    We urge our participants to address the resilience and agency of Native peoples in the face of such violence. Our hope is to secure examples and cases that help illustrate the complex nature of violent interactions both within Indigenous communities as well as with mainstream society.

    We hope that this seminar will provide a public, academic forum for new interpretations of past and present events, from a Native perspective, and we plan to publish selected papers in a volume that will be geared toward classroom teaching. We hope to create an online repository of syllabi for faculty who teach courses in American Indian Studies, U.S. History, World History, and Genocide Studies so that all can draw from these examples when developing or revising similar courses examining violence and Indigenous communities.

    Paper abstracts of 200-­‐300  words and a one-­‐page c.v. should be submitted by September 1, 2016 to the D’Arcy   McNickle Center, Newberry Library, Chicago, Illinois.   Abstracts will be reviewed and all participants notified by October 1.

    Accepted papers of 7,000-­‐10,000 words should be submitted on or before April 1, 2017 and will be distributed in advance to seminar participants. They will be presented at a scholarly colloquium on May 12-­‐13, 2017. Limited travel stipends will be available. Following public presentation, papers will be revised and submitted for publication review on  July 1, 2017.

    Symposium Coordinating Committee:

    Susan Sleeper-­‐Smith,
    History Department, Michigan State University

    Patricia  Marroquin  Norby, 
    Director,  D’Arcy  McNickle Center

    Jeffrey Ostler,
    History Department, University of Oregon

    Joshua Reid,
    History and American Indian Studies Departments, University of Washington

    Please submit abstracts by September 1, 2016
    to: Madeleine Krass krassm@newberry.org

    Sponsored by the department of history, Michigan State University,
    East Lansing, Michigan

  • Monday, April 25, 2016 2:41 PM | Anonymous

     The Committee on Teaching and Public Education has extended the submission deadline for the Charles Redd Center Teaching Award to August 1, 2016.

    The Charles Redd Center Award is a $500 Annual award given to four K-12 Teachers--for innovative plans that teach history of the American West--to attend the annual Western History Association Conference. Click here to view the official announcement and detailed application information.

    Click here for the official page of the Charles Redd Center Award.

  • Wednesday, April 20, 2016 1:02 PM | Anonymous


    For the rest of April, The California Historical Society (CHS) is accepting submissions for the 2016 CHS Book Award. If any of your colleagues or contacts are writing about California's history (whether that be social, political, cultural, or environmental history), it's not too late to submit a manuscript! Attached is the Call for Submissions as a PDF and Word document; we welcome you to pass it along.

    We are searching for a book-length manuscript that makes an important contribution to both scholarship and to the greater community by deepening public understanding of some aspect of California historyThe deadline to submit is May 1, 2016and authors with manuscripts that will be completed before September 1, 2016 are welcome to apply.

    The award carries a $5,000 author advance for the winning manuscript and publication by CHS and Heyday (independent nonprofit publisher)with an awards ceremony, ample promotion, and an author tour throughout the state. The purpose of the award is to discover and promote an exciting new literary work in celebration of California’s heritage. 

    For more information about the CHS Book Award contest, please visit https://heydaybooks.com/chsbookaward/.

  • Monday, April 18, 2016 6:03 PM | Anonymous

    Conference Website: www.ethnohistory2016.com
    Call for Papers
    American Society for Ethnohistory
    2016 Conference
    Nashville, Tennessee
    November 9-12, 2016

     "Ethnohistories of Native Space"

     With a population boom putting this "big city with a small-town feel" to new spatial tests, Nashville still earns its fame as Athens of the South and Music City USA.  But it is also a borderland between multiple American Indian nations, the plantation home of Andrew Jackson, terminus of the ancient Natchez Trace, and way station on the Cherokee Trail of Tears.  Today, Nashville is also headquarters of the United Southern and Eastern Tribes, Inc.  This dynamic place in the Tennessee River Valley invites ethnohistorians to consider comparatively many questions about making and mapping human landscapes, colonizing and dispossessing Indigenous peoples, and losing and recovering native spaces.

     Sometimes even designated "the vacant quarter" for late Mississippian and early colonial times, this region's history of competing and overlapping claims complicates concepts like homelands, buffer zones, and middle grounds.  Nashville's pivotal position in the interstate slave trade and Indian removal also challenges us to reconsider issues of mobility and migration.  The American Society for Ethnohistory's 2016 program committee encourages submission of proposals that will pursue analysis of dwelling, diaspora, and other experiences of space and place in a wide variety of ways—from inquiry into how native spaces are represented through narrative and performance, to study of different forms of colonial intrusion, to use of Geographic Information Systems for tracking patterns of interaction and movement.  

     Submission Proposal Guidelines:  Please submit your proposal as a MS Word document to ethnohistory2016@gmail.com by May 27, 2016.  Notification of the status of the submission by July 8, 2016.

     Please follow the guidelines below for Individual Papers, Panels, Roundtable Discussion Panels, film Screenings, and Poster Sessions.

    Individual Paper, Poster Session, and Film Screening Proposal:  Please include with your abstract a brief, one-page curriculum vitae.  When submitting your file via email to ethnohistory2016@gmail.com please save the file as Lastname_Individual.docx and your c.v. as Lastname_CV.doc

     PAPER or DISCUSSION TITLE
    ABSTRACT:  250-300 words; single-spaced
    Name
    Institutional affiliation
    Mailing Address and Email
    Phone

     Paper Panel and Roundtable Discussion Panel Proposal:  In your panel proposal please be sure to include a one-paragraph description of the panel that details the panel title, proposed Chair and Commentator for the panel, number of papers to be included in the panel, and for each of the participants submit the abstracts of individual paper proposals.  For the files submitted to ethnohistory2016@gmail.com please save the entire panel proposal (including individual abstracts and panel description) with the Organizer's Last name as Lastname_Panel.docx and then include brief one-page curriculum vitae for each participant in one document with the Organizer's Last name as Lastname_CV.docx

     Name
    Institutional Affiliation
    Mailing Address and Email
    Phone

     Audiovisual Equipment:  All breakout rooms at the Hutton Hotel will include a computer LCD projector and screen.  Please make sure to bring your presentation with you on a flash drive and please make sure to let the program organizer (Daniel Usner, daniel.h.usner@vanderbilt.edu) know if you need further equipment for a film screening.

     Program Committee

     Kristofer Ray, Austin Peay State University
    Julie Reed, University of Tennessee
    Kathryn Sampeck, Illinois State University
    Ashley Riley Sousa, Middle Tennessee State University
    Daniel Usner, Vanderbilt University (chair)
    Steven Wernke, Vanderbilt University

  • Wednesday, April 13, 2016 1:25 PM | Anonymous

    The Western History Association is extending the deadline to submit applications for the WHA Graduate Student Prize to June 1, 2016.

    Each recipient will receive:

         A one-year WHA Membership

        2016 conference registration and accommodations for three nights in the conference hotel

        A ticket to the opening reception at the 2016 conference

        A ticket to the graduate student reception at the 2016 conference

     Prize Responsibilities: WHA Graduate Student Prize winners are expected to be active in the organization through service on WHA committees and/or through participation in annual conference events and attendance at conference sessions. In addition, WHA Graduate Student Prize winners will act as co-hosts of the Graduate Student Reception each year. Prize winners must attend the WHA conference in the award year. The WHA Graduate Student Prize may be held concurrently with other WHA graduate student awards. Each WHA Graduate Student Prize winner must submit a two-page post-conference report to the WHA no later than December 31 of the award year. Details on report requirements will be included with the award letter.

     To apply, please submit:

    •  Application cover page (name, contact information, institutional affiliation, year of study, and the names of thesis or dissertation committee members).

    • Curriculum vitae

    • A brief (one page) description of your interest in this prize and an assessment of how this prize will foster your professional goals

    All materials should be submitted electronically to WHAGraduateStudentPrize@gmail.com. Application deadline is June 1, 2016.  Late submissions will not be reviewed. Incomplete submissions will not be reviewed. Winners will be notified by August 1, 2016.

    Western History Association
    University of Alaska Fairbanks
    Department of History
    605 Gruening Building
    P.O. Box 756460
    Fairbanks, Alaska 99775
    (907) 474-6509

  • Friday, April 01, 2016 3:59 PM | Anonymous

     As a reminder, all WHA award submissions are due today, April 1,  except the Autry Public History Prize. Submissions for The Autry Prize are due next month on Sunday, May 1.
    Click here to see the guidelines for the Autry Public History Prize for more information.

    Good Luck!

  • Friday, March 25, 2016 2:32 PM | Anonymous

    A letter from Patrick McCarthy:

    I seek either a proven writer, preferably, or an outstanding doctoral student whom I would consider a “generalist,” who engage multidisciplinary methods in their scholarly pursuits.

    I have been involved for 35 years researching and publishing regarding how the image of the mountain man is depicted in 35 differing categories appearing in American Culture.

    Example: Patrick McCarthy, “‘Westers,' Not Westerns’: Exteriorizing the ‘Wild Man Within,’” Journal of Popular Film & Television 23(3) (Fall 1995): 116-129.

    I have terminal cancer, and there’s much to done to bring my efforts to full fruition, so it’s necessary to turn over my main project to a deserving, qualified, if accomplished, person.

    This individual could be an historian, psychologist, folklorist, sociologist, anthropologist, feminist, men’s studies specialist, or, conceivably, a combo of all of the aforementioned.

    Precisely, another scholar and I have accumulated enough information and materials to create a hefty, 26-chapter, two-volume book, which would be the definitive work about the mountain man’s depiction throughout American Culture (including historical literature) and would, ostensibly, be a bestseller.

    Please bear in mind, the working title for the work is: “The Mountain Man Paradigm: A Psycho-Cultural Reader.” But once I turn the reins over to you, the project is yours to develop.

    All you need to do is: (1) perform additional, required research about the modern mountain man rendezvous, updating what we have done; (2) further organize all existing information and materials; (3) and, finally, edit the entire manuscript and locate a publisher.

    However, I have a book contract with the best epublisher in America. I would consider transferring that book contract, sans any exchange of monies, to the right person.

    If you are the final candidate, you would have to undergo an on-site interview, at your expense, at my safe place of residence in Boise, Idaho.

    If we mutually agree that you are the one person for the job then and there, that part of the deal is complete, with the epublisher option a second part of the agreement to be decided.

    I will help you all I can for as long as I can, writing a psychological analysis of ultra-famous trapper Jedediah Strong Smith’s inner life, for one chapter, and, for another chapter, providing an overall psychological appraisal of the mountain man’s character in general.

    The process for determining the likely person to assume my research and writing is completely transparent, and all queries will be promptly answered.

    patrickmccarthy@cableone.net

  • Wednesday, March 23, 2016 2:35 PM | Anonymous

    The Western History Association seeks a new Executive Director and home for its executive office, beginning July 1, 2017. The Executive Director, selected by the WHA Council, is a member of the Council and, with the President and the President-elect constitutes the Association’s Executive Committee to conduct Association business when the Council is not in session. The Executive Director conducts the routine affairs of the Association, maintains Association records and accounts, makes annual financial reports to Council, reports to membership on the actions of Council, arranges for annual meetings of the Association, and conducts the annual business meeting as well as other duties assigned by the Council. The Constitution of the WHA, which defines and describes the core duties of the Executive Director, can be consulted on-line at http://tinyurl.com/go5gw6a

    Applicants with faculty appointments should be tenured with appropriate publications and administrative experience. Applicants from research libraries, museums, or other institutions should have sufficient seniority and institutional backing to provide assurance of secure tenure and ongoing support. The successful applicant will be able to demonstrate institutional support (office space, clerical-administrative staff, etc.) and the ability to devote 50% of her or his time to the WHA. The WHA contributes financially to supplement the support provided by the institutional sponsor.

    Applicants should use regular or electronic mail to send a letter of interest, a c. v., the names of three references, and a letter of support from their institution to:

     George Miles, Chair of the WHA Search Committee
    Yale Collection of Western Americana
    P. O. Box 208330
    New Haven, CT 06520-8330

    george.miles@yale.edu.

     To be assured of consideration applications must be received by September 1, 2016. Interviews will be conducted at the annual meeting of the WHA in St. Paul, Minnesota the week of October 17, 2016.  The WHA is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

     Potential applicants are encouraged to address questions to members of the search committee:

    Don Fixico Donald.Fixico@asu.edu;
    Chuck Rankin
    cerankin@ou.edu;
    Pablo Mitchell
    Pablo.mitchell@oberlin.edu;
    Sherry Smith
    sherrys@smu.edu;
    Virginia Scharff
    vscharff@unm.edu;
    Marsha L Weisiger
    weisiger@uoregon.edu;
    George Miles
    george.miles@yale.edu

     Or to

     WHA President John Faragher john.faragher@yale.edu, or
    WHA President-elect Steve Aron
    saron@history.ucla.edu


Western History Association

University of Kansas | History Department

1445 Jayhawk Blvd. | 3650 Wescoe Hall

Lawrence, KS 66045 | 785-864-0860

wha@westernhistory.org 


The WHA is located in the Department of History at the University of Kansas. The WHA is grateful to KU's History Department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences for their generous support!