Current Research in Digital History 2019
March 9, 2019 — George Mason University, Arlington, VA
The next Current Research in Digital History will be held on March 9, 2019 at George Mason University in Arlington, VA. Registration is $40 for faculty or employed scholars and $20 for graduate students or unemployed scholars. Please register for the conference.
The annual Current Research in Digital History conference features one plenary session: a roundtable with four leading scholars on the state of digital history. This year’s conference features two panels sponsored by the African American Intellectual History Society and the Colored Conventions Project.
Plenary session, 9:00–9:45 a.m.
Location: Founders Hall 113
This roundtable will feature four scholars in the field reflecting on developments in digital history in the preceding year, with commentary and discussion from conference attendees.
- Denise Burgher, University of Delaware
- Lauren Tilton, University of Richmond
- Cameron Blevins, Northeastern University
Paper session 1, 10:00–11:00 a.m.
Session 1.1 (Founders Hall 113) — Sponsored by the Colored Conventions Project
- P. Gabrielle Foreman, “Black Women and Digital Practices in the Age of the Archive: Oracle Protocols and Colored Conventions Project”
- Jim Casey, “A Committee of the Whole”
- Commentators: Denise Burgher and Anna Lacey
Session 1.2 (Founders Hall 311)
- Paul Reeve, “Century of Black Mormons: A Preliminary Interpretation of the Data”
- Gianluca De Fazio, “Improving Lynching Inventories with Local Newspapers: Racial Terror in Virginia, 1877–1927”
- Commentator: Anne Rubin
Paper session 2, 11:10–12:10 p.m.
Session 2.1 (Founders Hall 113) — Sponsored by the African American Intellectual History Society
- J. T. Roane and Justin Hosbey, “Mapping Black Ecologies”
- Andrea Roberts and Mohammadjavad Biazar, “What Ever Happened to Freedom Colonies? Mapping Texas’ African American Placemaking History (1865–1920)”
- Commentator: Stephanie Lampkin
Session 2.2 (Founders Hall 311)
- Vilja Hulden, “Labor and Business at Congressional Hearings, 1877–1990: Unequal Power and the Significance of Elections”
- Cameron Blevins, “Women and Federal Officeholding in the Late Nineteenth Century U.S.”
- Commentator: Joseph McCartin
Paper session 3, 1:30–2:30 p.m.
Session 3.1 (Founders Hall 113)
- Rachel Bohlman and Suzanna Krivulskaya, “Visualizing Late Eighteenth-Century Maryland Catholic Slaveholding”
- Anne Ruderman, Mark Heller, and Harry Xue, “Royal African Company Networks”
- Commentator: Abby Schreiber
Session 3.2 (Founders Hall 311)
- Shawn Martin, “Topic Modeling and Textual Analysis of American Scientific Journals, 1818–1922”
- Commentator: Jessica Linker
Paper session 4, 3:00–4:15 p.m.
Session 4.1 (Founders Hall 113)
- Harmony Bench and Kate Elswit, “Interpreting Touring Data for Dance History”
- Scott Saul and Tessa Rissacher, “‘For the Love of People’: Berkeley’s Rainbow Sign and the Secret History of the Black Arts Movement”
- Lauren Tilton, “Race and Place: Dialect and the Construction of Southern Identity in the FWP Slave Narratives”
- Commentator: Suzanne Smith
Venue and lodging
The conference will be held in Founders Hall on GMU’s Arlington campus, located at 3351 Fairfax Dr, Arlington, VA 22201. A map of the Arlington campus is available here. The venue is located one mile east of the recommended hotel, a 20 minute walk along Fairfax Drive. You can also walk 5 minutes to the Ballston Metro Station, and ride the Metro one stop in the direction of Washington, DC, to the Virginia Square-GMU stop; Founders Hall is a block east of the station. Paid parking is available at Founders Hall. Information about GMU Public Safety for the Arlington Campus is available on its website.
We recommend that participants who need lodging book rooms at the Holiday Inn Arlington at Ballston, 4610 N. Fairfax Dr, Arlington, Virginia 22203.
Presenters will have access to the classroom computers and projectors. You can plug a device into the projector directly via HDMI, or you can put slides or use a browser on the classroom computer. Presenters will each have 10 minutes to present their papers. Commentators will spend 5 minutes on each paper for a total of 10 minutes. The remainder of the time is reserved for discussion.