Clayton M. Lehmann Student History Conference

The day-long conference will feature a plenary session and morning and afternoon sessions of undergraduate and graduate papers in regional, American, Asian, European, and world history. The Clayton M. Lehmann Best Paper awards will also be conferred. Lunch will be served. 

Submitting your Paper

Students should submit conference-length papers of 8-12 pages (no more than 20 pages) or 2,000-3,000 words (no more than 5,000 words). Papers should take 12-15 minutes to deliver. Please make sure that your paper is fully cited. (A bibliography does not count toward length requirements.) Please work with your professor when preparing your paper for submission.

Papers will be accepted until January 16, 2026.

All papers should be submitted online by clicking the link below. The link will take you to JotForm. You will be asked to upload your paper as a Document or PDF file. Make sure that your name, institution, and paper title are clearly indicated on the document.

For all other questions, contact the conference chair, Professor Katrina Knight Katrina.Knight@usd.edu. 

Awards - All papers submitted by the January 16 deadline will be considered for student paper awards, which will be selected by a committee of faculty representing the institutions presenting at the conference. 

Commentators - If you would like to be invited to serve as a paper or session comment, please indicate this in the email with your submission. Graduate students will be asked to serve as session comment, and interested undergrads will be invited to comment on 1-2 papers. 

Timeline - Once your paper is submitted, you will receive a confirmation email and should receive a formal acceptance within a week. A provisional conference schedule will be distributed in early February.