3rd Rocky Mountain Workshop on African History
To be held virtually, August 20-21, 2021
This is a call for papers, panels, and discussants for the 3rd Rocky Mountain Workshop on African History. The Rocky Mountain Workshop is designed to provide an intensive and critical discussion of pre-circulated papers on any aspect of African history. Papers with historical dimensions but originating from other disciplines, such as anthropology or political science, are welcome.
Over the course of two days, the meeting will provide Africanist historians with diverse backgrounds and research interests with the opportunity to present works in progress and receive both substantial commentary and supportive discussion from colleagues in a workshop atmosphere. Although anyone is welcome to present, the organizing committee especially encourages the presentation of unpublished research from Africanist historians based in the Western United States (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming). We envision that this workshop will become a fixture for this diffuse community of Africanist scholars, and serve to strengthen the exchange of ideas among this group.
Due to the uncertainties of the COVID 19 pandemic, the workshop will be held virtually, on Zoom, August 20-21, 2021. We hope this will allow for flexibility and more certainty in planning ahead. The Rocky Mountain Workshop will not be open to the public in order to preserve the intimate nature of the meeting, but Africanist historians may participate in the workshop in three ways:
(1) Present a work in progress
Paper proposals should include the participant’s name, contact information, affiliation, tentative paper title, and an abstract of no more than 250 words. The abstract needs to articulate clearly the research question(s) of the paper, the argument or hypothesis of the paper, the type of evidence that will be consulted, and the historiographical and/or theoretical contribution that the research will make to the field of African history.
(2) Propose a panel of papers
Panels should be comprised of 3-4 participants, and a panel proposal needs to include the
participants’ names, contact information, affiliations, tentative paper titles, and paper abstracts. The panel proposal also needs to include a brief statement of no more than 250 words that explains the theme of the panel, and how each of papers relates to the theme. Panel proposals can either include a discussant, or the organizing committee can choose a discussant for the panel. The organizing committee strongly encourages individuals to organize panels that include a diversity of panelists in terms of gender, ethnicity, institutional background, and academic level.
(3) Serve as a discussant
Proposals to serve as a discussant should include the participant’s name, contact information,
affiliation, and historical themes, areas of specialty, and/or geographical regions on which they would be willing to comment. The discussants will be responsible for providing written feedback on the papers to which they are assigned, 10-15 minutes of commentary, and then leading a discussion about the papers with panel attendees.
Proposals should be submitted using the Google forms available on the Rocky Mountain Workshop website: https://sites.google.com/view/rockymountainworkshop. The submission deadline is March 1, 2021. Notification of accepted proposals will occur by April 1, 2021, and will include details about paper pre-circulation and workshop registration. Once proposal notifications have been sent out, participants will be required to pay a non-refundable registration fee to reserve their place at the workshop: $75 for tenure-line faculty and $25 for graduate students and those in contingent positions.
Questions and concerns should be directed to leslie_hadfield@byu.edu or rockymountainworkshop@gmail.com .
Sincerely,
The 2021 Organizing Committee
Leslie Hadfield, Brigham Young University
Daren Ray, Brigham Young University
David Bresnahan, University of Utah