Rocky Mountain Workshop on African History
To be held in beautiful Portland, Oregon, September 12-13, 2025
This is a call for papers, panels, and discussants for the 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. The Rocky Mountain Workshop is held annually at rotating institutions in the western United States in September or October. In September 2025 and September 2026 it will be held in Portland, Oregon.
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 Although anyone is welcome to present, the organizing committee especially encourages the presentation of unpublished research from Africanist historians based in the Western United States (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico,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.
Although we expect most participants to attend in person, we will offer a remote attendance option for those needing it.
The Rocky Mountain Workshop will not be open to the public in order to preserve the intimate nature of the meeting, but scholars may participate in the workshop in two 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) 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, 5-10 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 under Submit Proposal.
We plan to accept submissions on a rolling basis with a final submission deadline of April 30, 2025. Notification of accepted proposals 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 of $150 for tenure-line faculty. Registration is free for graduate students and those in contingent positions.
The registration fee covers meals (lunch on Friday and Saturday and dinner on Friday) and helps support graduate student travel funding.
Graduate Student Travel Funding:
We anticipate offering up to two $500 travel awards to graduate students to help cover some of the costs of attending the conference. Graduate students can indicate their interest in travel funds when they submit their abstract using the proposal form.
Questions and concerns should be directed to graboyes@uoregon.edu or rmwafricaoregon@gmail.com .
Sincerely,
RMW Local Arrangements Committee
Melissa Graboyes, University of Oregon
Lindsay Braun, University of Oregon
Julie Weise, University of Oregon
Jennifer Tappan, Portland State University