Making Common Ground
 Submission deadline: August 31, 2005

The 2006 Program Committee is pleased to invite program proposals on the theme of “Making Common Ground.”

The Committee intends this theme to encompass publishers, amateurs and buffs, scholars, teachers (K-post-graduate), performers, musicians, writers, artists, filmmakers, and others interested in the history of the West. We intend, as well, to welcome the variety of forms of presentation that shed light on and enliven our knowledge of the West. Finally, we propose this theme to encourage all participants to look beyond our particular specialties to imagine, study, and know the West in its variety and richness.

Increasingly, our individual work draws us into our special sub-fields and at the same time draws us away from other parts of the field. We need to create a context in which we can learn from each other and benefit from each other's passions.

Saint Louis has long been a common ground for people of many kinds: Indians of many bands, Europeans of many origins, immigrants (forced and voluntary), migrants, overlanders, people going up river and down. The Gateway Arch there now symbolizes St. Louis as the entrance to the West (for people coming from the East) as well as the gateway to El Norte for migratory workers from the Southwest; it also signals that the West is a big place where big dreams have been dreamt and big catastrophes played out. Rich people, ne’er-do-wells, adventurers, farmers, squatters, and speculators of all kinds have all seen in the West a place to make something new or to escape. It has at the same time been a place where native people have persevered and resisted. It has been, therefore, a place of successes, losses, failures, frustrations, hopes.

The Committee encourages formats that offer new ways of exploring the history of the West. As always, formal sessions involving the presentation of prepared papers will be welcome. In addition, we also invite – and will give special place to—the adventurers among you who are willing to try something new: seminars, working sessions, writing groups, material culture analyses, film clips, recordings, clothing, music. Instead of a session of reading papers about several historical figures, one might, for example, propose a working session on biographies at which publishers, published and in-process biographers could talk about the questions, issues, approaches to writing biography. We might also, for example, arrange sessions conducted by specialists in a field for others who want to get caught up on the major themes and developments in that field. We hope, too, that you have wider imaginations than our examples suggest.

We’re encouraging, as well, sessions that include a mix of people of a variety of backgrounds and interests, and will explore themes and issues that bridge our subject matter as well. Rather than a session devoted entirely to women, for example, a session that centers on the Pacific Northwest and includes specialists on women, business, northern borderlands, and the environment. We would like Western historians to work to make this conference a "gateway" to new approaches that seek common ground in a variety of fields.

The WHA wants to strengthen our long tradition as a big tent where the study of the West—in all its complexity and conflict—encircles us all.

Procedures for submission:
We encourage you to consult (prior to August 2005) with one or more of the committee members, including the chair and co-chair—all listed below. Please submit all preliminary proposals via e-mail [plain text or MS Word only, please] by August 31 to: WHA06-PROGRAM-COMMITTEE@listserv.nd.edu. 
 

Agriculture, homesteading	Susan Gray, Arizona State University. segray@asu.edu
Borderlands	Ben Johnson, Southern Methodist University. bjohnson@mail.smu.edu
California; politics and economics	Bill Deverell, USC/Huntington Library. deverell@usc.edu
Civil Rights	Roberto Treviño, UT-Arlington. trevino@uta.edu
Cultural	David Wrobel, UNLV. david.wrobel@ccmail.nevada.edu
Environmental	Andrew Isenberg, Temple University. Andrew.isenberg@temple.edu
Federal policy, Native American and women	Cathleen Cahill, University of New Mexico. cdcahill@unm.edu
Graduate students	Andy Graybill, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. agraybill2@unl.edu
Latina/o Chicana/o, and women	Gabriela Arredondo, UC-Santa Cruz. gfarredo@ucsc.edu
Midwest/Great Plains, military	Jerry Greene, National Park Service. Jagreene76@aol.com
Mountain West, mining/demography	Kathryn Daynes, BYU. Kathryn_daynes@byu.edu
Native American	Willy Bauer, University of Wyoming. wbauer@uwyo.edu
Pacific Rim	Susan Wladaver-Morgan, Pacific Historical Review/Portland State. phr@pdx.edu
Public history cultural resources	Jennifer Denetdale, University of New Mexico, jdenet@unm.edu
Public history museums and archives/Pacific Northwest	Judy Austin, formerly Idaho Yesterdays and Idaho State Historical Society Austin_bott@rmci.net
Race, ethnicity, immigration	David Gutierrez, UC-San Diego. dggutierrez@ucsd.edu
Religion	Michael Engh, Loyola Marymount. mengh@lmumail.lmu.edu
Other:	Annette Atkins, St. John's University. aatkins@csbsju.edu chair Marc Rodriguez, Notre Dame. mrodrig5@nd.edu, co-chair

Please contact Annette Atkins, 2006 Program Committee Chair, or Marc Rodriguez, 2006 Program Committee Co-Chair, with any questions about the call for proposals, proposal submission, or the committee.