Call for Papers
2025 theme
Historians have long accepted that research begins by “getting our hands dirty” in the archives, but it’s time to question the traditional boundaries that define where and how we approach the past. While textual archival collections are central to most historical inquiry, oral histories, film, sound, personal narratives, works of art, material culture, and community-held records offer equally valuable and often underexplored pathways to historical understanding. How we interact with these varied sources and how we innovate our approaches to uncovering historical understanding matter in a world of changing technologies and perspectives.
We especially invite graduate students to submit proposals that reflect on these evolving practices, challenge established norms, and expand our collective understanding of the diverse archival landscapes that inform historical research. Through your work, we hope to illuminate new perspectives on both the sources we rely upon and the methods we employ to interpret them.
Paper details
Papers and panels dealing with a variety of historical themes, periods, and perspectives will be accepted. Submissions are welcomed, but not limited to, some of the following themes:
- Technology and New Methodologies
- Historiography and Sources
- Local, Regional and Transnational Studies
- Media In all its Forms
- Gender and Sexuality
- Indigenous history
- Art History
- Material Culture
- Religion and Spirituality
- Economics
- Reconciliation and Reparation through History
- Warfare, Conflict, and Peace
Submission requirements
Interested applicants are invited to submit proposals for individual papers, panels, or round tables. Each paper submission should include an abstract of 250 words and short biography of 150 words with no more than three papers combined for a panel proposal.
Submission due date
January 31, 2025
Submission and conference contact
Conference date
Saturday, March 1, 2025
Conference location
Wilfrid Laurier University
Conference organizers from Laurier
Kess Carpenter, Aly Firth, Brian Gibb, Dr. Mark Humphries (faculty advisor).
Conference sponsors
