The Ninety-fifth Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians and the twenty-fourth Annual Meeting of the National Council on Public History will be held at the Renaissance Washington Hotel in Washington, D.C., 11-14 April 2002.

The program committee invites proposals from members of the OAH, NCPH, affiliated organizations, and scholars in related disciplines. In keeping with the OAH's tradition of encouraging and supporting excellence in historical research, interpretation, and publication, the program committee has selected the theme Overlapping Diasporas: Encounters and Conversions. The theme, broadly and creatively defined, is potentially fertile ground for the presentation of research by scholars focusing on cultural, political, economic, military, social and diplomatic history.

The conference location, Washington, D.C., presents expansive opportunities to include and engage historians beyond the academy in federal programs and public history venues. The committee encourages panels, workshops, and roundtables which may lead to submission of proposals addressing the theme through topics such as those listed below.

1. The creation of American society
2. Reconceptualizations of American society
3. Encounters and conflicts among migrants, immigrants, and American Indians
4. Political policies
5. Economic interactions
6. War, diplomacy, and international relations
7. Conflicting interpretations in conversations and literature
8. The fluidity of diasporas (confluences, re-formulations)
9. Comparative cultures in American society
10. Socialization and change in American history
11. Community building and identity formation in diaspora
12. Cultural longevity and continuity in diaspora
13. Memory and diasporas

Although we encourage proposals for entire sessions, the program committee will accept individual proposals and make conscientious efforts to place those papers on the program.

Complete session proposals must include a chair, participants, and one or two commentators. We discourage consecutive presentations by the same panelists; however, participants may serve as chair or commentator one year and presenter the following year. All proposals must include five collated copies of the following information: 1) cover sheet, including a complete mailing address, phone number, and affiliation of each participant; 2) abstract of no more than 500 words (not required for single paper proposals); 3) prospectus for each paper of no more than 250 words; and 4) a single-page vitae for each participant. Proposals sent with less than five collated copies will be returned.

We welcome volunteers to act as chairs or commentators as assigned by the program committees.

All proposals must be postmarked no later than 28 February 2001 and sent to:

2002 Program Committee
Organization of American Historians
112 North Bryan Avenue
Bloomington, Indiana 47408-4199

No electronic or faxed submissions will be accepted.

Participation in Consecutive Annual Meetings

The program committee discourages participation as a paper presenter in consecutive annual meetings. The 2002 program committee will try to avoid placing a presenter from the 2001 Annual Meeting program as a presenter on the 2002 program. A person may serve as chair or commentator one year and a presenter the other.

Affirmative Action and Membership Requirements

By OAH policy, the program committee actively seeks to avoid gender- segregated sessions; the committee urges proposers of sessions to include members of both sexes whenever possible.

The committee likewise will work to follow the OAH policy and guidelines of having the program as a whole, and individual sessions to extent possible, represent the full diversity of the OAH membership. We strongly urge proposers of sessions to include ethnic and racial minorities, as well as junior academics, independent scholars, public historians, and American historians from outside the U.S., whenever possible. The OAH Executive Board has set aside a small sum of money to subsidize travel to the annual meeting for minority graduate students appearing on the program.

All participants must register for the meeting. Participants specializing in American history and who support themselves as American historians are also required to be members of the OAH (by 1 October 2001). Participants representing other disciplines do not have to be members.

2002 Program Committee