The 2007 U.S. Senator Rush D. Holt History Conference at West Virginia University will honor the academic contributions and scholarship of Professor Ronald L. Lewis of West Virginia University. Professor Lewis is a noted scholar of Appalachian and West Virginia regional history. His scholarship has spanned the subjects of African-American history, labor history, British immigration, comparative coal fields, environmental history, and regional studies. Colleagues, students, and friends of Professor Lewis will pay homage to his work at this conference titled, "Transforming Appalachian Scholarship."

The conference will be held April 12-14, 2007, in Morgantown, West Virginia. U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd has been invited to the conference, and the final event of the conference will be the 2007 Callahan lecture, which will be given by noted Appalachian scholar and sociologist Professor Dwight Billings of the University of Kentucky.