I am trying to formulate a last-minute proposal for the 2009 Western History Association Conference in Denver. The theme of the conference is “Wired West,” which I am going to have to approach metaphorically.

My plan is to have the theme of the panel be trauma and historical memory. I am working on a dissertation about memory of Bleeding/Civil War Kansas and its place in the shaping of the West. More specifically, I would be analyzing post-Centennial published state and local histories as well as other commemorative events to find out how they discuss the still salient memories of 1850s and 1860s civil and racial strife. Other papers about race, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc. would fit in well, even if it were not in the same time period that I am covering.

I invite anybody working on a memory study of the West to give me a plan to make this a coherent panel. The best I have come up with for relating this theme to the “Wired West” is some play on Lincoln’s “mystic chords of memory” and using that as a basis to show how the present is “wired” to the past.

I do not yet have a person to moderate/comment on the papers, so if you have a background or interest in this area, please let me know! Also, if you may not fit into the theme, but you know someone whose work might, please pass along the word that a conference opportunity awaits.

Time is of the essence. If you are interested, please send me an email with your idea by August 28th so that we can finalize the proposal by the September 1 deadline.

Matthew Stewart
Ph.D. Candidate
Washington University in St. Louis
mgstewar@artsci.wustl.edu