The History Graduate Student Association of Virginia Tech is pleased to announce a call for papers from graduate and distinguished undergraduate students for the 12th Annual Brian Bertoti Innovative Perspectives in History Graduate Conference to be held at the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center in Blacksburg, Virginia, from March 20-21, 2009. The interdisciplinary conference is intended to give young scholars the opportunity to present original research in a friendly yet scholarly atmosphere and to expand historical knowledge.

Addressing the Conference

The two-day conference will begin on Friday, March 20, with a keynote address by Dr. Cynthia A. Kierner, professor of history at George Mason University, author of Scandal at Bizarre: Rumor and Reputation in Jefferson’s America (2004) and Beyond the Household: Women’s Place in the Early South, 1700-1835 (1998). Following lunch on Saturday, March 21, will be an address by Dr. Peter Blanchard, professor of history at the University of Toronto and the author of Slavery & Abolition in Early Republican Peru (1992), and Under the Flags of Freedom: Slave Soldiers and the Wars of Independence in Spanish South America (2008).

Submission Deadline and General Information

Presenters are asked to submit a one-page abstract and brief curriculum vitae by January 29, 2009, to Joe Forte at joeforte@vt.edu. For more information about the schedule, speakers, and accommodations, please visit the conference website at http://www.history.vt.edu/hgsa_website/bertoti.

*Cash prizes will be awarded to the outstanding papers at the conference.