Located on the Gulf of Mexico in western Florida, Pensacola, has long been identified with numerous cultures and diverse populations. Since 1559, Pensacola has been ruled by Spain, France, England, the Confederacy, and the United States, and the cultural diversity accruing to the city’s architecture, cuisine, holidays, and varied races and social perspectives is everywhere apparent. At once a postcolonial city, a technological powerhouse, and a tourist destination Pensacola is an ideal place to consider issues and ideas structured around the theme of “Crossing Borders/Building Communities—Real and Imagined.” These include the movement of peoples, ideas, technologies, and institutions across national boundaries; the interrelationships of divergent peoples, cultures, races, and ethnic groups one to another; and the memory of these themes in many societies and nations. One area we wish to explore is intersectional identities and the ability to inhabit multiple communities.

While the program committee especially welcome submissions that illustrate or explicate the conference theme, proposals may address any area of public history. 2011, for example, is the inaugural year of the United States Civil War Sesquicentennial and the 50th anniversary of the 1961 Freedom Ride: the program undoubtedly will include topics from the Civil War to Civil Rights. Furthermore, recent news of BP’s crude oil spill reaching the Gulf Coast makes a wide array of session topics particularly pertinent to the 2011 Annual Meeting: environmental history, dealing with natural and human-made disasters, the relationship of state and federal government and politics, community responses to economic and environmental trauma, the relationship of heritage tourism to leisure or recreational tourism, etc.

The program committee prefers complete session proposals but will endeavor to construct sessions from proposals for individual presentations. Sessions will be scheduled for 1.5 hours; significant time for audience discussion should be included in every session. The committee invites proposals for innovative session formats.

Visit the NCPH 2011 conference webpage at http://ncph.org/cms/conferences/2011-annual-meeting/ for the full Call for Proposals and access to the newly simplified online proposal system. We look forward to hearing from you by July 15.