News

  • 29 Aug 2022 10:22 PM | Anonymous

    Rochester, NY, often has been at the center of conversations about the distinctive character of mid-sized cities in the United States. In 2002, Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson, Jr. convened the “Rochester Conversation on Mid-Sized Cities” to bring together “mayors, academics, urban policy experts, writers and others” for an examination of the challenges facing urban centers that occupy the poorly understood middle ground between towns and metropolises. Such “Rochester conversations” have an even deeper history: In 1939, Rochester City Historian Blake McKelvey launched the Rochester History journal in partnership with the Rochester Public Library. Neither boosterish nor antiquarian, Rochester History offered a new model of urban history that allowed Rochesterians to reflect on their city’s present and future by more rigorously examining its past.

    This 2023 conference reopens the “Rochester Conversation” on mid-sized cities that Johnson inaugurated two decades ago and marks a re-envisioning of Rochester History in partnership with the RIT Press. In both cases, we hope to use this moment to inspire new conversations about the meaning of America’s mid-sized cities now and in the future. What defines a mid-sized city in our time and what changes loom on the horizon for these essential urban environments? How does history frame the various issues faced by America’s mid-sized cities? How are mid-sized cities dealing with critical issues ranging from racial justice to immigration to economic dislocation? How do we teach, archive, and present to the public the diverse history of America’s mid-sized cities? Additional topics might include the significance of political leadership and political organizing; disinvestment and affordable housing; racial segregation; education in both urban and metropolitan con texts; health disparities; the “Meds, Eds, and Arts” economy and a critical appraisal of the role of regionalism in mid-sized cities.

    We invite abstracts for papers and full panels on these and other topics on mid-sized cities in (and beyond) the United States. We also invite papers aimed at re-examining Rochester’s history, which may be featured in a special panel and roundtable. Proposals for creative interventions/non-traditional panels are also welcome. Select presenters will be invited to submit longer versions of their presentations for consideration for publication in the journal, Rochester History, or an edited volume on the mid-size city to be published by RIT Press.

    The conference will take place at the Central Library of Rochester and Monroe County in downtown Rochester, New York, April 21–22, 2023. The program will consist of keynote lectures, panels, and moderated discussions.

    We are honored and pleased to announce that our keynote speaker is Dr. Joe W. Trotter Jr., Giant Eagle University Professor of History and Social Justice at Carnegie Mellon University and incoming president of the Urban History Association. In addition, the conference will feature a plenary conversation between the Hon. William A. Johnson Jr., former City of Rochester mayor, and the Hon. Malik Evans, current mayor, moderated by Erica Bryant, Associate Director of Writing at the Vera Institute for Justice and former Democrat and Chronicle columnist.

    Proposals are due by October 15, 2022, and should include:

    • Title of proposed session and/or paper
      Session description (for full session proposals) (maximum 250 words)

    • Abstract of each individual paper (maximum 500 words each)

    • Biographical information (short CV)

    • Contact information (email, telephone, and postal address)

    If you are submitting a proposal with multiple panelists, please include biographical and contact information for each panelist.

    Submit a proposal

    You will be notified if the paper/panel is accepted by December 1, 2022.

  • 23 Aug 2022 4:20 PM | Daniela Sheinin (Administrator)

    The Society for American City and Regional Planning History (SACRPH) is pleased to announce its 19th National Conference on all aspects of urban, regional, and community planning history and their relationship to urban and metropolitan studies. The conference will be held in multiple formats, including: virtual presentations on Thursday, October 20, 2022; in-person tours on Friday, October 21; and in-person presentations on Saturday, October 22. It will also include a hybrid keynote on Thursday night. All Saturday events will take place in Harlem, at the Bernard and Anne Spitzer School of Architecture on the historic campus of The City College of New York.

    Registration is now open for SACRPH 2022.  Early Registration ends September 6.  

    The conference includes tours, plenaries, paper sessions, roundtables, a book exhibit, and more. The Program Committee and Local Arrangements Committee have put together an exciting set of events, including:

    • Nearly a dozen virtual paper sessions and roundtables (Thursday afternoon)
    • A hybrid keynote address: Paul Farber, “After Permanence” (Thursday evening)
    • Nine tours of Harlem, the Bronx, Washington Heights, and the Municipal Archives (Friday)
    • Over 30 in-person paper sessions and roundtables (Saturday)
    • Lunch and plenary session, with presidential address (Saturday)
    • Graduate student mentoring sessions
    • Book exhibit
    • Awards reception (Saturday)

    Thanks goes to the Program Committee and Local Arrangements Committee members for all their work. We look forward to seeing you, whether virtually or in Harlem!

    SACRPH 2022 Program Committee Co-Chairs: Francesca Ammon and Brian Goldstein

    SACRPH 2022 Local Arrangements Co-Chairs: Aaron Shkuda and Gabrielle Esperdy

    SACRPH President: Marta Gutman



  • 11 Aug 2022 3:50 PM | Daniela Sheinin (Administrator)

    The Programming Committee is working on creating new online programs and would like your input! Please fill out this form to help them determine where they can be most useful. 

  • 28 Jul 2022 3:25 PM | Daniela Sheinin (Administrator)

    The Nominating Committee of the Urban History Association is seeking nominations for our board of directors. The next board election will take place in fall 2022, at which time UHA members will elect a slate of seven individuals to serve on the UHA board for three-year terms beginning January 1, 2023.

    To submit nominations for these leadership positions, please email the following information to Heather Ann Thompson, UHA Nominating Committee Chair and immediate past president of the UHA, at hthompsn@umich.edu:

    1. Name and contact information for the person(s) you are nominating.
    2. A rationale, at least 100 words long, supporting your choice of nominee(s). 

    All nominations must be received by Monday, August 8th. Nominations may only be submitted by UHA members in good standing. 


  • 28 Jul 2022 8:15 AM | Daniela Sheinin (Administrator)

    Call for Papers for the Dumbarton Oaks Garden and Landscape Studies Symposium in partnership with the Mellon Initiative in Urban Landscape Studies, Washington, DC.

    Theme - Environmental Histories of the Black Atlantic World: Landscape Histories of the African Diaspora

    For full detail, click HERE.

    Deadline: September 1, 2022


  • 25 Jun 2022 11:01 AM | Daniela Sheinin (Administrator)

    The Organization of American Historians will offer residencies in Germany and Japan in 2023.

    Application Deadlines: October 1, 2022

    2023 Germany Residency: https://www.oah.org/awards/residencies/germany/

    Thanks to a generous grant from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the OAH International Committee is pleased to announce the continuation of the Residency Program in American History—Germany (Germany Residency Program) at the University of Tübingen. The International Committee seeks applications from OAH members who are established scholars affiliated with an American or Canadian University interested in leading an advanced undergraduate/graduate student seminar in Tübingen.

    2023 Japan Residencies: https://www.oah.org/awards/residencies/japan/

    In cooperation with and support from the Japan-United States Friendship Commission, the OAH and the Japanese Association for American Studies (JAAS) plan to send two American scholars to Japanese universities for two-week residencies in the summer of 2023 (pending funding). The committee seeks applications from OAH members who are established American scholars affiliated with an American or Canadian university interested in teaching advanced undergraduates and graduate students in seminars and courses focusing on the U.S. History topics requested by the host institutions.


  • 14 Jun 2022 3:00 PM | Daniela Sheinin (Administrator)

    The Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference is accepting submissions for the Arline Custer Memorial Award! 

    DEADLINE: July 31, 2022

    The Arline Custer Memorial Award is presented by the MARAC Arline Custer Memorial Award Committee. This award honors the memory of Arline Custer (1909-1975), MARAC member and editor of the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections.

    Eligibility

    The Arline Custer Memorial Award recognizes the best books and articles written or compiled by individuals and institutions in the MARAC region – the District of Columbia, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia.

    Works under consideration include, but are not limited to: monographs, popular narratives, reference works and exhibition catalogs using archival sources.

    Individuals or institutions may submit up to two works published between July 1, 2021 and June 30, 2022.

    Evaluation

    Works must be relevant to the general public as well as the archival community. They also should be original and well researched using available sources. In addition, they should be clearly presented, well written and organized. Visual materials, if used, should be appropriate to the text.

    Preference will be given to works by archivists.

    Award

    Up to three awards may be given, with a maximum value of $200.00 for books and $100.00 for articles. The 2022 award(s) may be announced at a fall 2022 MARAC business meeting or shared with MARAC members via another means.

    For submission instructions, additional information about this award and a list of previous award winners, see the Arline Custer Memorial Award site: http://www.marac.info/arline-custer-memorial-award. 


  • 31 May 2022 9:45 AM | Anonymous

    The UHA is excited to introduce some new faces to our team! We are headed into summer with a new Membership Director and an Operations & Special Projects Assistant. 


    New Membership Director


    Amanda Boston

    Assistant Professor of Africana Studies

    University of Pittsburgh

    We’re excited to have Amanda Boston as our new membership director! Amanda Boston is an assistant professor of Africana studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research, writing, and teaching focus on twentieth-century and contemporary African American urban history, politics, and popular culture. Her current projects explore gentrification’s racial operations in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, and their role in the making and unmaking of the borough’s Black communities. Prior to joining the Pitt faculty, Boston was a Provost’s Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University. She earned her Ph.D. in Africana studies from Brown University. Welcome to the UHA team, Amanda!


    We would also like to thank Kara Schlichting, our outgoing membership director, for all of the work she has done and for her dedication to the UHA. Thank you Kara, you’ll be missed!



    Operations & Special Projects Assistant

    Daniela Bohórquez Sheinin

    PhD Candidate 

    University of Michigan

    Daniela Bohórquez Sheinin is our new operations & special projects assistant! Daniela is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Michigan. She specializes in urban, cultural and oral history. Her dissertation, “Staging Neighborhood: Making Queens in the Construction of New York’s Last Great Park” details the complex histories of material, ethnic, social and political neighborhood change around Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens, New York. She was co-founder and first host of the historical podcast, Reverb Effect, and her work has appeared in the Journal of Transnational American Studies, the Gotham Center for New York City History Blog, and Perspectives Daily. She also has served as co-chair for the UHA’s Early Career Committee. 


    This position is made possible through funding from the AHA–NEH Grants to Sustain and Advance the Work of Historical Organizations.


  • 28 May 2022 3:05 PM | Anonymous

    The Living New Deal has opened submissions for their 2022 New Deal Book Award. Click here for more details about how to submit. 

  • 17 May 2022 5:54 PM | Anonymous

    The Metropole is now accepting submissions for its annual Graduate Student Blogging Contest. The 2022 theme is The Senses, and we are looking for stories about any time, topic, person, or place in urban history that foregrounds sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch. The full description of the theme and the contest guidelines can be found on the blog. 

    If you are a graduate student, we encourage you to enter the contest! If you work with graduate students, please let them know about this great opportunity to practice writing for the web and learn from experienced editors. The winner will receive a certificate and a $150 prize!

    The deadline for entries is Friday, July 1.


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