It's a bit of an awkward dynamic that creates those holes, I think: conferences are *expensive* in both time and money, so people weigh up carefully where to 'invest'. And slightly too many experiences of being the one token pre-1800 person on a panel/day full of World War puts you off attempting - ThreadSky

onslies.bsky.social • 46 days ago

It's a bit of an awkward dynamic that creates those holes, I think: conferences are *expensive* in both time and money, so people weigh up carefully where to 'invest'. And slightly too many experiences of being the one token pre-1800 person on a panel/day full of World War puts you off attempting

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cathfeely.bsky.social•46 days ago

I get that. And I always thought medievalists in particular have Leeds and Kalamazoo and you basically have to be there. Again, I was spoiled by book history conferences and my very first one had Darnton and Chartier on the bill.

onslies.bsky.social•46 days ago

JESUS. How on earth did they not convert you to the church of medievalists?

(and yes, the demands on all sides, and expectations of where you have to be heard/seen. I wonder if US historians have a slightly different experience with AHA?)

elizabethbiggs.bsky.social•46 days ago

It's one of the things that I like most about my current job, that I'm working with colleagues across time periods. I learn from them and remind them that the medieval can be relevant if you're not a medievalist. And I get paid to do it :-)

I've been the one pre-modernist at a conf and it's no fun.

onslies.bsky.social•46 days ago

Ideal! Might I try to tempt you and your colleagues to the East End on May? It’d be brilliant to have a panel that showcases precisely that cross-time conversation.

elizabethbiggs.bsky.social•46 days ago

Funnily enough, @joelherman.bsky.social, @timvrti.bsky.social @cwallacedublin.bsky.social and I are trying to do just that :-) We'll see what we can pull together as a panel proposal and send it your way.

onslies.bsky.social•45 days ago

Oh YAY!!!! Delighted to hear! Clearly no additional temptation required :)

christinekooi.bsky.social•46 days ago

This is why I have seldom attended the AHA's annual conference. It's 90% post-1800 history.

onslies.bsky.social•46 days ago

Yeah. I wonder if RSA or SCSC (or SRS!) could/should make a collective effort to breach those cross-time-period conferences.

Us premodernists aren’t helping ourselves by staying on time-specific islands either —though I OBVIOUSLY understand on an individual level! But a collective effort could help

christinekooi.bsky.social•46 days ago

Smaller organizations often sponsor sessions and panels within the AHA, but on a modest scale. RSA might have deep enough pickets to take on the AHA behemoth, but since it's interdisciplinary, I don't think they'd be interested.

davidmwhitford.bsky.social•45 days ago

SCSC welcomes all papers from 1450 to 1750. We take very seriously the Early Modern part of our name. RSA has slid earlier they go back to 1300 or so. We have embraced going to 1750. Please encourage people to come and join us!

roperlou.bsky.social•46 days ago

#long17thcentury? @tomaashby.bsky.social 😁

onslies.bsky.social•46 days ago

Though ideally without creating two parallel conferences…

We need our time-specific conversations, but could think about how to be ambassadors for it in larger conferences.

nialloddy.bsky.social•46 days ago

Absolutely this, which is a shame. On the other hand, these experiences at disciplinary (French studies) conferences were fruitful in pushing me towards developing as a more interdisciplinary-inclined early modernist

onslies.bsky.social•46 days ago

Indeed. And I do think that some of that circumscribing (region/topic/approach) makes for the more fruitful actual conversations across boundaries than the mega conference like AHA.

onslies.bsky.social•46 days ago

Something of a critical mass of pre-modern peeps who claim a general conference as a place their ideas/research doesn't just get tolerated but engaged with would solve some of that awkwardness.

onslies.bsky.social•46 days ago

(hence also why I've (no doubt to the annoyance of the organisers) been so insistent to be loud about the QMCBS conference being VERY much inclusive of any time period. So the premodernists who turn up hopefully won't be the token ones.

https://projects.history.qmul.ac.uk/qmcbs/

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