We anticipate a full day of formal sessions and informal networking opportunities. We especially encourage participation by graduate students and early career scholars. The VCEA is an excellent way to receive meaningful feedback on your work in a relaxed environment and establish relationships for future collaborations. Below is this year’s Call For Papers.
Graduate Student Workshops: Held in the morning before the official start of VCEA, graduate students will have the opportunity to participate in one of two workshops: one focused on Gender Frontiers facilitated by Cassandra Good (Marymount University) and Richard Godbeer (Virginia Commonwealth University), and the other focused on Racial Frontiers facilitated by Brooke Newman (Virginia Commonwealth University) and Joshua Piker (College of William and Mary). Facilitators will lead a discussion on the state of the field and explore the important questions and methodological challenges that frame research on gender and race.
Graduate students working in either of these fields who would like to participate should upload a short description (250 words or less) of their dissertation research. If accepted, students will then share a longer project description (no more than ten double-spaced pages) with all of the workshop participants in early December. Facilitators may give tailored advice to each student, either during or outside the workshop, but the majority of the ninety-minute workshops will be devoted to a mix of Q&A, student discussion, and concrete advice about next steps.
Roundtable Sessions: This year, in an effort to include the voices of scholars at different stages of their careers, from graduate students to senior scholars, and also to maximize opportunities for conversation, moving away from a focus on formal presentations, we are reframing the afternoon sessions as roundtables. These will address broad themes relating to areas of research within Early American Studies and professional development. Please consider submitting a topic you would like to see addressed at VCEA 2019. The Program Committee is especially interested in Roundtables that address (a) writing for a popular audience, (b) designing courses that incorporate the use of historic sites, (c) the challenges of combining “old” and “new” approaches to history in a course syllabus, and (d) alternative / non-academic career paths as Early Americanists. However, the Program Committee welcomes any and all suggestions, including specific research topics in Early American Studies.
Roundtable proposals should include a topic/title (15 words or less) as well as a brief description/vision of what the Roundtable would look like (250 words or less). You should also specify if you would like to be a participant in the Roundtable you are proposing and /or if you have suggestions for who else might participate; the Program Committee will then select and populate six.
Proposals along with a one-page C.V. should be uploaded and submitted here by 5 p.m. on Friday, November 2nd, 2018. Please direct any questions to Holly White, hnstevens@wm.edu.
