Submission Due Date: 1 May 2018
47th Annual Conference Western Society For French History
Bozeman, MT
3-5 October 2019
The forty-seventh annual meeting of the Western Society for French History will be held from October 3-5 in the scenic mountain town of Bozeman, Montana. Inspired by its stunning natural environment, the theme for this year’s conference is “Environments in French History.” Diana Davis (Professor of History, the University of California at Davis) will deliver a keynote address on environmental approaches to Francophone history on Friday, October 4. Fabien Locher (Professor of History, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris) will deliver a plenary address on the emerging field of climate history on Saturday, October 5. The conference will also feature a special roundtable on French and Native American history, featuring speakers from the Little Shell Chippewa Tribe of Montana. We welcome proposals from our scholarly community on all aspects of French and Francophone studies, medieval to contemporary. To engage the membership in the society’s updated mission, we particularly seek panels, roundtables, and pedagogical workshops that explore this year’s theme of “Environments in French History,” widely defined. The WSFH encourages the participation of advanced graduate students. Western Society for French History Mission Statement
The Western Society for French History was founded in 1974 to promote greater regional, professional, and methodological diversity in the study of French and Francophone history. Its international membership includes research and teaching faculty, graduate students, independent scholars, and historians in the general public from the United States, Canada, and around the world. The Society welcomes specialists of French and Francophone culture from a variety of disciplines and interdisciplinary perspectives. The Society takes pride in its longstanding support of graduate student research and conference participation, particularly through its scholarship program.
The Western Society for French History embraces a dynamic, diverse, and engaged scholarly community that is actively committed to achieving equity and inclusion in the production and transmission of knowledge about the Francophone world. To that end, the Society encourages its members to think critically about injustice in the academy and to develop tools and practices to combat structural inequalities in the profession and academic institutions. Convinced that academic excellence demands this kind of individual and collective engagement, the Society seeks to empower its members to work to eliminate oppression and discrimination in the field, as well as in their classrooms, home departments, and university administrations.
Research Panels: The Program Committee encourages the submission of panels of three research papers, a commentator, and chair. Please send complete panel proposals (preferred) or individual papers as a Microsoft Word attachment to Joelle Neulander, WSFH President and Program Committee Chair, at president@wsfh.org. Please note the following format requests:
- Research panel proposals should include the word “panel” and several key words or the title of the panel in the document name, e.g., panel_keywords.docx
- Individual papers should, likewise, include the word “paper” and the paper title in the name of the document.
- Research panel proposals should include the following items, integrated into a single Word document: 1) A cover page with the name of the panel and the panel organizer, contact information and an affiliation for each panel member, the commentator, and the chair, any AV needs. (Note: the commentator and the chair should not be the same person; 2) A paper abstract and one-page CV for each panelist; 3) any AV needs.
Panel Discussions, Roundtables, and Pedagogical Workshops: The Program Committee particularly welcomes proposals for panel discussions, roundtables, and pedagogical workshops that explore this year’s conference theme, “Environments in French History.” These session proposals should be submitted in a single Word document that include: 1) an abstract describing the purpose, content, and format of the session; 2) the session organizer; 3) contact information, affiliation, and a one-page CV for each session participant; 4) any AV needs. Send session proposals as a Microsoft Word attachment to Joelle Neulander, WSFH President and Program Committee Chair, at president@wsfh.org. If you have alternate ideas for a session, please contact us.
The Local Arrangements Committee is chaired by Catherine Dunlop (Montana State University). Accommodations: All conference events will be held in buildings located just minutes from each other in Bozeman’s historic downtown. Conference panels will be held at the historic Masonic Lodge, while special evening and lunchtime events will be held at the Baxter Hotel and the Rialto Theater. Bozeman is routinely ranked as one of the top towns in the US for its vibrant arts scene, cafes, restaurants, and independent businesses.
The Element Hotel by Westin, located within a five-minute walk of the conference venue in downtown Bozeman, is offering conference rates ranging from $205/night to $225/night. Book here for the special conference rate from October 3-6: Book your group rate for Western Society for French History Oct 2019. Some discounted rates are also available that include the shoulder dates of October 2-7: Book your group rate for Western Society for French History Oct. 2019
The Lewis and Clark Hotel, located within a ten-minute walk of the conference venue in downtown Bozeman, is offering conference rates ranging from $139/night for single occupancy rooms to $199/night for quad rooms from September 31-October 8, 2019. Online booking is available at www.lewisandclarkmotels.com using the Promo/Access Code of WSFH19 or call direct at 406-586-3341 and alert the staff to the block identity of Western Society for French History for discount rates.
For more information, see the conference webpage. Please direct queries to Joelle Neulander at president@wsfh.org.