28th Annual OI Conference

“Currents and Exchanges in Vast Early America”

The 28^th Omohundro Institute annual conference will take place in Charleston, South Carolina, with the support of the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) Program at the College of Charleston from Thursday, June 12 to Saturday, June 14, 2025.

The program committee, co-chaired by Joyce Chaplin (Harvard University) and Matthew Mulcahy (Loyola University Maryland), invites papers on all topics in vast early American history. Given our host and location, the committee would be especially interested in proposals that consider (either separately or as intermeshed problems) plantation economies, Native and Indigenous communities, and the environment, in particular, locations in the greater Caribbean or wider Atlantic world affected by capitalist agriculture, forced migration, climate change, and extreme weather events.

The committee encourages proposals for complete panels addressing a coherent subtheme or theoretical problem, made up of two or three presenters, a chair, and a commentator. We also welcome alternative modes of presentation, such as roundtable discussions, made up of four participants and one moderator to facilitate questions. Individual paper proposals will be considered as well although we encourage those with individual paper proposals to first enter their name and paper title here in an effort to find co-presenters and form a full session before applying. Interested scholars should avail themselves of that forum to discuss topics, form panels, and air issues relating to proposals.

Please note that the program committee reserves the right to make changes in the configuration of panels.

To encourage wider participation and attendance, scholars may make only one appearance at the conference. In addition, preference will be given to submissions by scholars who did not present a paper at the 27^th annual OI conference in Poitiers, France (2024), although presenters from that conference are encouraged to serve as chairs and commentators in 2025.

Panel proposals should be submitted by the organizer (who can be any of the panel participants) and include the following information: (1) a cover sheet that gives the panel title, a one-paragraph description of the panel, and a list of participants with each person’s role clearly stated; (2) one-page summaries of each paper; (3) one-page CVs for each participant. Each CV should include the participant’s preferred email address.

Roundtable proposals should be submitted by the organizer (who can be any of the roundtable participants) and include the following information: (1) a cover sheet that gives the roundtable title, a one-paragraph description of the roundtable, and a list of participants with each person’s role clearly stated (2) one-page CVs for each participant. Each CV should include the participant’s preferred email address.

APPLY HERE

Materials should be submitted via the link above no later than Monday, December 2, 2024.

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We also invite scholars to apply for a separate one-day pre-conference workshop convened by Jennifer L. Morgan to take place in Charleston on Wednesday, June 11, 2025. “Resisting Enslavement” will allow scholars to pre-circulate and discuss papers, articles, and/or chapters in progress focused on instances of resistance to enslavement in vast Early America, broadly understood. Applicants should provide an abbreviated c.v. along with a one-page summary of the work they intend to discuss. Privilege will be given to junior scholars. Applicants to the workshop are invited to also apply to participate in the conference but should submit a separate application for that purpose. Applications to the workshop will be evaluated by a different committee and participation in the workshop does not guarantee or preclude participation in the conference.

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All submissions will be acknowledged by email. If you do not receive an acknowledgement or have questions about the submission process, please contact the Omohundro Institute at oieahc [at] wm.edu.