For 2026 in 2026
“New Republic, New Worlds”

October 23-24, 2026 – Williamsburg, Virginia

We hope you join us for the fifth and final meeting in the “For 2026” series, a collaborative effort by Colonial Williamsburg, the Omohundro Institute, and William & Mary to spotlight emerging research, connect a diverse public to scholars and research, and convene significant conversations about how and why understanding the early American past is especially meaningful today.

This year, in addition to two days of panels on a wide variety of topics, special guided tours, and evening receptions, we will feature a Friday keynote talk by award-winning scholar Ronald Angelo Johnson (Baylor University)—“Slavery and Black Freedom in the Revolutionary Atlantic World”—and a Saturday keynote talk—“The American Revolution and the Survival of Native Nations”—by Pulitzer Prize Winner Kathleen DuVal (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill). Tickets are $50 and include all events and receptions.

REGISTER HERE 

PROGRAM DRAFT

Join us for these keynote lectures

(Conference registration is not required.)

Friday, October 23, 2026 at 5:00 p.m.

A Talk by Ronald Angelo Johnson (Baylor University)
“Slavery and Black Freedom in the Revolutionary Atlantic World”

Hennage Auditorium
Art Museums of Colonial Williamsburg
301 South Nassau Street
Williamsburg, VA
Seating begins at 4:30 p.m.|Program begins at 5:00 p.m.
Seating is first-come, first-served.
Reception follows.

Ronald A. Johnson’s book, Entangled Alliances Racialized Freedom and Atlantic Diplomacy during the American Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2025), will be for sale at the event. Credit cards preferred.

*In addition to the Passport app paid parking near the Art Museums (including handicapped accessible spaces), there is limited free street parking available nearby.

Dr. Ronald Angelo Johnson is the 2026-2027 Mellon Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the American Antiquarian Society and the Ralph and Bessie Mae Lynn Professor of History at Baylor University. He is the author two books: Entangled Alliances: Racialized Freedom and Atlantic Diplomacy during the American Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2025) and Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance (UGA Press, 2014). He co-edited the volume In Search of Liberty: African American Internationalism in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World (UGA Press, 2021). His current book manuscript We Are All Equal: Turmoil and Triumph in the Early United States and Revolutionary Haiti is under contract with Princeton University Press.

Saturday, October 24, 2026 at 5:00 p.m.

A Talk by Kathleen DuVal (University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill)
“The American Revolution and the Survival of Native Nations”

Muscarelle Museum of Art
Campus of William & Mary
611 Jamestown Road,
Williamsburg, VA
Seating begins at 4:30 p.m.|Program begins at 5:00 p.m.
Seating is first-come, first-served.
Reception follows.

Kathleen DuVal’s book, Native Nations: A Millennium in North America (Random House), winner of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for History as well as the Bancroft Prize from Columbia University, will be for sale at the event. Credit cards preferred.

There is ample free parking near the Muscarelle Museum of Art. W&M Parking restrictions are not enforced between 5:00 p.m. on Fridays and 7:00 a.m. on Mondays. Spaces marked Faculty/Staff, etc., are open to all.

Kathleen DuVal is the Carl W. Ernst Distinguished Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a Guggenheim Fellow and the author of Native Nations: A Millennium in North America, which won the Pulitzer Prize, the Bancroft Prize, the Mark Lynton History Prize, and the Cundill History Prize. Her other books include Independence Lost: Lives on the Edge of the American Revolution, The Native Ground: Indians and Colonists in the Heart of the Continent, and the U.S. history textbook Give Me Liberty!, co-authored with Eric Foner and Lisa McGirr. DuVal has published in the William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of the Early Republic, The Atlantic, Time magazine, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal, and she appeared in the recent Ken Burns film The American Revolution.

About the talk The American Revolution and the Survival of Native Nations

The American Revolution brought unprecedented challenges to Indigenous lives, land, and sovereignty in North America. Yet we can also tell the past 250 years of Native history as the story of surviving the creation of the United States. Focusing on Native history can help us put the American Revolution in the longer context of North America’s long past, present, and future.

The following hotels have extended special rates for the conference but as William & Mary’s Homecoming Weekend takes place on the same dates as the conference, rooms are at a premium.

Westgate Historic Williamsburg Resort
1324 Richmond Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185
$159/$179 per night
Reservations may be made online via this link before SEPTEMBER 20.

Fairfield Inn and Suites
1402 Richmond Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185
$179.00 per night
Reservations may be made online via this link before SEPTEMBER 22.

Country Inn & Suites by Radisson Williamsburg Busch Gardens
7135 Pocahontas Trail, Williamsburg, VA 23185
$159 per night
Reservations may be made online via this link before SEPTEMBER 22. 

Guests may also call the hotel directly at (757) 229-6900 and mention “OI Annual Conference” to take advantage of the special rates.

Hampton Inn & Suites Williamsburg-Central
718 Bypass Rd, Williamsburg, VA 23185
(757) 229-7330
$279 per night
Reservations may be made online via this link before SEPTEMBER 15.

From the Call for Proposals

The American Revolution forged a new nation out of thirteen British colonies, triggering a host of predictable and unexpected consequences. This conference will explore the novel circumstances, challenges, and opportunities of the transitional era that followed victory in the War for American Independence. What were the fresh constitutional and political structures fueled by the Revolution, and what were the possibilities in play then and after? How were families, communities, boundaries, and environments changed in the new era? What were the ambitions of this new nation, and what do we now know about how diverse communities assessed its prospects? How did the various peoples within its borders and beyond respond to this new moment? In addition to proposals focused on the opportunities and obstacles that marked the founding era, the Program Committee invites proposals for sessions and papers exploring all aspects of Vast Early America.

“A New World,” the final meeting of the five-year “For 2026” project, seeks to bring into conversation scholarly and public-facing research exploring the far-reaching effects of the American Revolution. The program committee invites proposals for panels, roundtables, workshops, and individual papers focusing on any aspect of the founding era – broadly conceived. The scope of the conference is not limited to North America nor the Anglophone Atlantic, and the organizers hope to assemble a program that represents the width and breadth of early American studies.

Those organizing panels, workshops, or roundtables should submit proposals by April 1, 2026. The program committee will also consider a limited number of individual paper submissions and reserves the right to alter session proposals in order to create a cohesive and inclusive program. Limited funds are available to those who do not have institutional funding to attend; participants who wish to be considered for such a travel subvention should email us directly at oieahc@wm.edu. Such requests will not be considered by the program committee when evaluating proposals and will be granted, when possible, by and at the discretion of the conference organizers.

Conference Committee Co-Chairs:

Katherine Carté (Southern Methodist University)
Christopher Hodson (Brigham Young University)
Donald Johnson (North Dakota State University)