AHCW

American History & Cultures Workshop

The University of Chicago | Department of History

About the Workshop

The American History & Cultures Workshop–formerly the U.S. History & Culture Workshop–meets at least bimonthly, serving as a space for attendees to critically engage with a variety of projects on pre- and post-1900 U.S. & Atlantic History and its diversity of cultures. As coordinators, we are committed to providing constructive and supportive feedback on works-in-progress and aspire to build collegiality across different disciplines and subfields.

While most presenters are graduate students from the Department of History, we also welcome participation from outside students and faculty, and we are inclusive of projects which are methodologically distinct from History with the aim of strengthening academic rigor and broadening historical perspectives through wider engagement with a plurality of disciplinary and subfield specialties. This brings interdisciplinary methods and theoretical frameworks to bear on diverse historical questions and problems, while remaining mindful of their legal and sociocultural resonances in the present-day. Further, we wish to facilitate engagement and feedback between early-, mid-, and late-career scholars so that graduate students may have more opportunities for professionalization and develop skillsets which make them become more successful job candidates.

The American History & Cultures Workshop departs slightly from the traditional format of discussants and presenters in favor of more fluid mediated roundtable conversations, which encourages all attendees to participate regardless of academic rank. Finally, our workshop is distinctive because it focuses on themes and topics in North American history, serving as the primary home for the University of Chicago’s Americanists. 

 

Attend the Workshop

Schedule of Events
Autumn Quarter, 2023
 

MAYA UMA SHENOY

MAPSS Candidate, Social Sciences
The University of Chicago 

Wed., Nov. 08

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 3PM—4:30PM
MA Thesis Workshop:
“Corporate Proxies: Class Organizing, Law, and Corporate Power in Deleware & the U.S. Until the New Deal”

JOE RATHKE

PhD Student, History
The University of Chicago

Wed., Nov. 15

CISSR Conference Room
(Pick 105) 3PM—4:30PM
Journal Article Workshop:  
“Subversive Schools: The Chicago Police Department Red Squad & Surveillance of Black Students, 1967-1974”

MICHAEL ZAKIM

Professor of History
Tel Aviv University

Wed., Nov. 29

The Dean’s Tea Room
(SSRB 201) 4PM—5:30PM
Invited Talk, Sponsored by the Scherer Center:  
“The Liberal Invention of Photography”

DANIEL FERNANDEZ

PhD Student, History
The University of Chicago

Wed., Dec. 06

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 3PM—4:30PM
Dissertation Prospectus Workshop:
The Growth of Prison Law in the United States, 1960-1981″
Winter Quarter, 2024

 

EMILY REMUS

Associate Professor of History
University of Notre Dame

Wed., Jan. 10

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 3:30PM—5PM
Invited Book Chapter Workshop:
An excerpt from Charge It: Women, Credit, and the Making of Modern America

JEFFREY SKLANSKY

Professor of History
University of Illinois Chicago

Wed., Jan. 24

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 4PM—5:30PM
Invited Paper Workshop:
The Person Is Political: Fiduciary Duties and Fictive Beneficiaries”

PAMELA C. NOGALES

Harper-Schmidt Fellow, Social Sciences
The University of Chicago

Wed., Feb. 07

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 4PM—5:30PM
Book Proposal Workshop:  
Reform in the Age of Capital: The Social Question in Nineteenth-Century America, 1828–1901

JAMES BRADLEY

PhD Candidate, History
The University of Chicago

Wed., Feb. 21

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 4PM—5:30PM
Dissertation Chapter Workshop:  
“The World’s Largest Landfill is Empty: Imperial County and the Fate of Los Angeles Garbage in Crisis California”

NATHAN PERL-ROSENTHAL

Associate Professor, History & Law
University of Southern California

Mon., Feb. 26

The Dean’s Tea Room
(SSRB 201) 2PM—4PM
Invited Guest Facilitator, Sponsored by the Scherer Center:
A methods workshop based on The Age of Revolutions: And the Generations Who Made It

NIU NIU TEO

PhD Candidate, History
The University of Chicago

Wed., Mar. 06

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 4PM—5:30PM
Joint Workshop with the East Asia: Transregional Histories Workshop (EATRH):  
“There Will Be Pork: Promising Pigs in 20th Century U.S. and China”
Spring Quarter, 2024

 

CORBIN PAGE

Teaching Fellow, Social Sciences
The University of Chicago

Thurs., Mar. 21

The John Hope Franklin Room
 (SSRB 224) 4PM—5:30PM
SPECIAL EVENT, History Day Workshop:  
“A Warehousing Operation for Social Misfits: Contesting the Sexual Psychopath Laws”

ZARIA EL-FIL

PhD Student, History
The University of Chicago

Wed., Mar. 27

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 3PM—4:30PM
Dissertation Prospectus Workshop:  
“Transforming Freedom: Race, Slavery, and Policing in the Texas-Mexico Borderlands, 1821-1865” Cancelled

SYMPOSIUM

American Environmental History
The University of Chicago

Fri., Apr. 05

Swift Hall Commons
(S. 1st Fl.) 9AM—6PM
SPECIAL EVENT, Co-Sponsored by SIES, the Scherer Center, CEGU & the Pozen Center, Organized by Leila K. Blackbird, Nahomi Esquivel & Andrew Seber:
A Symposium on American Empire, Extraction, and Environment

BOONE AYALA

PhD Candidate, History
The University of Chicago

Wed., Apr. 10

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 3PM—4:30PM
Graduate Student Workshop:
“‘None Other Than a Corporation’: Imperial Politics and the End of the Massachusetts Bay Company, 1676-1684”

JHF LECTURE

Delivered by Vivek Bald
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Wed., Apr. 17

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 3PM—4:30PM
SPECIAL EVENT, Sponsored by the Department of History & the Social Sciences Division:
The Annual John Hope Franklin Distinguished Guest Lecture, Title TBD

JIEMIN TINA WEI

PhD Candidate, History of Science
Harvard University

Wed., May 01

The John Hope Franklin Room
3PM—4:30PM
Dissertation Chapter Workshop:  
“Junior’s Post-Ludlow Pivot: The Rockefellers’ Transition from Violence to Human Relations, 1913-1926”

ESTHER ISAAC

PhD Candidate, History
The University of Chicago

Wed., May 08

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 4PM—5:30PM
Joint Workshop with the Transnational Approaches to Modern Europe Workshop (TAMEW):
Title TBD

TBD

Wed., May 15

The John Hope Franklin Room
(SSRB 224) 3PM—6:00PM
Graduate Student Workshop & End of the Year Party, Sponsored by the Council on Advanced Studies (CAS)

 

Submit a Proposal

We are currently accepting submissions for Spring Quarter 2024! To submit a proposal, please email the workshop coordinators with a brief abstract, bio, and preferred month in which to present.

Access the Current Paper

Contact Your Coordinators

Join to Our Listserv

The American History & Cultures Workshop
1126 East 59th Street, Chicago, IL 60637
© 2023 The University of Chicago