The Agricultural History Society selected “Challenging Crops and Climates” as our scholarly theme without anticipating the challenging social, political, and economic climates we would all face in 2020. As the 2021 Agricultural History Society annual meeting moves online, the program committee invites proposals that embrace the challenges associated with research, collaboration, and education amid COVID-19 and various forms of social unrest.
For almost a year, agricultural historians have invested their considerable talents in cultivating new teaching techniques, research practices, collaborations, and community outreach programs. AHS invites individual or group proposals modeled on the practices you have developed in response to the challenges of our current climate. The program committee is particularly interested in roundtables, public history projects, digital history projects, projects that combat Zoom fatigue, and other innovative responses to the unprecedented circumstances of the past year. We especially encourage proposals for non-traditional conference presentations that model brevity, digital engagement, or conversation among participants despite the challenging climate of 2020!
Possible topics include but are not limited to: How farmers adapt agriculture to challenging environments, including exploited microclimates; how difficult environments shape dynamics of rural landscapes and local power arrangements, including how these intersect with race, class, ethnicity, and/or gender; how farmers and rural people have adapted to climate or other environmental changes; the impacts, whether environmental, cultural, social, or political, of private and state-sponsored projects to alter difficult environments; how agriculture has altered fragile ecosystems; scientific and technical approaches to environmental changes over time; roles/experiences of women and people of color in difficult farming environments; and challenges to and alterations of food cultures. As befits the society’s inclusive approach, we especially encourage submissions from emerging scholars and researchers covering understudied geographical regions or time periods, and as custom dictates, we support contributions that do not directly address the conference theme.
Information on Submissions: The AHS invites contributions that relate to agricultural and rural history/studies broadly defined. Topics from any location and time period are encouraged.
Instructions for Session and Individual Proposals:
Session proposals should include a 200-word abstract for each presentation (paper or otherwise) or a 350-word description of a roundtable or group proposal and a one-page CV for each member (in MS Word). Individual proposals should include a 200-word abstract and one-page CV (in MS Word). All proposals should be submitted electronically in MS Word to the Program Committee by email at aghist2021@gmail.com.
Deadline for submissions: December 15, 2020.
Address questions to Julia Brock, jbrock2@ua.edu.