2023 Meeting

WELCOME TO THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY SOCIETY MEETING 2023
IN KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE, JUNE 7-10

Click here for President Shane Hamilton’s presidential address, “Managing the Farm.”

It is with great pleasure and excitement that the Society welcomes its members and friends to our first in-person meeting in the United States in four years. We reconvene in Knoxville, located in the verdant Tennessee River valley and nestled alongside the Great Smoky Mountains – home to America’s most-visited national park.

The dozens of presentations and roundtables at our meeting will address a range of topics and dilemmas, but the core of the program will address our central theme: agricultural pasts of the climate crisis. Stories of the climate crisis often focus on the future, but agricultural historians already know a great deal about its many pasts.

Knoxville is a fitting site for our conference, because of the central role the city and larger East Tennessee region have played within U.S. agricultural history. Knoxville is home to the University of Tennessee, a major land-grant research university, which will be hosting the conference. For centuries, the region has been home to a diversified, small-scale agricultural economy. But even more importantly, Knoxville has, since 1933, been the headquarters of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federal institution created during the New Deal. Now in its ninetieth year of operation, the TVA casts a long shadow on projects of state-led rural development, not only in the U.S. but around the world. Its first-completed dam, Norris Dam, lies just outside of Knoxville and will be the destination of our primary field trip.

Knoxville also boasts a range of cultural attractions that I hope conference visitors will find time to enjoy. Whether it’s paddling on the many rivers and lakes nearby, hiking the Smokies or closer trails, sampling beers from the dozen and a half breweries in the city, or sitting in on a bluegrass jam session or jazz show, you’ll find plenty of reason to come early and stay later than our conference dates. I hope it will be an inspiring venue for big conversations, reconnecting with colleagues, and making new friends! 

Tore Olsson
Local arrangements chair

Click here for the CFP.
Click here for the final program. Printed copies will be available at the registration desk.

DINING AND NIGHTLIFE RECOMMENDATIONS:

Great watering holes within walking distance of the hotel and conference center:

•  The Public House (a bit of a walk but my favorite bar)

• Crafty Bastard Brewing (a bit of a walk but my favorite brewery)

• Preservation Pub (especially check out the rooftop!)

• Knox Brew Hub

• Maple Hall (the bar/bowling alley we visited for the Wednesday meet-and-greet)

• Peter Kern Library

• Pretentious Brewing Company

• Suttree’s Tavern

• Tern Club

• Balter Beerworks

• Xül Brewing Co.

• Geezers Brewing Co.

GETTING AROUND

The conference center and hotel are located in the southwestern corner of downtown Knoxville. They are located catty-corner from each other at the intersection of Clinch Avenue and Henley Street. For convenience and safety, please use the elevated pedestrian bridge that begins across Clinch Ave. from the hotel. Where it lets out, turn left and you’ll immediately see the main entrance to the conference center on Locust Street.

From the hotel and conference center, a walk of less than five minutes will take you to Market Square, which is home to many of the restaurants, watering holes, and shops. (Though many others from the list above are located beyond this map, often to the north a few blocks).