OAH Midwestern Regional ConferenceMore than 250 historians gathered at Iowa State University in Ames this summer for the OAH's first regional conference. General feedback on the fifty sessions and special events and the overall tone of the meeting has been enthusiastically positive. Our thanks to the ISU History Department's Alan I Marcus, the program chair, and George McJimsey, the department chair, for their graciousness, leadership, and hard work in hosting the conference. Attendees appreciated the small scale, the relaxed and congenial atmosphere, and the many opportunities for impromptu conversations with their colleagues. OAH staff also heard praise for the range of sessions pulled together by the program committee, as well as for the variety of historians who had been invited to attend. Many of those present had never been to an OAH annual meeting before. We will be working both to provide additional regional meetings in the future and to incorporate some of the innovative elements and easy-going atmosphere of the regional conference into the annual meeting. For example, premiering at the Midwestern Regional Conference were ten "state of the art" sessions. The latter were designed to update attendees on developments in various fields over the last decade or two. Many of those attending the conference teach at small private and state institutions with heavy teaching loads and little time to keep up with the historiography in different fields. Despite the problems inherent in all new endeavors, we found that conference goers felt the state of the art sessions to be informative and recommended that we have them again. As a result we hope to include sessions like these in the upcoming annual meetings in Los Angeles, Washington, Memphis, Boston, and beyond. Our thanks to the MRC 2000 Program Committee for pointing the way toward innovation in future OAH conferences. Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 |
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