Meal Functions

Take part in networking events designed to allow you to meet, mingle, and connect with peers with  similar interests.


All OAH Conference on American History attendees are invited to take part in several networking events designed to allow you to meet, mingle, and connect with peers who have similar interests or with those who are in similar situations. All but one reception is open to all attendees and includes limited food and beverage, and most paid lunch options offer free or subsidized tickets to specified groups such as graduate students.


Friday, April 12
8:45 am–10:15 am

RSVP requested, not required

Sponsored by Forrest T. Jones

Morning Mixer: Networking Welcome Breakfast

Kick off your morning with complimentary coffee or tea and a light breakfast. Meet with colleagues and friends, OAH staff, committee members, and leadership to discuss, socialize, and make new connections. Join a conversation pod to talk about the topics that matter to you most. Pods include: 

  • Educators and Teaching
  • Publishing 
  • Public History
  • Adjunct and Contingent Faculty
  • New Members 
  • Advocacy
  • Research and Resources
  • Job Seekers

Submit a conversation pod category to [email protected]


Saturday, April 13
9 am–10:30 am


The Saturday Morning Perk Up!

Mornings are hard. Join us for a complimentary cup of hot coffee or tea to help you perk up and jumpstart a day full of amazing sessions and networking! Visit the exhibit hall between 9 am and 10:30 am.


Sunday, April 14
8 am–9 am

Available to registered workshop attendees only.


Workshop Breakfast

A light breakfast, and coffee or tea will be available for attendees registered for a Sunday workshop.

Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13

12 pm–1:00 pm

First-come, first served

Exhibit Hall Refreshments

Meet exhibitors, collogues, and OAH staff in the Exhibit hall on Friday and Saturday for light refreshments before the next round of sessions.


Friday, April 12

3:30 pm–5 pm
Sponsored by the Labor and Working-Class Association

LAWCHA Reception and Membership Meeting

Following the LAWCHA Presidential Address by Cindy Hahamovitch  B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor of Southern History, University of Georgia; President, Labor and Working-Class History Association, 2022-2024

LAWCHA welcomes its members and anyone interested in joining or learning more about the organization to a reception followed by a membership meeting and awards ceremony. 


Friday, April 12

12 pm–1:30 pm


Sponsored by the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era

$66 | Limited to 50 people
Limited complimentary for graduate students

SHGAPE is able to offer a limited number of complimentary tickets to graduate student members, on a first-come, first-served basis. If you would like a ticket, please send an email to Amy Wood  before March 1, 2024, after you have registered for the OAH conference.

SHGAPE Luncheon: No Account: Rethinking the Narrative of Women and Property in the Late Nineteenth Century

Laura F. Edwards is the Class of 1921 Bicentennial Professor in the History of American Law and Liberty at Princeton University. She is the author of five books, including Gendered Strife and Confusion: The Political Culture of Reconstruction; Scarlett Doesn’t Live Here Anymore: Southern Women in the Civil War Era; The People and Their Peace: Legal Culture and the Transformation of Inequality in the Post-Revolutionary South (winner of the Southern Historical Association’s Charles Sydnor Prize and the American Historical Association’s Littleton-Griswold Prize); and A Legal History of the Civil War and Reconstruction: A Nation of Rights. Her most recent book, Only the Clothes on Her Back: Textiles, Law, and Commerce in the Nineteenth-Century United States (Oxford University Press, 2022), received the 2023 Organization of American Historians’ Merle Curti Social History Award. To contain ticket prices, we will be serving a New Orleans-style brunch meal at the luncheon.


Saturday, April 13

12 pm–1:30 pm
Sponsored by Albert Camarillo, Leon Sloss Jr. Memorial Professor Emeritus, Stanford University

$35 / Complimentary for graduate students | Limited to 80 people

Al Camarillo ALANA Forum on Race and Ethnic Studies in American History: Re-examining 19th Century Disability & Democracy: Why Harriet Tubman’s Intersectional Life Matters

Nikki Moore Photography

A lunch reception will follow the discussion.

Presenter: Deirdre Cooper Owens, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

In her talk, historian Deirdre Cooper Owens offers a new interpretation of Harriet Tubman’s life and activism that centers her disability as inextricable to her work as a political activist. What might an emergent scholarship that is both intellectual, political, and medical look like if scholars interrogated how slavery—a disabling device—created disabilities for so many of those who labored under the system but also emerged from it? Tubman lived for over 90 years, and was disabled for most of her life, In slavery, the liminal space of fugitivity, and freedom, Harriet Tubman negotiated her place in an able-bodied and “democratic” world with great challenges and successes. Cooper Owens argues that Tubman negotiations relied on the use of “fugitive logic,” a term the historian coined. Ultimately, it is through an examination of this logic that Cooper Owens historicizes how Tubman’s disability and enslavement influenced both her freedom and political world view.


Saturday, April 13

12 pm–1:30 pm


Sponsored by the Proquest

Complimentary

Registration for this event is through Proquest directly. Please check back for registration link.

The Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000 Luncheon

Please join us for lunch and a program featuring the editors of Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000; Queer Pasts; and Women and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919-2019. Come learn about the newest offerings from Alexander Street Press on women’s and queer histories, how to incorporate primary source-driven projects into teaching, opportunities for publication, and more!

Panelists:

Rebecca Jo Plant, University of California, San Diego, editor of Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1600-2000Nathalie Duval, Director of Product Management, ProQuest/Clarivate

Lisa Arellano, Independent Scholar, co-editor of Queer Pasts

Marc Stein, San Francisco State University, co-editor of Queer Pasts

Jill Jensen, University of the Redlands, editor ofWomen and Social Movements: Development and the Global South, 1919–2019

Thursday, April 11

6 pm–7:30 pm
Open to all attendees

Complimentary drink ticket included with registration


OAH Opening Night Reception

Celebrate the opening day of the conference with peers in the Exhibit Hall. Enjoy drinks, snacks, and a chance to meet with friends while browsing the exhibits and museum displays. Take this opportunity to visit and talk with exhibitor representatives, plan your book-shopping strategy, and meet colleagues before dinner!


Thursday, April 11

6 pm–7:30 pm
Open to all attendees

Sponsored by the Immigration and Ethnic History Society (IEHS)

Dessert Before Dinner

The Immigration and Ethnic History Society invites attendees to the annual reception for graduate students and early career scholars. The IEHS promotes the study of the history of immigration and the study of ethnic groups in the United States, including regional groups, Native Americans, and forced immigrants.


Friday, April 12

6 pm–7:30 pm
By invitation only

Distinguished and Sustaining Members, Donors, and Award Winners Reception

The OAH is pleased to invite our longtime members, major donors, and award winners to a special reception as a token of our appreciation for their continued support and involvement with the organization.


Friday, April 12

6 pm–7:30 pm
Open to all attendees

Sponsored by

The College Board Logo

ALANA Reception

We invite all scholars committed to advancing the histories of people of color in the United States to come socialize and learn more about the OAH ALANA Committee and the Huggins-Quarles Dissertation Award. Graduate students and junior faculty are especially encouraged to attend.

College Board, the sponsor of this event, looks forward to exploring ways for ALANA members to support high school history education.


Friday, April 12

6 pm–7:30 pm
Open to all attendees

Community College Reception

We welcome community college faculty to attend this reception which offers an opportunity to share experiences and make lasting connections.  Meet with fellow attendees and representatives from the OAH.


Friday, April 12

6 pm–7:30 pm
Open to all attendees

Sponsored by the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era (SHGAPE)

SHGAPE Reception 

SHGAPE will host a reception for all SHGAPE members and meeting attendees interested in the study of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era. SHGAPE was formed in 1989 to encourage innovative and wide-ranging research and teaching on this critical period of historical transformation. SHGAPE publishes the quarterly Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era and awards book and article prizes for distinguished scholarship.


Saturday, April 13

7:15 pm–8:30 pm
Open to all attendees

OAH President’s Reception 

All attendees are cordially invited to the OAH President’s Closing Reception in honor of OAH President Anthea Hartig. Please join us in thanking her for her service to the organization and the history profession following the OAH Presidential Address