Plenary Session: Amidst and Against a Patriarchy: Women as History-Makers, Advocates, and Defenders of Rights
These are surely trying times in the United States: for the field of history, writ large, but especially for teachers of women’s and gender studies and for the many hurt by patriarchy. Teaching about systems of repression and racism are lumped together with gender, identity, sexism, and sexuality under punitive and medieval restrictions. Violence against women and girls escalates, as does the still stripping of bodily autonomy and reproductive freedom with the fall of Roe v. Wade. Even in the scant six-percent of non-male public monuments across the nation, mermaids and Joan of Arc outnumber real U.S. women.
Our charge in this year’s conference—to devote ourselves to serving communities—brings into sharp relief the experiences of historically harmed communities. This year’s plenary focuses on the long and ongoing activism of women that has cast light against the long shadow of the patriarchy and related forms of oppression and on the historians who research, document, teach, share, and even live this work. OAH President Anthea M. Hartig will bring together civil rights activists, advocates for missing and murdered Indigenous women, historians documenting the long history of domestic and food systems labor, and the many fighting on the front lines of social and reproductive justice in a conversation that will traverse the shared landscapes of advocacy, outreach, giving voice, and defending women’s rights, bodies, and histories.
CC - this session is CART Captioned
Chair:
- Anthea Hartig, Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C.
Panelists:
- Leona Tate, Leona Tate Foundation for Change, TEP Center
- Diana Sierra Becerra, University of Massachusetts
- Sarah Adams-Cornell, Matriarch
- Shirley Ann Higuchi, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation
Museum Display—Statutes and Stories
FULL DURATION
Statutes and Stories
This museum quality exhibit on loan from the free history website StatutesandStories.com will contain an array of primary sources dating back to America’s founding including colonial currency and early newspapers, the Stamp Act of 1765, the Tea Act of 1773, a contemporaneous copy of the U.S. Constitution, the Constitution’s Cover Letter, Federalist 1, the Acts of the First Congress, the Residence Act of 1790, Hamilton’s Report on the Public Credit, the Act sending the Bill of Rights to the States, Washington’s Farwell Address, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the Judiciary Act of 1801 (giving rise to the case of Marbury v. Madison), New York’s anti-dueling laws, the Indian Removal Act of 1830, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Act of 1866 (America’s first civil rights law), and other artifacts that help tell America’s story as we approach the Semiquincentennial in 2026.
Museum Display—LA Creole
FULL DURATION
Louisiana Creole Research Association
The Louisiana Creole Research Association, Inc., known as LA Creole, founded August 21, 2004, is a New Orleans-based, non-profit family research and educational organization. LA Creole's purpose is to assist Creoles of Color in researching their ancestries, to educate the general public about Creole history and culture, and to celebrate the contributions and legacy of a unique, sometimes forgotten people.
Morning Mixer: Networking Welcome Breakfast
April 12, 2024 8:45 am
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]
NEW for all attendees: Friday morning coffee, and snacks at lunch on Friday and Saturday (all items are first-come, first-served)!
The OAH Awards Ceremony
April 12, 2024 5:15 pm
Celebrating the best in American history—writing, teaching, public presentation, research, support, and distinguished careers—the OAH Awards Ceremony recognizes colleagues and friends whose achievements advance our profession, bolstering deep, sophisticated understandings of America’s complex past, and informed, historically relevant discussions of contemporary issues.
Documenting Reproductive Rights in New Orleans: The Newcomb Archives in Conversation with Community Organizers
April 12, 2024 11:00 am
This public event includes an exhibit of reproductive rights, health, and justice materials housed in the Newcomb Archives documenting the history of activism around these issues at Tulane, in New Orleans, and beyond. A panel discussion with a Tulane historian, the head of Newcomb Archives, and New Orleans activists, will explore the implications of this history in the current post-Dobbs moment. Lunch will be provided.
This is a public event at the Newcomb Institute at Tulane University
Registration is required for transportation to and back.
CPACE Caucus Meeting
April 12, 2024 12:15 pm
The CPACE Caucus is a space for all OAH members who are contingently employed—including adjunct and other non–tenure track colleagues. Organized by the Committee on Part-Time, Adjunct, and Contingent Employment (CPACE), this meeting will be a place to share experiences and concerns, hear what the OAH is doing on behalf of contingently employed historians, and to voice what you’d like us to be working on. Contingently employed historians are now the majority of academic historians and will be for the foreseeable future; this caucus is a place to build solidarity and power as we redefine the discipline and its cultures. We hope to see you there and to hear from you.
Graduate Student Caucus
April 12, 2024 3:30 pm
Join your representatives on the OAH Graduate Student Committee to network with fellow students, discuss how the committee and the OAH can best serve grad student needs, and brainstorm ideas for next year's events and conference sessions.
OAH Business Meeting
April 13, 2024 5:15 pm
All OAH members are encouraged to attend the meeting and participate in the governance of the organization. Proposals for action should be made in the form of ordinary motions or resolutions. All such motions or resolutions must be signed by one hundred members in good standing and submitted at least forty-five days prior to the meeting to OAH Executive Director Beth English and OAH Parliamentarian Jonathan Lurie, c/o OAH, 112 North Bryan Ave., Bloomington, IN 47408. Should a motion or resolution be submitted in this manner, OAH membership will be notified via electronic communication at least 30 days in advance of the Annual Business Meeting. The OAH Business Meeting will immediately precede the Presidential Address.
OAH Presidential Address
April 13, 2024 5:45 pm
Join us on Saturday evening for the Presidential Address by Anthea M. Hartig
OAH President, Elizabeth MacMillan Director of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The address will be followed by the OAH President's reception.
CC - this session is CART Captioned
Chat Room Seminars
April 13, 2024 12:15 pm
The Chat Room provides an opportunity for historians to share and learn from the knowledge and experiences of their peers. Led by up to two moderators, each 45-minute seminar encourages conversation in a relaxed and unstructured environment. Teach, learn, and debate while meeting friends both old and new.
- Anti-LGBTQ Politics in the 2024 Elections
- Academic Freedom in Florida
- Being First-Gen in Academia
- Challenges, Dangers, and Opportunities in the Study of Policing
- Collaborating in the K-12 Classroom: Teachers, Public History Professionals, and Academics
- Digital History in the Classroom: Finding and Using Digital History Projects in Introductory Courses
- Disability and Accessibility in Public History
- Foreign Language Skills and U.S. History Majors: Proficiency or Problem(s)?
- Incorporating Digital and Data Methods in History Projects
- “Many Hats We Wear” -- Community College Faculty
- Supporting Pregnant-Capable Students in Abortion-Ban States
- Trauma-informed Teaching and Learning
- Using Technology and Media to Reach the Public and Connect Them to History