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Jan 4, 2007

Cliopatria Does Atlanta




Three days ago, the AHA staff left its Washington, DC, offices. They said they were on their way to Atlanta, but how many days does that take? Local public radio has been warning its audience for weeks that the historians are coming. The hotel and restaurant staffs downtown are beginning to notice the difference. The average tip has dropped by 50%.

As you can see, Cliopatria has already got her eye on the city. She will be there for the AHA convention. Here are some things she'll keep an eye on:

This evening, AHA President Linda Kerber will present the 4th Theodore Roosevelt-Woodrow Wilson Public Service Award to Georgia Congressman John Lewis. John is a worthy recipient of the Award. More than any other surviving leader of the civil rights movement, I think, he represents its legacy with integrity. That will be followed by a plenary session in which Calvin Grimes of Morehouse College will present Atlanta's diverse traditions in African American music, from spirituals to jazz.

On Friday morning, UCLA's Linus Kafka, who occasionally blogs at Histori-blogography and Snoblog, will present his paper on"The Contested Cities of Henry Adams." At noon, the Cliopatricians will gather for our 4th Annual Banquet. There, we'll lift our cups of cheer to the winners of The Cliopatria Awards for 2006. The names of the winners will appear here later tomorrow, when I've recovered from the effect of all the libations.

On Saturday, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Tim Burke will appear on a panel, co-chaired by Princeton's Anthony Grafton and Northwestern's Elise Lipkowitz, on"Transparency in Graduate Education: What Future Historians Need to Know and History Departments Ought to Tell Them." Between 2:30 and 4:30 p.m., Civil War Memory's and Revise and Dissent's Kevin Levin will appear on a panel on"Soldiers, Citizens, and Sources: The Uses of Civil War Soldiers in Writing U. S. History"; POTUS's Alonzo Hamby will chair a panel on"New Narratives of Twentieth-Century American Liberalism," and Jeremy Boggs of ClioWeb and Revise and Dissent will present in a Poster Session on"Material Cultures of Filth and Cleanliness: The American Bathroom at the Turn of the Last Century."

The AHA's Business Meeting is on Saturday at 4:45 p.m. After some routine reports, the meeting will take up several resolutions, including the one offered by David Beito, some 30 other historians, and me opposing speech codes. The debate will be lively. Be there to support it! Jon Wiener's film session screening"The U.S. v John Lennon" is an alternative. On Sunday morning, between 8:30 and 10:30 a.m., Sean Michael Lucas will present on"Presbyterians" in an American Society of Church History session on"Interpreting Denominational History Past, Present, Future." If I've missed any appearance by bloggers on the convention program, let me know in comments and I'll correct the oversight.



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Ralph E. Luker - 1/7/2007

Look for a report on the session on transparency in graduate student education in history at Inside Higher Ed on Tuesday morning and, at some point, from Tim Burke at his blog, Easily Distracted.


Ralph E. Luker - 1/5/2007

I'm not sure about that, Grant. I will inquire.


Grant W Jones - 1/4/2007

Will a transcript of the panel on grad school be available so grad students can read it and learn what they ought to know?