Call for Proposals: NCPH-AASLH Joint Conference

Introduction

The National Council on Public History (NCPH) and American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) are excited to announce that the Call for Proposals for their first joint conference is now live, with final proposals due December 1, 2025.

Theme: “The Work of Revolution”

Revolution is at the center of every remarkable societal change. Through formal politics, grassroots organizing, boycott, protest, litigation, war, and a wide range of other mass and individual actions, behind every revolutionary moment are the people working to bring revolutionary ideas into reality. In the face of rapid cultural, social, political, and technological change, history’s importance as a guide for our future has become clearer than ever. Documenting during crises, archiving our collective past, supporting researchers and revolutionaries alike, public historians are part of the landscape of revolution. We bring history to the public because it matters.

Read the full theme statement here. We hope you’ll join NCPH and AASLH in this semiquincentennial year in Providence, Rhode Island—a host city where the ongoing work of revolution is front and center, with revolutionary roots and legacies embedded in self-determination and self-rule—as they reflect on the work of revolutions past and the work that lies ahead as we take stock of our field and consider how we can strengthen and protect it for the future.

Topic Proposals 

NCPH invites people looking to connect with co-presenters or seeking feedback on a draft proposal to submit an optional Topic Proposal by October 15, 2025. They’ll post the Topic Proposals received to the NCPH website for a period of feedback from the public history community to help you craft the strongest possible proposal. Then, you’ll resubmit your proposal on AASLH’s Submittable platform for official consideration for the program.

Submitting Your Final Proposal

Your session, working group, and workshop proposals are due December 1, 2025. This year, proposal submissions will be hosted by AASLH on Submittable. Here you can also find explanations of our session formats (combined and streamlined from NCPH’s and AASLH’s formats) and see the review criteria that the Program Committee will use to evaluate proposals.