Agricultural History Society 2020 Conference -- Challenging Crops and Climates

Debra Reid Announcement
Location
Tennessee, United States
Subject Fields
Environmental History / Studies, History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Local History, Rural History / Studies, Public Policy

Agricultural History Society

Knoxville, Tennessee

June 3-6, 2020

Challenging Crops and Climates 

  The 2020 Agricultural History Society conference will occur at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. This location, in the Appalachian Mountains, provides an excellent vantage point to consider the history of “Challenging Crops and Climates.” Globally, agriculture occurs in diverse environments, including mountains, deserts, swamps, rain forests, tundra, places of extreme temperatures, and on marginal soils. People have transformed environments to meet the demands of agricultural production through both private and state -sponsored actions. The small farms of Appalachia and the massive dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority that surround Knoxville illustrate these strategies,  adaptations, and associated controversies. Inspired by this backdrop, the AHS encourages submission that explore how farmers and other rural people wrestle with challenging and changing environments.  
 
Possible topics include but are not limited to:   How farmers adapt agriculture to challenging environments, including exploited microclimates.  How difficult environments shape dynamics of rural landscapes and local power arrangements, including how these intersect with race, class, ethnicity, and/or gender.  How farmers and rural people have adapted to climate or other environmental changes.  The impacts, whether environmental, cultural, social, or political, of private and state-sponsored projects to alter difficult environments  How agriculture has altered fragile ecosystems  Scientific and technical approaches to environmental changes over time  Roles/experiences of women and minorities in difficult farming environments  Challenges to and alterations of food cultures   As befits the Society’s inclusive approach, we especially encourage submission from emerging scholars and researchers covering understudied geographical regions or time periods, and as custom dictates, we support significant contributions that do not directly address the conference theme. 
 
Information on submissions:  The Society defines agriculture broadly and invites contributions that relate to agricultural and rural history/studies broadly defined. Topics from any location and time period are encouraged.  The AHS welcomes traditional sessions with successive papers and commentary, but also seeks thematic panel discussions or debates, roundtables on recent books or films, workshops, and poster presentations.   The AHS encourages proposals inclusive of race, ethnicity, sex, gender, and career status.  If you need video projection technology for presentations, please indicate this in your proposal.   The program committee prefers complete session proposals, but will consider individual papers.  The AHS welcomes graduate students and has a competitive travel grant for students presenting papers. 
 
Instructions for Session and Individual Proposals:  

1. Session proposals: include a 200 word abstract for each paper and a one-page CV for each member (in MS Word). 2. Individual paper proposals: include a 200 word abstract and a one-page CV (in MS Word). 3. All proposals should be submitted electronically in Word format. Submit all proposals to the Program Committee by email at: <aghist2020@gmail.com>.

Deadline for submissions is September 28, 2019.

Address questions to: Evan Bennett, Florida Atlantic University at <ebennett@fau.edu> Program Committee members include Evan Bennett, Chair; Jama Grove, University of Arkansas; Margaret “Maggie” Weber, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire; and Robert Wilcox, Northern Kentucky University. 
 

Contact Information

Evan Bennett, Chair, AHS Program Committee

Debra A. Reid, AHS President

Contact Email
ebennett@fau.edu