Thursday, April 19, 3:30 pm — 5:00 pm

The State Historical Society of Wisconsin created Old World Wisconsin, an outdoor ethnic/immigrant history museum, during the 1960s and 1970s. Its mission was to salvage (in the name of preservation) buildings associated with nineteenth-century immigrants that were about to disappear from the landscape. When the 600+ acre museum opened in 1976, it had rescued and rebuilt structures that represented Finnish, Danish, Norwegian, German, and Yankee ethnic groups. Focusing mainly on the half-timber home of German immigrants Friedrich and Sophia Koepsell, the session will describe how this impressive architectural specimen fulfilled Old World Wisconsin’s mission. Presenters will share the ways this exhibit encapsulated the challenges faced in museum creation (finances, staff resources, site acquisition, procurement of buildings, transportation to the Eagle, Wisconsin site, and rebuilding).

• Moderator: Michael Gordon, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• John Krugler, Marquette University
• Martin C. Perkins, Old World Wisconsin

Teaching AP US history in one year is a race against time. By March, teachers are confronted with the gap between what they have taught and what they must teach before beginning an intensive review. This workshop will present a set of visual materials keyed to the nine chronological periods and seven concepts within each period. The visuals are illustrations and photographs that can be quickly used with note making in class, for assignments, and for examinations. They entail no cost and no technology. Teaching strategies to build an architecture of memory will be presented. Completing multiple choice questions and writing complex essays is more possible if we create the memory at the time of learning. Review only rehearses existing memory. Our challenge is creating the memory and storing it.

• Chair: Harry M. Stein, Independent Scholar

Since 2009, the Public History Program at the University of Central Florida has produced podcasts that engage the broader public. The Florida Historical Quarterly podcast is produced in conjunction with the journal and features interviews with authors as well as special content features. The RICHES (Regional Initiative for Collecting the History, Experiences, and Stories of Central Florida) documentary podcasts are student produced and focus on local and regional history. These podcasts attract listeners locally, nationally, and internationally to make the local global. This session will address the potential for pubic history and new media to expand local history to connect with a larger, global community.

• Robert Cassanello, University of Central Florida
• Connie L. Lester, University of Central Florida

Public History Commons

To provide a central meeting point for public historians rambling across the two-hundred-plus sessions and workshops, dozens of other events, and four days of the 2012 conference, NCPH is providing a “Public History Commons” in the Exhibit Hall. Located in the heart of the conference, this lounge space is open to public historians as an informal venue to gather with committees, project teams, colleagues, or friends. NCPH members and all attendees interested in learning more about public history are welcome to use the tables and chairs to hold an impromptu meeting, prep for a session, relax and scan the Program, meet a mentor, finish a cup of coffee, or gather a group for a downtown excursion. Like NCPH’s new Web domain, PublicHistoryCommons.org, which houses our recently launched blog, History@Work, the commons space is a venue for conversations that may be happening in many face-to-face, online, onsite, and offsite locations simultaneously—in panels and working groups, via Twitter and the conference blog, on tours and over meals. Stop on by if you have the chance!

Sponsored by the University of California Press
Journals + Digital Publishing and the University of South Carolina

Precirculated Papers by Senior Scholars

This year, the OAH is piloting a new kind of session featuring precirculated papers by senior scholars. These papers will be distributed electronically three weeks before the conference to attendees who indicate an interest in them. During the live session, the presenter will summarize the paper for five to ten minutes. Then two commentators will discuss the paper for twenty to thirty minutes before opening the discussion to the audience for the remainder of the session. Formal remarks will thus end at the forty-minute mark, allowing eighty minutes for a broad-ranging conversation. These sessions are meant to encourage senior scholars to present their new and unpublished work and to further enhance OAH sessions as sites of deep intellectual exchange. The OAH is sponsoring six such sessions this year. To request a copy of one of the papers, please email , and indicate the title or author of the paper you would like to receive.

NCPH Conference Connection—Mentoring

Are you new to NCPH or attending the annual meeting for the first time? Or, are you a veteran of the NCPH or annual meetings who is willing to assist a new attendee? NCPH will match students and new professionals with experienced public historians for the annual meeting. We are looking for both mentors and mentees. Mentors and mentees contact each other by e-mail prior to the conference to agree on a place and time to meet, such as the Opening Reception on Thursday evening or some other event both are planning to attend early in the conference. During the conference, mentors share lessons about their own career path and try to introduce their mentee to other public history practitioners. The point is to build networks and share information to maximize the conference experience. Mentors also can give advice about selecting sessions and tours to attend, or making the rounds in a reception, the exhibit hall, or the Poster Session. They can share ideas on how they use this or any conference as a source of professional development, new projects, or new ideas. Guidelines for mentors and mentees are available on the 2012 Annual Meeting page on the NCPH Web site. If you are interested in serving as a mentor or would like to be assigned a mentor, e-mail Theresa Koenigsknecht () no later than March 15. A limited number of mentors will be available.

State of the Field Sessions

These sessions are designed to present the historiography of a subfield and its evolution during the past ten to twenty years. Rather than focus on the cutting-edge developments that might be found in regular OAH meeting sessions, subject experts address how the field arrived where it is today. State of the Field sessions are aimed at scholars and teachers who are not already deeply immersed in a particular field, those who would like to catch up with the journal literature, those who wish to get up to speed in a new area, or those who may want to incorporate a particular historiography into their teaching.

Guided Professional Development Opportunity for Classroom Teachers

Turn your conference experience into a guided professional development opportunity. Earn graduate credit or graduate audit credit (University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire) or a Certificate of Completion. Graduate credit option includes preconference readings and postconference lesson-development project. For more information, visit: http://www.uwec.edu/CE/programs/OAHlaborhistory.htm.

Sessions include:

• Getting the Most Out of the OAH Conference
• More than two dozen sessions on labor history in the United States
• Plenary address by labor historian and OAH President Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia University
• Roundtable: Wisconsin 2011: A Teaching Challenge
• Workshop: Incorporating Labor History into Your Curriculum

Turner Hall Service Project

Thursday, April 19, 1:00 pm — 5:00 pm

As an active “thank you” to the people of Milwaukee, registrants have the opportunity to spend the afternoon helping with a service project at historic Turner Hall. Participants will tour this late-nineteenth-century home of Milwaukee’s oldest Turnverein (a German American gymnastic society and community center). Volunteers will learn about the Turners’ role in the Civil War, socialist politics, municipal reform, and the making of modern gymnastics. Constructed between 1882 and 1883, it is the only building in Milwaukee that is a National Landmark, a listing on the National Register of Historic Places, and a local historical landmark. After the tour, volunteers will help with the maintenance of the building by painting, cleaning, and organizing, as well as advising on the representation of the building’s history for the public. To sign up, please email (limit 20 participants). The group will gather in the conference registration area on Thursday and depart at 1:00 pm, returning no later than 5:00 pm. Please wear clothing appropriate for painting and cleaning (work will take place indoors).

Digital Drop-In

Thursday, April 19, 1:30 pm — 4:30 pm

The Digital Drop-In is designed to help you with specific questions and problems arising from digital history projects. Confused about which platform to choose or how to make sure you’re meeting metadata standards? Wondering how to start developing a social media strategy or retro-fit your Web site for mobile devices? We’ll match you with a knowledgeable consultant who can offer specific solutions or general directions in a fifteen-minute, one-on-one session (more than one session is possible if time allows). Sessions will be most successful when you come prepared with a well-focused question; the Drop-In is intended to provide support and problem solving for actual and prospective digital history projects, not general tech support or computer fixes. To participate, you only need show up at the Digital Drop-In to be matched with an appropriate consultant.

Organized by the NCPH Digital Media Group

Consultants include:

• Sheila Brennan, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
• Suzanne Fischer, The Henry Ford
• Trevor Owens, Library of Congress
• Tom Scheinfeldt, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
• Mark Tebeau, Cleveland State University

Thursday, April 19, 3:30 pm — 5:00 pm

The OAH staff and the OAH Membership Committee invite new members and first-time meeting attendees to discuss ways to get the most out of the annual meeting and the organization.

Hosted by OAH Membership Committee chair Cary D. Wintz from Texas Southern University, William D. Carrigan from Rowan University, Stephen Kneeshaw from the College of the Ozarks, Amilcar Shabazz from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Cheryl A. Wells from the University of Wyoming.

Speed Networking

Thursday, April 19, 3:30 pm — 5:30 pm

For the fourth year, NCPH will offer a professional twist on “speed dating,” creating stress-free networking opportunities at the annual meeting. Thirty experts representing careers in museums, historic sites, historic preservation, historical societies, government, and independent consulting will be available for consultation. Graduate students, recent graduates, and new professionals will have the opportunity to meet with five established public history practitioners over the course of five fifteen-minute rotations. Before the buzzer sounds, participants may discuss career options, professional development, and any other aspects of the field. Prepare some questions in advance, bring your business cards, and expect to do a lot of talking and listening! Advance registration is required. Space is limited. If you are a public history practitioner interested in meeting with students and new professionals at this event, contact Cherstin Lyon, chair of the NCPH Curriculum and Training Committee, at .

Organized and sponsored by the NCPH Curriculum and Training Committee

OAH Erik Barnouw Award Film Screening

Friday, April 20, 12:00 pm — 1:00 pm

Bring a lunch to enjoy while you watch the film that won the 2011 OAH Erik Barnouw Award. Teaching materials and information packets will be available.

Lightning Talks

Friday, April 20, 12:00 pm — 1:00 pm

At least 20 participants will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis. To participate, sign up at the registration desk on Friday morning.
The hour-long Lightning Talks session is a chance to showcase your own digital project and hear what’s new and exciting in the digital humanities. At this brown-bag lunchtime session, presenters will each have two to three minutes to describe their projects. A digital projector will be available, but we ask you to plan on using Web-based presentation materials only, rather than bringing a USB drive or other media (hard copies of handouts are welcome).

Organized by the NCPH Digital Media Group

Professional Organizations and Political Engagements

Friday, April 20, 4:30 pm

Leaders of learned societies are often confronted with demands that the organizations for which they have fiduciary responsibility be used as instruments in the advancement of a cause that lies outside the mission of the organization. In many cases, the officers and board members of these societies are themselves, as individuals, committed to these causes and can become divided over how best to fulfill their institutional responsibilities while being true to the personal commitments that attract them to a given cause. Labor disputes in hotels are a classic example. On the assumption that issues of this sort will arise again, the OAH Executive Board convened an online conversation on the relationship between professional organizations and political engagements. The discussion, facilitated by OAH Executive Editor Edward Linenthal, is available at http://annualmeeting.oah.org/program/interchange-1.html. This session continues that discussion and invites further engagement with these issues.

Dine Arounds

Friday, April 20; 7:00 pm — 9:30 pm

Dine Arounds are informal opportunities for OAH and NCPH members to talk about intriguing issues, make new contacts, and get a taste of the conference city. Prior to the annual meeting, individuals who volunteer to be facilitators suggest topics for discussion. Facilitators also find suitable restaurants, make reservations for the groups, and provide final titles/topics for the Dine Arounds. To participate, find the sign-up sheet in the conference registration area and be prepared to talk. Your facilitator will lead the group to the restaurant and start the evening’s conversation. To propose a Dine Around, contact NCPH at by April 16.

Poster Session and Reception

Saturday, April 21; 3:30 pm — 5:30 pm

Posters will be on display and their creators will be available to discuss their projects. Light hors d’oeuvres will be served. The Poster Session is a format for history and public history presentations about projects that use visual evidence. It offers an alternative for presenters eager to share their work through one-on-one discussion, can be especially useful for works in progress, and may be a particularly appropriate format for presentations where visual and material evidence represent a central component of the project. Soak in exhibitry and chat with history practitioners who have put their work on display.

OAH Business Meeting and Awards Ceremony

Saturday, April 21, 3:30 pm — 4:30 pm

The OAH Business Meeting will be held immediately preceding the OAH Awards Ceremony and Presidential Address. All OAH members are encouraged to attend the meeting and participate in the governance of the organization. Proposals for action by the OAH shall be made in the form of ordinary motions or resolutions. All such motions or resolutions must be submitted at least thirty days prior to the meeting to OAH Executive Director Katherine M. Finley and the OAH Parliamentarian Jonathan Lurie, c/o OAH, 112 North Bryan Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47408.

OAH Presidential Address
Capitalism, Democracy, and the Emancipation of Belief

Saturday, April 21, 4:30 pm — 5:30 pm

Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia University
Join OAH President Alice Kessler-Harris, Columbia University, when she presents the 2012 OAH Presidential Address Saturday, April 21 at 4:30 pm, immediately preceding the OAH Presidential Reception, sponsored by Oxford University Press, Columbia University College of Arts and Sciences and Department of History

BackStory with the American History Guys

Saturday, April 21, 7:00 pm — 9:00 pm

This year’s keynote will take a public turn. Join an extraordinary team of historian-hosts for a live taping of the radio show BackStory with the American History Guys as they use the history of beer to explore capitalism, democracy, immigration, labor, and more. BackStory brings historical perspective to current events and is hosted by Ed Ayers, Brian Balogh, and Peter Onuf. Ed Ayers is a scholar of nineteenth-century US history and president and professor of history at the University of Richmond. Brian Balogh, who studies the twentieth-century in America, is a Compton Professor of History and is the chair of the National Fellowship Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. Peter Onuf, an expert on the founding period, is the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History at the University of Virginia. Over the course of each show, the Guys are joined by fellow historians, people in the news, and callers interested in exploring the roots of what’s going on today. Together, they drill down to colonial times and earlier, revealing the connections (and disconnections) between past and present.