The 37^th annual meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic will take place in Raleigh next week (July 16-19). I could not be more excited. To help spread the conference cheer, I’m going to offer a brief preview of a few sessions that caught my eye. 

But first, let me mention a few noteworthy events. The graduate student luncheon is always a great opportunity for professional development. This year the program committee has taken things to another level. Instead of a single lunch, there will be four graduate seminars hosted by leading scholars: Slavery and Race Formation (Thavolia Glymph and Craig Steven Wilder); Capitalism, Labor, and Political Economy (Christopher Clark and Paul Gilje); Politics and Political Culture (Barbara Oberg and Joanne Freeman); and Cultural History (Jay Cook and Alexis McCrossen). Also for graduate students, there will be a meet and greet on Friday night, beginning at 8:30PM, at the Busy Bee (225 S Wilmington St.).

The same reason I am so jazzed up for this year’s conference makes it difficult to preview: there are far too many good sessions to choose from. To make this post manageable, I’ve highlighted one panel from each block, though I do hope this conveys the wide range of themes represented. Feel free to join the conversation in the comments if you want to draw attention to what I’ve missed. And be sure to check out the full program to see what else is in store.

FRIDAY 8:30-10:15 AM: CAPITAL, SPACE, AND CULTURE: NEW APPROACHES TO THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF THE EARLY REPUBLIC (Update: the papers for this panel are now posted online.)

• PRESIDING: Jessica Lepler, University of New Hampshire
• “Commerce and Power,” Dael Norwood, Binghamton University
• “Making Money: Coin, Currency, and the Coming of Capitalism,” Christine Desan, Harvard Law School
• “Underwritten States: Marine Insurance and the Making of Bodies Politic in America, 1622-1815,” Hannah Farber, Boston College
• “1812: War and the Passions of Patriotism,” Nicole Eustace, New York University
• “Planners, Planters, and Slaves: The Social Construction of Early National South Carolina,” Ryan Quintana, Wellesley College
• COMMENT: The Audience

FRIDAY 10:30 AM-12:15 PM: NEW PERSPECTIVES ON ANTEBELLUM AFRICAN AMERICAN RELIGION

• PRESIDING: Corey D.B. Walker, Winston-Salem State University
• “Black Politics and Religion in the World Dred Scott Made,” Christopher Bonner, University of Maryland
• “‘Holy Women Ministered unto Christ’: Maria Stewart, Black Freemasonry, and Black Public Culture,” Chernoh Sesay Jr., DePaul University
• “‘I Would at Once Confess Myself an Atheist’: Slavery, Religious Skepticism, and African American Freethought,” Christopher Cameron, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
• COMMENT: John Ernest, University of Delaware

FRIDAY 2:00-3:45 PM: ROUNDTABLE: INDIANS, RACE, AND THE U.S. STATE IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC

• PRESIDING: Ari Kelman, Pennsylvania State University
• Michael Witgen, University of Michigan
• Malinda Maynor Lowery, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• Kiara Vigil, Amherst College
• Christina Snyder, Indiana University
• COMMENT: The Audience

FRIDAY 4:00-5:45 PM:KEEPING IT IN THE FAMILY: GENDER, CREDIT, AND MARKET CREATION

• PRESIDING: Catherine Kelly, University of Oklahoma
• “The Wife as Manager: Reconsidering the Early American Household Economy,” Mary Beth Sievens, State University of New York at Fredonia
• “Banking on Kinship in Early America,” Lindsay Keiter, College of William and Mary
• “To Have and to Hold: African American Women and Inheritance in Colonial Liberia,” Marie Stango, University of Michigan
• COMMENT: Cathy Matson, University of Delaware

SATURDAY 8:30-10:15 AM: BY THE HAIR OF THEIR CHINS: MANHOOD, COERCION, AND THE BODY IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC

• PRESIDING: Craig Thompson Friend, North Carolina State University
• “‘The Smooth, Glossy, Untufted Skull of Honest Freedom’: Wigs, Short Hair, and Early Republican Manhood,” Sarah Gold McBride, University of California, Berkeley
• “Putting the Dash in Mustache: Militarism and the Reinvention of the Gentleman in Early Nineteenth-Century Europe and America,” Christopher Oldstone-Moore, Wright State University
• “One Small Step for Beards, One Giant Leap for Misogyny: Alonzo Lewis and the Imperatives of Manhood,” Sean Trainor, Pennsylvania State University
• COMMENT: Stephen Berry, University of Georgia; Ami Pflugrad-Jackisch, University of Toledo

SATURDAY 10:30 AM-12:15 PM: SETTLERS AND VIGILANTES: VIOLENCE AND THE CONTESTED NATURE OF PUBLIC AUTHORITY

• PRESIDING: Jason Opal, McGill University
• “Institutional Violence: State-making and Indian-killing in the Early West,” Jessica Choppin Roney, Temple University
• “Hunting Heads: The Harpe Murders and Keeping Order in the Early West,” Katherine Grandjean, Wellesley College
• “Stories of Indemnity, Stories of Pardon: What the 1835 Baltimore Bank Riot Tells Us about Public Authority in the Early Republic,” Adam Malka, University at Buffalo, SUNY
• COMMENT: Bethel Saler, Haverford College

SATURDAY 2:00-3:45 PM: RETHINKING WOMEN’S EDUCATION IN EARLY AMERICA: SCIENCE, RACE, AND BEAUTY

• PRESIDING: Sheila Skemp, University of Mississippi
• “1833-1834: In Loving Memory of a Female Academy,” Kabria Baumgartner, The College of Wooster
• “The Scientific Woman: Education and Scientific Practice in the Early Republic,” Jessica Linker, University of Connecticut
• “The Casket and the Jewel: The Body, the Brain, and the Politics of Female Intelligence,” Rachel Walker, University of Maryland
• COMMENT: Mary Kelley, University of Michigan

SATURDAY 4:00-5:45 PM: PECHA-KUCHA

• PRESIDING: Liz Covart, Ben Franklin’s World
• “The Mercenary Merchant: George Morgan and the Failed New Madrid Colony, 1786-1789,” Timothy C. Hemmis, University of Southern Mississippi
• “Colonization and the Politics of Antislavery Slaveholders,” Andrew Hammann, Stanford University
• “Men of Sorrow, Objects of Grief: Undertakers and Funerary Goods, 1820-1860,” Kelly B. Arehart, College of William and Mary
• “The Nat Turner Project: The Southampton Revolt in the Digital Age,” Sarah Roth, Widener University
• COMMENT: The Audience

SUNDAY 8:30-10:15 AM: FRAUGHT WITH FEAR, FIGHTING, AND FORGETTING: UNDERSTANDING REBELLION IN ANTEBELLUM COMMUNITIES

• PRESIDING: Lyra Monteiro, Rutgers University, Newark
• “‘Disciples of the Declaration’: Rebels, Resistance, and the Politics of Slave Insurgency,” Matthew Clavin, University of Houston
• “‘They Ought All to Be Exterminated’: African American Remembrances and Trauma after Nat Turner’s Insurrection,” Kay Wright Lewis, Norfolk State University
• “‘At the Risk of Our Own Lives’: Violence and the Fugitive Slave Law in Pennsylvania,” Kellie Carter Jackson, Hunter College, CUNY
• COMMENT: Walter Rucker, Rutgers University, New Brunswick

SUNDAY 10:30 AM-12:15 PM: NINE MONTHS IN PHILADELPHIA: BRITISH OCCUPATION IN AMERICA’S REVOLUTIONARY CAPITAL

• PRESIDING: Benjamin H. Irvin, University of Arizona
• “Intimate Occupation: Gender and the Home in British-Occupied Philadelphia, 1777-1778,” Lauren Duval, American University
• “Meschianza Ladies: Young Women, Politics, and the American Revolution,” Kendra Kennedy, University of Utah
• “‘That Brilliant Revolution is Accomplished’: The British Occupation of Philadelphia and the End of the American Revolution,” Aaron Sullivan, Temple University
• COMMENT: Serena Zabin, Carleton College

I hope to see many of you in Raleigh. Whether you are there or not, be sure to follow along by using the hashtag #SHEAR15.