September 16: Somerset Club, 42 Beacon St, Boston, MA 02108

September 17: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02215

View conference program below or download a pdf.

View website

Registration

All attendees must register to attend the conference. Note that conference presenters and commenters do NOT need to register. 

In order to attend both days of the conference, please register for both events below.

Register to attend dinner and keynote on 16 September at the Somerset Club here.

Register to attend programs at the Massachusetts Historical Society on 17 September including lunch here.

Registration for events on both days of conference will close on 2 September.

Questions about registration? Email Research Coordinator Cassandra Cloutier ccloutier@masshist.org.

Schedule

Friday, September 16

Reception and dinner: 6 p.m. Friday, September 16, Somerset Club

Keynote address: Sean Wilentz, 8 p.m. “The Radicalism of Northern Emancipation.”
George Henry Davis 1886 Professor of History, Princeton University

Saturday, September 17 

Massachusetts Historical Society

Arrival: 8:30-9:00 a.m. Coffee, tea, snacks

First Session: 9:00-10:15 a.m.

“Property in the Age of Revolutions” Panel Discussion

• Gordon Wood, Alva O. Way Professor of History, Emeritus, Brown University
• Wim Klooster, Robert H. and Virginia Scotland Professor in History and Foreign Relations, Clark University
• Mark A. Peterson, Edmund S. Morgan Professor of History, Yale University
• Rebecca L. Spang, Ruth N. Halls Professor of History, Indiana University

Short Break/Coffee, 10:15-10:30 a.m.

Second Session: 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Politics and Personality in New England

• “‘Hereafter there will be no intimacy:’ Charles Francis Adams, Charles Sumner, and the Emerging Divisions Within the Republican Party.” Douglas Egerton, Professor of History, Le Moyne College
• “Charles Sumner’s Political Culture and the Foundation of Civil Rights.” John Stauffer, Sumner R. and Marshall S. Kates Professor of English and of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

Comment: Manisha Sinha, James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair and Professor in American History, University of Connecticut

Buffet Lunch, 12:00-1:30 p.m.

Third Session, 1:30-2:45 p.m.

The Politics and Culture of Investing

• “American Expectations: the Culture of Interest, and Return on Investment in the New Republic.” Hannah Farber, Assistant Professor of History, Columbia University
• “Silicon Politics, from Big Science to Big Tech.” Margaret O’Mara, Howard and Frances Keller Professor of History, University of Washington

Short Break/Coffee, 2:45-3:00 p.m.

Fourth Session, 3:00-4:15 p.m.

Creating a New New England

• “Making a Post-Industrial New England.” Lizabeth Cohen, Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Harvard University
• “Overlapping Diasporas and the New England Metropolis: Black Communities and Histories since the 1970s.” Brian Purnell, Geoffrey Canada Associate Professor of Africana Studies and History, Bowdoin College

Conclusion, 4:20-5:30 p.m.

Themes in American Political Cultures: A Concluding Discussion

Closing Reception: Beverages and Light Refreshments