There is a lot of legal history at the Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, beginning tomorrow, January 3, in Washington, D.C. A search of the on-line program for "law", "legal" and "rights" turned up these 28 panels, plus three "poster sessions." If I have missed anything, please let me know.
Both conferences have sessions relating to the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. One legal historian is managing to speak at both conferences (more possible this year because they are both on the east coast), Tamiko Brown-Nagin, University of Virginia.
As happens every year, the AHA unfortunately conflicts with the AALS meeting. Between the two meetings, there is much more legal history to be found at the AHA. Nearly all AHA panels and papers are selected through competitive submissions to the Program Committee. In contrast, very few AALS panels and papers are selected that way. Another difference: every year some individuals appear on multiple panels at the AALS (I remember one year when a particular scholar appeared on five panels). At the AHA, along with the American Society for Legal History and other history meetings I'm aware of, only one appearance on the program is permissible. Legal scholars often criticize the AALS, although some are more pleased with the program this year, and the AALS Legal History Section has an all-star line-up. But still, IMHO, the AALS has much to learn from the AHA's approach to constructing an annual meeting.
Panel numbers below are panel numbers in the program.
Thursday, January 3, 3:00–5:00 P.M.
10. The Body at the Crossroads of Medicine and History: Disease, Disability, and the Law in Medieval Europe
Marriott, Washington Room 1
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Shona Kelly Wray, University of Missouri at Kansas City
Papers:
Pozzuoli and Salerno: The Heated Contest between Therapeutic Traditions and Learned Textual Scholarship in Medieval Italy
Florence Eliza Glaze, Coastal Carolina University
Mephibosheth in the Middle Ages: Disabilities, Children, and the Most Vulnerable of the Vulnerable in Medieval Europe
Walton O. Schalick III, University of Wisconsin-Madison
CSI Marseille: Medicine, Law, and Crossing (Sub)Disciplinary Divides
Daniel Lord Smail, Harvard University and Monica H. Green, Arizona State University
Comment:
The Audience
Friday, January 4, 9:30–11:30 A.M.
44. De Facto Segregation: Regional Fallacies, Racial Myths, Historical Practices
Marriott, Washington Room 3
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Tomiko Brown-Nagin, School of Law, Washington University of St. Louis [she is now at the University of Virginia]
Papers:
De Jure/De Facto Segregation: The Long Shadow of a National Myth
Matthew D. Lassiter, University of Michigan
From Community Education to Neighborhood Schools: Race, Region, and Jim Crow in Flint, Michigan
Andrew Robert Highsmith, University of Michigan
"The Other Side of Milliken": Metropolitan School Desegregation and the Social Construction of Law and Space
Brett V. Gadsden, Emory University
Comment: Jennifer L. Hochschild, Harvard University
Friday, January 4, 9:30–11:30 A.M.
National History Center Session 1
Accounting for the History Major and Its Role in Liberal Arts Education: A Conversation
Marriott, Maryland Suite B
A session of National History Center
Chair:
James R. Grossman, vice president of research, Newberry Library
Panel:
Thomas Bender, professor of history, New York University
W. Robert Connor, president, Teagle Foundation
Carol Geary Schneider, president, American Association of Colleges and Universities
Rayman Solomon, dean, School of Law, Rutgers University-Camden
Friday, January 4, 9:30–11:30 A.M.
49. Reconstructing the Body: Gender, Medicine, and the Challenges of Race in the Age of Emancipation
Marriott, Delaware Suite B
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Heather Cox Richardson, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Papers:
Measuring Manhood in the Civil War and Reconstruction
Melissa N. Stein, Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Body Counts: A Medical Accounting of Emancipation
James T. Downs, Connecticut College
"Captered by a army of Octoroons": The Louisiana Interracial Family in War and Reconstruction
Diana I. Williams, Law School, Harvard University
Comment:
Martha Hodes, New York University
Friday, January 4, 9:30–11:30 A.M.
30. Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain, Part 1: Social Developments in Early Modern Castile
Marriott, Hoover Room
Sponsored by the AHA Research Division and the American Academy of Research Historians of Medieval Spain
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Jorge Ortuno Molina, University of Murcia
Papers:
A Family’s Role in Spanish Territorial Cohesion: The Fernandez de Cordoba and the Formation of the Empire
Yuen-Gen Liang, Wheaton College
Women, Law, and Politics in Sixteenth-Century Castilian Municipalities
Claudia Mineo, University of California at Los Angeles
Los Mendoza Granadinos: Estrategia Politica de una Familia Nobiliaria en la Periferia de Castilla
Antonio Jimenez Estrella, Universidad de Granada
This is part of a multi-session workshop. See also session 62
Friday, January 4, 9:30–11:30 A.M.
48. Emancipation, Civil War, and Civil Rights: The Struggle for African American Rights
Omni, Hampton Ballroom
Sponsored by the AHA Teaching Division and the College Board
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Uma Venkateswaran, Educational Testing Service
Papers:
The American Civil War, Emancipation, and Reconstruction
Edward L. Ayers, president, University of Richmond
The Civil Rights Movement in World Perspective
Kevin Gaines, University of Michigan
The Civil War and Civil Rights in a Global Perspective
Edward M. Dickson, Providence Day School
Comment:
Joyce Chaplin, Harvard University
Friday, January 4, 9:30–11:30 A.M.
38. Ireland in Imperial and Transatlantic Contexts
Marriott, Virginia Suite B
Joint session with the American Conference for Irish Studies
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Timothy J. Meagher, Catholic University of America
Papers:
More Than "Three Years’ Enterprise": The Hibernian CMS and the Imperial Enterprise
Timothy G. McMahon, Marquette University
"These Shall Get Their Rights, Too": Transatlantic Exchanges Behind Roger Casement’s Atrocity Investigations
Angus Mitchell, University of Limerick
Irish Women Historians in Transnational Contexts: Alice Stopford Green and Dorothy Macardle
Nadia Smith, Boston College
Comment:
Timothy J. Meagher
Friday, January 4, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era Session 3
Troubled Crossroads: Constructions of Race and Gender in an Age of "Progress"
Omni, Council Room
A session of Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era
Chair:
Ralph E. Luker, Atlanta, Georgia
Papers:
"The Promise of a Brighter Day": Dan Shay, Clarence Euell, Gertrude Anderson, and the Limits of Hoosier Progressivism
David Jones, State University of New York at Albany
Legal and Popular Representations of Sexual Violence: The Case of Texas, 1890–1920
Christienne McPherson, Southern Methodist University
Windy City Nightmares: Black Migration, Black Crime, and White Anxieties
Louis Moore, University of California at Davis
Interrogating Affairs: Policing Moral, Racial, and Gender Boundaries under the Mann Act, 1919–29
Jessica Pliley, Ohio State University
Comment:
The Audience
Friday, January 4, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
Chinese Historians in the United States Session 1
Marriage, Family, and Kinship Practices in Imperial China
Omni, Senate Room
A session of Chinese Historians in the United States
Chair:
Weijing Lu, University of California at San Diego
Papers:
Intermarriages and Cousin Marriages in Tang China
Ping Yao, California State University at Los Angeles
Tales of Filiality, Tales of Unfiliality: Cases from Song (960–1279) Anecdotal Writing
Cong Zhang, University of Virginia
Kinship Practices beyond Local: The Pans of Suzhou in Qing China
Yongtao Du, Washburn University
The Role of Military Men in the Changes of Local Powerful Families and Property Rights in the Tang–Song Transition
Ronald A. Edwards, Tamkang University
Comment:
Weijing Lu
Friday, January 4, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
American Catholic Historical Association Session 6
Race, Religion, and Gender in the New South, 1945–80
Marriott, Kennedy Room
A session of American Catholic Historical Association
Chair:
Margaret McGuinness, La Salle University
Papers:
Pamphleteering against Prejudice: The Catholic Press and the Race Question in Twentieth-Century America
R. Bentley Anderson, Saint Louis University
Living with Jim Crow in Virginia and North Carolina: Black and White Catholic Experiences of Racial Segregation
Cecilia A. Moore, University of Dayton
Liberty and License: Race, Gender, and Catholics in the Rise of the Religious Right
Andrew Moore, Saint Anselm College
Comment:
John T. McGreevy, University of Notre Dame
Friday, January 4, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
79. Uneven Developments in the Memory of Martin Luther King Jr.
Marriott, Delaware Suite B
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Renee C. Romano, Wesleyan University
Papers:
Jesse Helms, Race, and the 1983 Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Controversy
Tom Packer, St. Cross College, University of Oxford
Martin Luther King Jr. and the "Stonewall" of Presuppositionalism: The Historical Imagination of the Religious Right
Patrick Jackson, Vanderbilt University
Intellectuals, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Uses and Abuses of History
Peter A. Kuryla, Vanderbilt University
Comment:
David Lincoln Chappell, University of Arkansas
Saturday, January 5, 9:00–11:00 A.M.
109. Matrimony Matters: Labor, Land, and Law in the Construction of Marriage in the American West
Hilton, Georgetown West
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Brad Lookingbill, Columbia College
Papers (available on-line):
"Better Morals Make Better Maids": Civil Marriage and Tohono O’odham Women between Worlds
Andrae M. Marak, California University of Pennsylvania and Laura Tuennerman-Kaplan, California University of Pennsylvania
Imperial Unions: Controlling Land through Marriage in the American West, 1862–1924
Tonia M. Compton, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
"The Color of Love Before Loving": Filipinos, the Law, and Anti-Miscegenation in California in the 1930s
Maria Paz G. Esguerra, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
Comment:
Laura Woodworth-Ney, Idaho State University
Saturday, January 5, 11:30 A.M.–1:30 P.M.
Polish American Historical Association Session 6
Polish Americans and Interethnic Relations
Marriott, Truman Room
A session of Polish American Historical Association
Chair:
M. B. Biskupski, Central Connecticut State University
Papers:
Polish Americans and Civil Rights Protests in the Milwaukee Newspapers, 1967
Steven Leahy, University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley
Polish and Jewish Issues in the Narratives of Ana Maria Shua
Silvia G. Dapia, Purdue University
The Reception of Polish Jews Expelled by Germany in October 1938
Charles Chotkowski, independent scholar
Comment:
M. B. Biskupski
Saturday, January 5, 9:00–11:00 A.M.
96. Medieval Studies and Issues of Social Justice, Part I
Marriott, Virginia Suite A
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Kathleen Davis, Princeton University
Papers:
The Bible and Social Purity in Early Medieval Europe and Today
Celia Chazelle, The College of New Jersey
Setting the Tyrant Free: Legal Innovations in the Carolingian Empire
Abigail Firey, University of Kentucky
Tribute, Trust, and Terror: Hostages from the Medieval to the Modern World
Adam J. Kosto, Columbia University
This is part of a multi-session workshop. See also session 129.
Comment:
Felice Lifshitz, Florida International University
Saturday, January 5, 11:30 A.M.–1:30 P.M.
127. Liberalism, Empire, and the Formation of the Political Subject
Marriott, McKinley Room
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago
Topics:
Contracting Freedom: The Politico-Economic Subject of Liberalism
Radhika Mongia, York University
Personhood and Value in Late Colonial Hindu Law
Rachel L. Sturman, Bowdoin College
Voting, Law, and Religion in Twentieth-Century India
David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University
A New Subject of Politics? Caste Radicalism and the Critique of Liberal Secularism
Anupama P. Rao, Barnard College, Columbia University
Comment:
Mrinalini Sinha, Pennsylvania State University
Saturday, January 5, 11:30 A.M.–1:30 P.M.
Conference on Latin American History Session 22
Law, Gender, and Social Inequality in Latin America in the Twentieth Century
Omni, Council Room
A session of Conference on Latin American History
Chair:
Mary Kay Vaughan, University of Maryland at College Park
Papers:
Sex, Honor, and the Control of Proper Women during the Mexican Revolution
Stephanie Smith, Ohio State University
Compensation Feminism? Gender, Inequality, and the Law in Batllista Uruguay, 1910s-30s
Christine Ehrick, University of Louisville
Women Workers, Labor Law, and Revolutionary Rights in Mexico in the 1920s
Susan Gauss, State University of New York at Albany
Of Policemen and Citizens: Social Mobility and Law Enforcement in Rio de Janeiro, 1907–45
Martine Jean, Yale University
Comment:
Peter M. Beattie, Michigan State University
Saturday, January 5, 11:30 A.M.–1:30 P.M.
143. Sex, Surgery, and History: Perspectives on Intersex from the Middle Ages to the Twenty-First Century
Hilton, Georgetown West
Joint session with the Committee on Lesbian and Gay History
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Leah DeVun, Texas A&M University
Papers:
Medieval Hermaphrodites: Intersex in Medical, Legal, and Philosophical Discourse of the European Middle Ages
Irina Metzler, University of Bristol
Intersexuality and "Corrective' Surgery in the Early Modern Period
Kathleen Long, Cornell University
History for the Future: A Personal Account of Using History to Change the Medical Treatment of Intersex
Alice D. Dreger, Northwestern University
Comment:
Anne Enke, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Saturday, January 5, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
Committee on Lesbian and Gay History Session 6
Legal Liberation? Intersections of Gender, Sexuality, and Race in Twentieth-Century U.S. Equal Rights Campaigns
Marriott, Washington Room 4
A session of Committee on Lesbian and Gay History
Chair:
Regina Kunzel, University of Minnesota
Papers:
"Into the Law": The Odell Waller Case and the Early Civil Rights Activism of Pauli Murray
Dayo F. Gore, University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Defending a Psychopathic Gay Alien: Genealogies of Legal Strategy in Boutilier v. the INS
Marc Stein, York University
Managing the Costs of Life: Feminism, Biopower, and the Debate over Pregnancy Disability, 1974–78
Deborah Dinner, Yale University
Comment:
The Audience
Saturday, January 5, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
Chinese Historians in the United States Session 3
Longing for the "Family of Nations": Chinese Interpretations of Civilization and Modernity in the Late Nineteenth Century
Omni, Cabinet Room
A session of Chinese Historians in the United States
Chair:
Alexander C. Cook, Stanford University
Papers:
Western Discourses of Sensibilities and Civilization and Modern Chinese Criminal Justice
Li Chen, Columbia University
A War of Words: A "Chinese" Scholar-Official’s Critique of Modern Western Civilization
Chunmei Du, Princeton University
Positioning China: Zheng Guanying’s Perception of International Law, 1870s–90s
Guo Wu, Allegheny College
Comment:
Alexander C. Cook
Saturday, January 5, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
176. The Politics of Sexual Scandals across Time and Space
Marriott, Washington Room 6
Joint session with the Committee on Lesbian and Gay History
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Katherine B. Crawford, Vanderbilt University
Papers:
Darkness in New Light New England: Punishing Bestial Acts in the 1790s
Doron Ben-Atar, Fordham University and Richard D. Brown, University of Connecticut
The Legal Scandal of "Personal Status" in French AlegeriaJudith Surkis, Harvard University
Gossip, Scandal, and the Sexual Solicitation of Boys in Colonial Mexico
Zeb Tortorici, University of California at Los Angeles
The Litmus Tests: The Role of Public Scandal and Race in Sexual Misconduct Cases in Colonial Ghana
Carina E. Ray, Fordham University
Comment:
Katherine B. Crawford
Saturday, January 5, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
168. Living History: Encountering the Memory of the Heirs of Slavery, Part 5: Reparations and Affirmative Actions: Africa and Brazil
Marriott, Marriott Ballroom Balcony A
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Bogumil Jewsiewicki, Université Laval
Papers:
African Heritages, Memories of Slavery and Reparation Claims in Rural Brazil
Hebe Mattos, University Federal Fluminense
Reparations to Africa for the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Rhoda Howard-Hassmann, Wilfrid Laurier University
The Brazilian Black Movement and the Women’s Participation at the Durban Conference against Racism
Francine Saillant, Université Laval
The Role of Equitable Legal Principles in the Reparations Debate
Keith Calow, Wilfrid Laurier University
This is part of a multi-session workshop. See also sessions 4, 5, 104, 135, 180, and 218.
Comment:
The Audience
Saturday, January 5, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
164. The Haves and the Have Nots: A Historical Overview of Disability in the Middle East
Hilton, Monroe East
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Catherine J. Kudlick, University of California at Davis
Papers:
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: A Historical Perspective on Disability in Iran
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, University of Pennsylvania
Past and Present in Disability Politics: The Rise of the Israeli Disability Rights Movement
Hila Rimon-Greenspan
Disability, War, and Resistance in Israel: Is History Repeating?
Liat Ben Moshe, Syracuse University
Comment:
Robert Vitalis, University of Pennsylvania
Saturday, January 5, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
160. Soviet Armenia and the Armenian Question: Homeland-Diaspora Relations, Repatriation, and Irredentism
Omni, Calvert Room
Joint session with the Society for Armenian Studies
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Richard G. Hovannisian, emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles
Papers:
The Repatriation of Armenian Refugees from Iraq to Soviet Armenia, 1921–22
Vahram Shemmassian, California State University at Northridge
The Postwar Migration of Armenians to Soviet Armenia: The Participation of Armenian-American Networks in the Repatriation Campaign of 1946–48
Sevan Nathaniel Yousefian, University of California at Los Angeles
To Right a Wrong: Kars, Ardahan, and Soviet Irredentism, 1945–46
Robert O. Krikorian, George Washington University
The Armenian American Community and the Postwar Resettlement of Displaced Persons
Dikran Kaligian, Armenian Review
Sunday, January 6, 8:30–10:30 A.M.
185. Negotiating Responsibility: English Philanthropy, Local Authority, and the Public Good
Hilton, Monroe West
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:Rebecca J. Bates, Berea College
Papers:
Women and Philanthropy in Early Modern Exeter
Connie S. Evans, Baldwin-Wallace College
Transcending the Parish: Friendly Society Patrons and the Ironic Effects of Resisting Centralization
Simon C. E. Cordery, Monmouth College Benevolence and the Limitations of Fighting Child Pauperism on the Eve of the New Poor Law
Rebecca J. Bates
Smallpox, Fever, and Philanthropy in Early Nineteenth-Century London: A Mixed Economy of Public Health
Jonathan A. Fowler, Pellissippi State Technical Community College, Tennessee
Sunday, January 6, 8:30–10:30 A.M.
190. Law, Paternity, and Naming in Post-Emancipation Brazil and the Caribbean
Marriott, Maryland Suite A
Joint session with the Conference on Latin American History
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Rebecca J. Scott, University of Michigan
Papers:
The Right to a Proper Name: Paternity Suits and Changing Notions of Paternal Responsibility in Twentieth-Century Brazil
Sueann Caulfield, University of Michigan
Antonio Pérez Remembers African Names: Former Slaves, Fathers, and Children in Late Slavery/Early Post-Emancipation Cuba
Michael Zeuske, University of Köln
Comment:
Jean Hébrard, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
Sunday, January 6, 8:30–10:30 A.M.
198. Southern White Christianity and the Civil Rights Movement, 1954–80
Marriott, McKinley Room
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Jason C. Sokol, Cornell University
Papers:
White Evangelicals and Massive Resistance: Mississippi’s Church Property Bill
Carolyn Renee Dupont, Eastern Kentucky University
"Born of Conviction": White Methodists and Mississippi’s "Closed Society"
Joseph T. Reiff, Emory & Henry College
Religion in the Private School Movement: A Case Study of Private Schools in North Carolina, Georgia, and Mississippi
Joseph H. Crespino, Emory University
Comment:
Edward Blum, San Diego State University
Sunday, January 6, 11:00–1:00 P.M.
229. Interwar Intellectual Exchanges between the United States and America: Persistence of the National or Creation of an Enlarged Imagined Community?
Omni, Hampton Ballroom
Joint session with the Conference on Latin American History
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Daniel Belgrad, University of South Florida
Papers:
New World Writing: The Influence of Latin American Poets on William Carlos Williams’s Rewriting of American History
Richard Cándida Smith, University of California at Berkeley
Ralph Beals and the Anthropology of Mexico: War in Latin America and the Shaping of American Civil Rights
Ruben Flores, University of Kansas
Art Exhibitions in the Americas during the Second World War
Paulo Knauss, Universidade Federal Fluminense
A Concerned America: Photographs of Genevieve Naylor (1941–42) and Sabastião Salgado (1977–84)
Ana Maria Mauad, Universidade Federal Fluminense
Sunday, January 6, 11:00–1:00 P.M.
225. Sexuality and the Postwar Metropolis
Marriott, Hoover Room
Joint session with the Committee on Lesbian and Gay History
A session of American Historical Association
Chair:
Bryant Simon, Temple University
Papers:
Glamorous Girls, Gambling Playboys, and Queers: The Search for Naughty Inspiration in America’s Postwar Mecca
T. Vaughan Tremmel, University of Chicago
Black Politics and the Campaign for Chicago’s Gay Rights Ordinance, 1973–88
Timothy Stewart-Winter, University of Chicago
Home, Church, and School: The Politics of "Straightness" in Postwar Santa Clara County
Clayton Howard, University of Michigan
Comment:
Karen C. Krahulik, Brown University
Legal history also appears in these "Poster Sessions"
Saturday, January 5, 2:30–4:30 P.M.
177. Poster Session
Omni, Regency Ballroom
A session of American Historical Association
Offered for the third time at the 2008 annual meeting, this poster session provides a venue for the newest developing historical research. Though relatively new to the humanities, poster sessions have long been utilized at professional meetings in scientific fields. On sessions with several panel participants, audience interaction is limited to brief discussion periods–usually only a few people are able to ask questions and each presenter may not have time to discuss their research fully. The two-hour poster session addresses this common problem, allowing for considered dialogue and engaging interaction.
The 2008 Program Committee encourages all meeting attendees to visit the poster sessions on display in the Omni’s Regency Ballroom. The following presenters will be available to discuss their posters between 2:30 and 4:30 on Saturday, January 5:
177-7. The Carolingian Canon Law Project
Abigail Firey, University of Kentucky and Dorothy Porter, University of Kentucky
177-20. Well-Founded Fear: A Social and Legislative History of the Refugee Act of 1980
Katherine O’Flaherty, University of Maine
177-22. Mapping the U.S. Slave Trade in the Age of Abolition: Views from the Chesapeake, 1790–1860
J. L. Schermerhorn, University of Virginia
