05 March 2018

Call for Papers, 2018 Annual Meeting!!!


2018 Annual Meeting of the Society for the History of Discoveries

Where: Golden, Colorado

When:  20-22 September 2018 with tour on 23 September

Venue: Colorado School of Mines

Our 2018 Annual Meeting will be provided in partnership with the Rocky Mountain Map Society and it will also offer a pre-conference that will be free to SHD members. The RMMS pre-conference, Golden Quest: Mapping the Stampedes, will take place on Thursday, before the traditional opening reception of the SHD conference that evening, followed by SHD’s program on Friday and Saturday. The Exhibition of the Colorado Gold Rush History, a world-famous collection of rocks as well as maps of the West will be exhibited in the Geology Museum.

Following the conference, on Sunday September 23rd, will be a guided tour of original gold-rush towns in the mountains near Golden, a ride on the famous Georgetown Loop steam engine train, an expert tour of an underground gold mine, and then a tour of impressive dinosaur and geological wonders nearby.

Theme: Great Mountains of the American West

The Gold Rush in the American West sparked interest in the vast mountain area situated between the continent’s interior and the West Coast. The development of an overland route that connected the continental part of the country with the Pacific coastline spurred the exploration and mapping of the Rocky Mountains as never before. Fur traders, gold miners, soldiers, colonists, and adventurers became explorers and mapmakers of the great mountains of the American West.

Papers, 20 minutes in length, are invited on all aspects of this theme, from exploration and the reconnaissance of the mountains, mining activities, survival conditions, trail supplies, the family life of the pioneers, as well as any other social and economic aspect relating to the colonization and exploitation of this mountainous area.

The Committee also welcomes proposals from SHD members, scholars, and independent researchers that address all aspects of geographical discovery and exploration. Preference will be given to those papers that are particularly aligned with the conference theme, but all paper proposals of high quality, regardless of geographic orientation, will be considered.
The audience at SHD meetings is diverse and includes academics and members of various professions. All are especially interested in the processes and consequences of geographical exploration and discovery. Presenters are encouraged to use images (maps, paintings, photographs, etc.). For the benefit of the audience all visuals have to be presented as PowerPoint-compatible projections.
Paper proposals are due March 15, 2018. Please provide a proposal that includes the following components:

·         the title of the presentation
·         the author’s name and address, including email address and affiliation
·         an abstract summarizing the paper’s scope and conclusions (maximum of 500 words)
·         a statement about the originality of the contents of the paper: how much is new, unpublished material, based on research in primary sources, etc.
·         a statement indicating whether PowerPoint or other digital media will be used and whether internet access is necessary for the presentation
·         a brief biographic sketch of the author(s)
SHD welcomes submissions from graduate students and emerging scholars.

Paper proposals should be submitted as e-mail attachments, with the subject line SHD 2018, to:

Dr. Mirela Altić, Program Committee Chair, mirela.altic@gmail.com

Questions?  Please contact Dr. Altić at mirela.altic@gmail.com