Victoria, British Columbia
November 12-14, 2020
The forty-eighth annual conference of the Western Society for French History will be held from November 12-14, 2020, in Victoria, British Columbia. The theme for this year’s conference is “New Stories, New Ways of Telling Them.” The organizers wish to highlight how incorporating new voices, tools, and approaches can transform both our understanding of the history of France and the Francophone world and the way we share that understanding.
Deadline for proposals: April 1, 2020. Please send all proposals to Professor Leslie Tuttle, current WSFH President, at president@wsfh.org
*For detailed submission instructions, and for hotel and travel information, please visit the WSFH website, https://www.wsfh.org/conferences
We are excited to welcome this year’s keynote speakers. Matt Matsuda (Professor of History and Academic Dean, New Brunswick Honors College, Rutgers University), will deliver a keynote on Friday evening entitled “Sea of Changes and New Waves: French Histories and Pacific Histories”, followed by a reception at the First People’s Gallery at the Royal B.C. Museum. On Saturday morning, Pascal Bastien (Professeur d’histoire, Université de Québec à Montréal) will deliver the annual Edgar L. Newman Memorial Lecture: “Une Révolution volée? Les émeutes du faubourg Saint-Antoine, 27-28 avril 1789.” Professor Bastien will then be among the participants in a special plenary lunchtime round table on the theme of French History and the Digital Humanities.
We welcome sessions that focus on France and the Francophone world from the Middle Ages to the contemporary era. To deepen membership engagement with the society’s updated mission, we especially welcome proposals that reflect the theme by seeking to include new voices or use new approaches or by deploying digital modes of research and storytelling. In addition to traditional research presentations, we encourage panel proposals featuring innovative and interactive formats, including workshops, roundtables, pre-circulated papers, pecha kucha sessions and discussions of pedagogy and methods. The WSFH welcomes proposals from colleagues in related disciplines and the participation of advanced graduate students.