News & Events

This State of the United States event (12 March 2026) convenes two of the world’s most influential stewards of cultural memory to examine how archives, libraries, and museums underpin a functioning democracy. Dr Colleen Shogan (former Archivist of the United States) and Richard Ovenden OBE (Bodley's Librarian, University of Oxford) will explore how the decisions societies make about what to document, preserve, or overlook shape the civic imagination and influence national identity, especially in a period when history itself has become a fiercely contested terrain.

The Declaration of Independence, whose 250th anniversary Americans will observe in 2026, is the United States’ founding text, but it was also a transformational international text. This conference will explore some of the implications of that wider message. In addition to the response to the Declaration in Britain, Ireland, and Europe, we anticipate presentations that focus on North America’s Indian country, Haiti and the Caribbean, Sierra Leone and West Africa, and China and British India.

Join us for a hybrid panel hosted as a part of the dé'men minkanen project!

‘Imagine West’ is a new network for early career and doctoral researchers interested in the invention and disruption of ‘westness’ by literary and visual culture in the United States and around the world. We’re open to anyone in American Studies in the UK – there’s no need to be an expert on the West – and we’ll be talking about fiction, film and images as much as academic writing. Click 'read more' to join the network and learn more about our activities and opportunities. Or, email westnetwork-subscribe@maillist.ox.ac.uk to subscribe to the newsletter.

This workshop invites graduate and early career scholars to reassess the causes, events, and legacies of the American Revolution within the longer history of Early America(c.1600–1815). We welcome papers that challenge established narratives, recover obscured histories (including Indigenous, enslaved, and women’s experiences), explore settler colonialism, global perspectives, and showcase new methodological approaches. Limited travel support is available. Submit a 250–300 word abstract and short bio by 28 February 2026 to earlyamerica250@gmail.com.

“O'Neill skillfully demonstrates how tribes and Native workers rejected the language of rights-based liberalism, instead firmly rooting their rights as workers and managers within the more durable protections of tribal sovereignty.”—Kevin Whalen, author of Native Students at Work: American Indian Labor and Sherman Institute’s Outing Program, 1900–1945