2026 Midwestern History Conference

The Basics

Please plan to join us, as well, for these special conference events:

  • Business Meeting: Thursday, 7:45-8:45 [must be an MHA member to vote]

  • Keynote Address: Thursday, 5:00pm, Shriver Center -- Ashley Howard (University of Iowa), "Midwestern Myths, Midwestern Realities"

  • MHA Awards and Reception: Thursday, 6:15pm, following Keynote Address

  • MHA Lunch: Friday, 11:50am-12:55pm, Shriver Center

  • Keynote Address: Friday, 1:00pm, Shriver Center -- Kai Bosworth (Virginia Commonwealth University), "Pipeline Opposition and Midwestern Regional Identities"

Conference Registration

Please register for the conference as soon as possible by following this link (or copy/pasting it into your browser): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mha-conference-2026-tickets-1982195289470. 

Membership in the Midwestern History Association is not required to present at the conference; however, purchasing a membership helps us continue the MHC and its graduate student travel funds, provide awards recognizing scholarship--now including a dissertation prize and research grants--in the field of Midwestern history, and handle the yearly expenses of maintaining the organization. Memberships start at $40, with a subscription to the Middle West Review available. Click here to join the MHA.

Some additional notes: 

  • There are differing rates for graduate students (undergraduates: choose this option), contingent faculty/public historians/K-12 teachers, and full-time faculty, as well as press tables. Please choose the option relevant to you.

  • Register for the FREE Thursday evening reception and FREE Friday lunch.

  • Donate a graduate student registration or contribute to our graduate student fund! Your generosity helps us continue to expand the field of Midwestern history by encouraging its study through student research.

Hotels and Lodging
We have two room blocks this year in Oxford. The first block is at The Elms Oxford: www.theelmsoxford.com with room rates for W, Th starting at $139 and Fri. $199. Please call to reserve using code MWHA: (513) 524-2002

Block 2 is at the Marcum Conference Center Hotel https://bookings.miamioh.edu/search-rates is: MIDWHST0426 Those rates begin at $168 a night. Please note the Conference Center is not the venue for the conference. We will be holding events at the Shriver Center on campus.

Please book early for availability.

Transportation
The two closest airports to Oxford are Cincinnati and Dayton. Airport transportation is not provided by the conference, but there are three local options that can be pre-booked for your needs: 

2026 MHA Conference

April 30 - May 1

Humanities Center, Miami University of Ohio

  • $50 for academic faculty

  • $25 for graduate students, contingent faculty, K-12 teachers

  • $100 Presses and exhibitors

Graduate Student Travel Grants: The MHA is pleased to announce the Graduate Student Travel Grant. These competitive awards will provide a stipend for graduate students presenting research at the MHA conference. To be eligible, students must be actively pursuing a graduate degree and be accepted for the 2026 conference in Oxford. 

2026 Call for Papers

“Midwestern History, Regional Humanities”

The Midwestern History Association invites proposals for the twelfth annual Midwestern History Conference, Thursday, April 30–Friday, May 1, 2026, hosted by Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in conjunction with its annual Altman Symposium in the humanities. Submission Deadline: Monday, December 15, 2025.

This year’s conference theme recognizes the collaboration between the Midwestern History Association, the Miami University Humanities Center, and the university’s John W. Altman Program. We are pleased to partner with Miami’s distinct humanities community to inspire scholars, students, and the public toward new understandings of the Midwest. We seek original research presentations that re-envision the region and its many facets through historical, cultural, political, philosophical, religious, environmental, media, artistic, and digital lenses; that invite dialogues about past-present connections, curriculum, and historical memory; and that analyze race, sexuality, gender, class, and Indigeneity. Overall, the conference will highlight how interdisciplinary study of the human condition within the Midwest can resist essentialization, combat injustice, energize democracy, and promote dignity for all people. The MHA invites applicants from a variety of backgrounds, including academic and public historians, humanities scholars, graduate students, and independent researchers and writers. We encourage audience engagement in all presentations via visual aids, digital media, and interactive elements.

The Miami University Humanities Center facilitates collaborative research and public engagement. Its programs promote faculty-student cooperation, invite interdisciplinarity, and demonstrate the value of the humanities to the public. Each year, the center funds, organizes, and helps to coordinate approximately one hundred lectures, readings, workshops, and symposia—all free and open to the public. The center’s largest offering, the John W. Altman Program, is a yearlong, themed inquiry program that brings together faculty fellows, student fellows, and distinguished visitors for seminars, lectures, research projects, team-taught classes, and public humanities initiatives. The MHA conference will serve as a capstone event for the 2025–2026 Altman Program’s investigation into midwestern dynamism. For more about Miami University, its Altman Program, and its Indigenous land acknowledgment statement, please see: https://miamioh.edu/index.html Altman Program 2025-2026:midWest https://miamioh.edu/about/leadership-administration/president/land.html

Proposals for complete panels and roundtables—consisting of three or four presenters or discussants plus a moderator, chair, or chair/commentator—are strongly recommended. We especially encourage panels whose composition reflects the differences—such as in rank, professional background, gender, race, Indigeneity, and sexuality—that abound in midwestern and humanities studies. Complete session proposals should be a maximum of 1,000 words, specifying the role of and content offered by each participant. A brief cv (2 pages maximum) and contact information must also be submitted for every participant. We encourage applicants to use social media or this google doc https://tinyurl.com/MHA-2026-Panel-Connections to identify and coordinate with potential co-panelists.

Individual proposals are also welcome and should be a maximum of 300 words, plus brief cv. The conference organizers will make every effort to group accepted individual papers and presentations into appropriately themed panels, but please note that submitting your own complete session is the best way to ensure an engaging, focused panel.

To promote scholarly conversation and collaboration, the MHA limits participants to delivering either a single paper or presentation as part of a panel. Serving as a roundtable discussant is considered equivalent to delivering a paper or presentation. Participants, however, may also serve as a moderator, chair, or chair/ commentator for one additional session. Proposals should include new historical research or innovative interpretations and should avoid substantially repeating the contents of (if relevant) a participant’s previous MHA presentations. Interdisciplinarity—within an individual presentation or across a whole session—is also encouraged.

In addition to welcoming proposals from scholars affiliated with colleges and universities, the MHA encourages proposals from public historians, students, and independent scholars. Successful proposals should demonstrate sound historical methods and professional research. Proposals should be submitted via email to midwesternhistory2026@gmail.com

Conference participants are encouraged to become members of the Midwestern History Association. Since its creation in 2014, the MHA has advocated for greater attention to midwestern history among professional historians, enriched research and academic discourse regarding the American Midwest, offered prizes to scholars who excel in the study of the region, and developed the infrastructure necessary for these endeavors. To join the MHA, please contact the University of Nebraska Press at: https://nebraskapressjournals.unl.edu/society/midwestern-history-association/

MHA members can receive a subscription to Middle West Review, a peer-reviewed journal that seeks to promote greater understanding of the region. Members are added to an email list that provides access to news about upcoming conferences, calls for papers, and other proposals related to midwestern history.

Submission Deadline: Monday, December 15, 2025 (non-negotiable)

Please direct all questions or inquiries to midwesternhistory2026@gmail.com

Photo by Joshua Young on Flickr