Call for proposals for Central Region Humanities Center conference

The Central Region Humanities Center will host its biennial conference at Ohio University in September 2026. The conference, which will be held in the Baker University Center, will celebrate 250 years of the Declaration of Independence. This event is supported in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The National Endowment for the Humanities awarded $196,632 to support the conference, as well as related teacher workshops and exhibitions.

The project, titled “250 Years: The Promises and Legacy of the Declaration of Independence,”  is led by Associate Professor Mariana Dantas, director of the Central Region Humanities Center. Partnering organizations include the Mahn Center for Archives and Special Collections, the Southeast Ohio History Center, the Tablertown People of Color Museum, and the Athens County Public Library. The project's steering committee includes Fred Drogula (professor of Classics and World Religions), Greta Suiter (Ohio University Libraries manuscript archivist), and Kristina Bross (dean of the Honors Tutorial College.)

The conference organizers are now accepting paper proposals from faculty and graduate students. The submission deadline is March 20, 2026.

Presentations by scholars and students in the humanities and by public humanities practitioners will explore the history, meaning and legacy of the Declaration of Independence in Southeast Ohio and beyond. The conference will highlight people and communities’ centrality to the realization of the lofty sentiments articulated in the Declaration of Independence and tell a story of perseverance in the defense of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that belongs to all Americans.

Submission details

Ohio University faculty and graduate students are invited to submit paper proposals by 11:59 p.m. on March 20, 2026.

Graduate students and early career scholars working in a humanities discipline or public humanities are invited to submit a paper proposal on topics related to the impact and legacy of the Declaration of Independence in Ohio, the Ohio Valley region or the old Northwest Territory.

The conference will facilitate an exploration and discussion of the history, meaning and legacy of the Declaration of Independence through academic and public humanities talks and exhibitions by community organizations. It aims to highlight the many ways people and communities from the Central Region realized the sentiments articulated in the Declaration of Independence in the 250 years since 1776. The conference’s main premise is that perseverance in the defense of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the shared story of Americans from a variety of backgrounds over multiple generations.

Possible paper topics, drawn from the text of the Declaration of Independence, include but are not limited to:

• “All men are created equal”: oppositions to discrimination since the Revolutionary Age.
• Unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
• Government by consent.
• Sufferable and insufferable evils, and the safeguards against them.
• The public good, and the laws and government that serve it.
• Migration, naturalization of foreigners, and “the population of these States.”
• An independent judiciary free from arbitrary interventions.
• The ability to petition the government.

Proposal submissions

Please submit your paper proposal to the conference program committee by March 20, 2026, using this submission form.

You will be asked to provide your contact information, professional affiliation, paper title, a 300-word paper abstract and a 250-word short bio. Decisions about the submissions will be announced by April 15, 2026.

The CRHC has limited funds to support travel to the conference and will consider funding requests by accepted participants.

You can find more information about the conference here.