Around the Field – October 21, 2026

21 October 2026 – NCPH Office

ANNOUNCEMENTS

• The National Park Service is inviting public input on four early concepts and future of the reconstructed fort at Bent’s Old Fort National Historic Site. Comments are being accepted through October 23, 2026
• The Oral History Association is seeking a host institution or executive director for a five-year commitment beginning on January 1, 2028. Letters of interest should include a preliminary explanation of factors that would make you an appropriate executive director or your institution an appropriate home. Letters are due November 1, 2026
• The Pomeroy Foundation is spotlighting its Fall 2026 student-led marker projects; read more at https://www.wgpfoundation.org/fall-2026-student-led-marker-spotlight/.

AWARDS AND FUNDING

• The American Heritage Center (ACH) at the University of Wyoming announces five fall travel grants (applications due October 31, 2026) and five spring travel grants (applications due March 31, 2027) for research travel completed through March 2028 and August 2028 respectively
• The Costume Society of America has opened its application for the Small Museum Collection Care Grant that provides museums with $1,600 to assist with costume and textile collections. The application is due November 1, 2026
• The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) invites applications for the final competition of the ACLS Digital Justice Grants Program to support digital projects across the humanities and social sciences that engage marginalized histories. The deadline for applications is November 3, 2026
• The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is accepting grant applications for its 2027 fiscal year. Museums, libraries, and other cultural institutions are encouraged to apply by November 13, 2026
• Preserving Legacies Climate Heritage Fellowship applications due January 8, 2027

CONFERENCES AND CALLS

• The Western History Association is hosting its Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon, US, from October 21-24, 2026
• The Universities Studying Slavery consortium will host its fall conference, “250 Years of Freedom and Unfreedom: Truth, Liberty, and Justice for All,” in College Park, Maryland, US from October 22-25, 2026
• Imagining America: Artists and Scholars in Public Life is meeting for its 2026 National Gathering, “Tides of Transition: Restoring Collective Spirit in Troubled Times,” in Davis, California, US, from October 23-25, 2026
• The Alliance for Texas History is hosting its annual conference in McAllen, Texas, from May 26-28, 2027. Paper proposals are due by November 1, 2026
• The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations is hosting its 2027 annual conference in Arlington, Virginia, from June 24-26, 2027. The call for paper proposals ends November 1, 2026
• The Museums Association of the Caribbean is hosting its 2026 annual conference, “Caribbean Museums: Connectors, Conveners, and Catalysts for Change,” in Port of Spain, Trinidad, from November 9-13, 2026
• The Lost Region Recovery Project is hosting its Midwestern Studies conference in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, from November 19-21, 2026
• The Association of Critical Heritage Studies is meeting for its 2026 conference in Wellington, Aotearoa, New Zealand, from November 30-December 2, 2026
• The Small Museum Association is hosting its 2027 annual conference in Rochester, New York, from February 21-24, 2027
• The National Humanities Alliance is hosting their Annual Meeting and Humanities Advocacy Day in Arlington, Virginia, US, from March 7-9, 2027
• CivxNow is hosting the Civic Learning Week National Forum in Charlotte, North Carolina, from March 11-12, 2027
• The Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums is hosting its Building Museums Symposium in Los Angeles, California, from March 17-19, 2027
• The American Society for Environmental History is hosting its 2027 annual conference in Richmond, Virginia, from March 31-April 3, 2027
• The Organization of American Historians will host their 2027 OAH Conference in San Francisco, California, US, April 1-4, 2027
• The American Institute for Conservation is hosting its 2027 annual meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from May 3-7, 2027
• The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) is hosting its annual meeting and MuseumExpo in Houston, Texas, from May 5-8, 2027
• The Fort Ticonderoga Museum is hosting its Thirty-First Annual War College of the Seven Years’ War Conference in Ticonderoga, New York, from May 21-23, 2027
• The Association of African American Museums is hosting AAAM2027 in Chicago, Illinois, from August 18-20, 2027. The Call for Proposals is open through February 10, 2027
• The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) will host AASLH 2027 in Madison, Wisconsin, from September 20-23, 2027. The Call for Proposals is open through December 4, 2026

LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

• The Federation of State Humanities Councils has launched the podcast, By the People: Conversations Beyond 250. It is a series of community-driven programs that explore 250 years of the nation’s cultural life and history
• The Northeast Document Conservation Center (NDCC) is hosting a virtual workshop on grant writing for collections preservation on October 27, 2026
• WikiEdu is hosting webinars on editing Wikipedia articles related to the election on October 23, October 28, and October 30, 2026

PUBLICATIONS

• The University of North Carolina Press has published The River That Made Texas: A Forgotten History of the Trinity by NCPH member Scot McFarlane. View the official book trailer and visit the website to learn more
• The University of Nevada Press has published National Parks and the Supreme Court: Groundbreaking Legal Battles by NCPH member Carla Chung Mattix, which examines how the Court has shaped the National Park System
• The Open Library of Humanities Journal seeks papers for its issue, Eros Across Antiquity, Ecology and Posthumanism. Abstracts should be submitted by October 31, 2026
• The Public Historian (TPH) seeks pitches for a special issue of TPH focused on women’s public history and women in public history. Proposals should be submitted to editor Sarah Case ([email protected]) by January 1, 2027

To submit an item to this regular listing, fill out the form at https://ncph.org/around-the-field-form/. Please make sure to include a URL where readers can find more information about your posting.