Happy New Year, and welcome back to the Oxford Early American Republic Seminar, where we’re beginning 2020 with a diverse array of projects exploring the first century of U.S. history from a range of angles. Economic historian Ben Schneider will start us off with an overview of the transport revolution that transformed life in the early republic between the Revolution and the Civil War. We’re also excited to welcome RAI Visiting Fellow Kariann Yokota, author of Unbecoming British (Oxford University Press, 2011), who will be discussing her recent work. Oxford’s own Nicholas Cole joins us in Week 6 to discuss the hot constitutional topic du jour, impeachment, in historical context, and Lawrence Hatter rounds off the term with an ‘indigenous history of the U.S.-Canadian border.’
Thanks to feedback from our audiences and contributors, we’ve decided to make a small change to our regular scheduling this term. Instead of meeting at 5pm, as we have been accustomed to do in the past, we’ll be kicking off at 4.15pm on a Wednesday afternoon every other week. All of our events will be held in seminar room 1 at the Rothermere American Institute on South Parks Road in Oxford.
Some papers may be precirculated: to receive a copy in advance, and to hear other news, join our mailing list by emailing grace.mallon@univ.ox.ac.uk or stephen.symchych@sant.ox.ac.uk.
Week 2: Wednesday 29th January, 4.15pm
Benjamin Schneider (Oxford), ‘Technological Change and Work: The Transformation of American Transport, 1750-1860’
Benjamin Schneider is a DPhil candidate in Economic and Social History at Merton College, Oxford. He has a BA in History & Government from Cornell University and an MSc in Economic and Social History from Oxford. His research focuses on work, labor markets, and living standards in the 18th and 19th centuries.
Week 4: Wednesday 12th February, 4.15pm
Kariann Yokota (Colorado), title TBC
Dr. Yokota received her Ph.D. in History from the University of California, Los Angeles and served as Assistant Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University before coming to the University of Colorado Denver. Yokota is the author of the widely acclaimed book, Unbecoming British, among other publications on topics of immigration and ethnicity.
Week 6: Wednesday 26th February, 4.15pm
Nicholas Cole (Oxford), ‘Impeachment at the Founding’
Dr Cole is a Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford, and director of the Quill Project, a digital project exploring the creation of constitutions and other negotiated texts through formal parliamentary processes.
Week 8: Wednesday 11th March, 4.15pm
Lawrence Hatter (Washington State), ‘The Past Isn’t Past: An Indigenous History of the U.S.-Canadian Border’
Dr Hatter received his PhD from the University of Virginia in 2011, and is the author of Citizens of Convenience: The Imperial Origins of American Nationhood on the U.S.-Canadian Border (University of Virginia Press, 2016).
OxEARS 