Ithaca, New York

The Association of Public Historians of New York State (APHNYS) is pleased to announce that our 2023 Annual Conference will be held in Ithaca, NY, September 18-20, 2022. Our annual conference draws approximately 100  government-appointed historians and affiliates from across the state.

Named after the island home of Homer’s King Odysseus, Ithaca sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake and is the seat of Tompkins County in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York. As we gather in Ithaca this fall, we consider the pull that the city’s mythological eponym had on its homesick hero and invite you to explore our theme—“Home, Sweet Home”—and its various implications. How have people connected with the places they call home, whether their birthplace, adopted community, or ancestral origins? How have geographies and landscapes influenced people’s social, cultural, and economic experiences, whether in urban, suburban, or rural homes? How have people used the land they call home? How have people’s homes been a point of pride? How have people defined or redefined their homes? Their families? How have home spaces reflected safety and protection, or threat and vulnerability? What disruptions to homelife—war, captivity, enslavement, migration, natural disasters—have people faced? What have been the experiences of those without homes, those displaced from their homes, or those who lived in places they might not have considered home? At this year’s conference, we invite New York’s public historians to explore these and other questions relating to the concept of home and its influence on the lives of people throughout our state’s history.  

We invite proposals for workshops, panels, and presentations that explore this theme. Deadline: April 30 2023. The Program Committee will review proposals and respond to all applicants by June 15, 2022.

All presenters will be required to register and pay for the conference. (The only exception will be for presenters attending just their session.)

Please contact Program Committee co-chairs Matt Urtz (matthew.urtz@madisoncounty.ny.gov) and Lauren Roberts (lroberts@saratogacountyny.gov) with questions.

Session Types
Unless otherwise noted, sessions are 75 minutes in length; 15-20 minutes of that should be reserved for discussion.

Panel sessions (75 minutes) are organized around a facilitator/chair and 3–4 presenters. Generally, each panelist speaks for 15 minutes, followed by comment and/or discussion led by the facilitator and time for questions from the audience. Individual presentations should be at least loosely connected by topic or theme.

Skills sessions (75 minutes) are training sessions designed to teach practical skills. This session type is ideal for demonstrating the use of new or innovative tools or techniques.

Workshops are longer, more-focused training sessions in which presenters work directly with participants to teach them a new skill or concept. Workshops may be up to three (3) hours in length. These will be only scheduled on the morning of Monday, September 18. (We will also consider workshops that can be held offsite on the afternoon of Wednesday, September 20.) You may wish to set a limit on the number of attendees to ensure that participants can actively engage and interact with the presenters. Please let us know in your proposal if you would like to charge a modest fee per participant to cover the cost of necessary supplies.)

Individual sessions (45 minutes) allow a single presenter to give a longer, lecture-style talk on a single topic or theme. Sessions are 45 minutes long, including time for questions from the audience.