2026 Graduate Student Forum – Colonial Society of Massachusetts
Graduate students preparing original research on any area of early American history (up to 1815) at both the M.A. and Ph.D. levels are invited to submit proposals for the Colonial Society of Massachusetts's annual Graduate Student Forum. They will discuss their work with between six and ten peers from other universities and with the Colonial Society's members at our Beacon Hill house (87 Mount Vernon Street). Presenters invited to Boston will have all travel expenses reimbursed and will be provided accommodations in Boston.
The Forum will begin on Thursday afternoon, May 21, with a tour of the house, a reception, and dinner. We will meet all day on Friday, May 22, to share and discuss graduate student presentations. The event will conclude on Friday afternoon with remarks on the presentations from our honored guest speaker, Professor Karin Wulf, Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library and Professor of History at Brown University. Presenters should plan to present a major finding from their research anchored in the relevant historiography.
How to Submit a Proposal: Submissions must include a paper proposal and current CV. Proposals, not to exceed four double-spaced pages (including notes), should describe the larger historiographical intervention the presenters seek to make with their research as well as the specific finding, question, and/or sources they hope to share during the Forum.
Though the selection committee may give preference to New England topics, we are open to hearing from researchers whose work extends throughout early North America. The committee is especially eager to hear from researchers—historians as well as scholars from allied disciplines—whose work sheds new light on the diverse peoples of early New England and/or work that puts early New England history in conversation with that of other places and peoples. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, we particularly encourage submissions that engage with the Revolutionary era and its enduring legacies. Applications may be submitted at https://ColonialSociety.short.gy/2026 and are due by noon Eastern time on Friday, February 20th, 2026.
Programs for Graduate Student Forums from 2009 through 2025 may be downloaded at the links below.