HOTCUS

📣The Call for Papers for our 2026 Winter Symposium, The American Nation in the Twentieth Century: The Declaration of Independence at 250, is now open

University of Liverpool, 27 February 2026

The American Nation in the Twentieth Century: The Declaration of Independence at 250, will be held at the University of Liverpool on 27 February 2026.

Submit a single document with a 250-word abstract, and one page CV (panel proposals to include overview + individual abstracts and CVs) to events.hotcus@gmail.com
by Wednesday 10 December 2025 (or, better still, earlier).

Full details on our website: hotcus.org.uk

We invite individual paper and panels that consider how Americans have drawn upon the Declaration of Independence to articulate new understandings of belonging, sovereignty, and democracy, and how these debates have shaped the historical imagination in or about the twentieth-century United States.

📣The Call for Papers for our 2026 Winter Symposium, The American Nation in the Twentieth Century: The Declaration of Independence at 250, is now open

University of Liverpool, 27 February 2026

The 2025–2026 HOTCUS Mentoring Scheme is now open!

If you work in 20th C US history and would like to have an academic mentor — or serve as one — please register your interest by 3 November 2025.

More info and registration below 👇

2025 PGR/ECR Workshop — British American Nineteenth Century Historians

Calling all PGRs/ECRs 📣

In collaboration with @hotcus.bsky.social we are hosting a workshop at the Rothermere Americation Institute this November!

Participants can meet other junior scholars, get feedback on works-in-progress, and take part in academic publishing and ‘viva survivor’ sessions 💪📚

We are looking for institutions to host our Winter Symposium and Annual Conference in 2027

Things usually quiet down over the summer, but we are looking to welcome members for our future events in 2026, all of which you can see advertised on our website or here on Bluesky as they come up. hotcus.org.uk

Lastly HOTCUS members Fabian Hilfrich, @calebwoodall.bsky.social and Emma Long delivered their well-received panel Revisiting Race, Gender, and Religion in Wars during the Long 20th Century at @shafrhistorians.bsky.social's conference chaired by our membership secretary @lizingleson.bsky.social

2. @lucyekelly.bsky.social , working on ““I want to fight the fight. I want my rightful place”: Queer Worldmaking in the American South, 1970-2000”
3. @paula-murphy.bsky.social , working on “‘Whatever Happened to Unity?’ Co-Curation and Resistance in Hip-Hop’s First Decade”

HOTCUS also announced the winners of the HOTCUS Research Awards to the following 3 recipients:
1. Sophie Stanford, working on “Restorative Justice or Cold War Manipulation?: Situating Redress for Japanese Internment Within the Context of International Geopolitics During the Reagan Administration”

You can read Tom's article in the Journal of American Studies, and can consult the Article Prize committee's commendation on the HOTCUS website at hotcus.org.uk/awards/artic...

At the conference, we were pleased to announce that HOTCUS 2025 ECR article prize was awarded to@thomascryer.bsky.social for his article “‘A False Picture of Negro Progress’: John Hope Franklin, Racial Liberalism, and the Political (Mis)uses of Black History during the 1963 Emancipation Centennial.”

Professor Andrew Preston's insightful keynote on his new book Total Defense: The New Deal and the Invention of National Security was welcomed, as were his asides (and primary documents) into the founding of HOTCUS way back in 2007.

It's been an eventful month for us, so here's some news about what we have been up to.

First, our annual conference gathered scholars from across Europe and the Americas to discuss 20th century US history. A special thanks goes to our Events Sec Megan Hunt for her tireless efforts to HOTCUS!

First time presenting at @shafrhistorians.bsky.social this week. Very happy to have presented with such brilliant historians on the @hotcus.bsky.social panel: “Revisiting Race, Gender, and Religion in Wars during the Long Twentieth Century.”

Absolutely delighted to receive this award that will support my research trip to New York! Massive thanks to @hotcus.bsky.social 🙌🏼

The cover of the 19867 TTRPG The Price of Freedom, overlaid with a big yellow star containing the words 'The Price of Freedom is $19.95!', followed by the sub-title 'INVASION, APOCALYPSE, AND TABLETOP ROLEPLAYING GAMES IN RONALD REAGAN'S AMERICA'.

1) Last week was the 2025 @hotcus.bsky.social conference, and a great time was had by all! I presented a narrow slice of my ongoing research into the Cold War and RPGs, specifically and narrowly focusing on The Price of Freedom (1986). I was slightly taken aback by how positively it was received.

excellent few days at the @hotcus.bsky.social conference in lancaster! got some excellent feedback on my chapter at the pgr/ecr workshop with andrew preston, met a series of very lovely people, and, most importantly, got this sweet mug. had a blast at my first hotcus and will be back!

I had an amazing time presenting alongside these brilliant academics on gender and modern American conservatism at the HOTCUS annual conference! @hotcus.bsky.social

Had a great time presenting my research at @hotcus.bsky.social’s Annual Conference in Lancaster this week!

Coming up next week - June 26-28, 2025, the annual conference of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (#SHAFR) @shafrhistorians.bsky.social in Arlington, VA, check out this amazing program, honored to a part @oah.org @h-diplo.bsky.social 🗃️ www.shafr.org/assets/docs/...

Time for my paper at the @hotcus.bsky.social 2025 Annual Conference! 🇺🇸🗃️

We are here for the last day of #HOTCUS2025, and still thinking through Professor Andrew Preston's thoughtful keynote of the emergence of national security.

HOTCUS 2025 programme

Time for Day 2 of the @hotcus.bsky.social 2025 conference. Lots of exciting panels and sessions to come today 🇺🇸

We are looking forward to kicking things off after lunch for #HOTCUS2025 at Lancaster with our PG/ECR workshop led by Professor Andrew Preston! All the details at hotcus.org.uk/events/annua...

A small preview of the research we will be enjoying soon at Lancaster for the HOTCUS Annual Conference 2025! Check it out at hotcus.org.uk/events/annua...

🚨Registration for Annual Conference is open!🚨
Taking place at the University of Lancaster from 18-20 June, we have now opened registration for the HOTCUS Annual Conference. Full details and links for registration and schedule are available on our website hotcus.org.uk/events/annua... Please share!

@officialbaas.bsky.social @branchuk.bsky.social

All positions are open, but we are especially keen for members to nominate themselves for Events Secretary. Working on the Committee is an excellent way to give back to the American history community and to shape the direction of our field, so get your nominations in and please share!

Committee Elections

🚨HOTCUS Committee Elections!🚨
It's that time of the year, when the HOTCUS Committee step down and we invite members to nominate themselves for one of the positions.The deadline for nominations is Friday May 23rd at 17:00 (BST), and all the information is on the website. hotcus.org.uk/about-hotcus...