The Society for Military History

Calls for Papers and Panels

CALL FOR PRESENTERS
Calling all scholars of World War II: the Second World War Research Group, North America (SWWRGNA) (https://www.swwresearch.com) promotes scholarly work on the long global Second World War internationally. We still have opportunities to present research in progress at our monthly zoom reading group in 2025-2026.

Those who have unpublished original research on any aspect of World War II on which they would like feedback, or who would like to join the virtual reading group, should contact SWWRGNA co-directors Mary Kathryn Barbier and Jadwiga Biskupska at swwresearchgroupna@gmail.com. 

CALL FOR PAPERS
War College of the Seven Years’ War at Fort Ticonderoga
May 16-18, 2026

While 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the American colonies’ declaration of independence, the legacy of the Seven Years’ War was never far from people’s minds. The American Revolution cemented intra-colonial ties proposed during events like the Albany Congress in 1754. Bonds from shared service in the Seven Years’ War were torn apart by the Revolution and alliances between colonial, European, and Native American individuals and societies were strained, frayed, and ruptured as the order established in 1763 was profoundly altered. To explore the events of the Seven Years’ War and their repercussions, including the later American Revolution, Fort Ticonderoga seeks proposals for papers broadly addressing the period the Seven Years’ War for its Thirtieth Annual War College of the Seven Years’ War to be held May 16-18, 2026.

We seek new research and perspectives of one of the most important military and political events of its era, covering a diverse range of topics and perspectives from across the global Seven Years’ War. We welcome paper proposals from established scholars in addition to graduate students, museum professionals, archaeologists, and others that relate to the origins, conduct, and legacy of the Seven Years’ War. We are especially interested in topics and approaches that engage the international nature of the conflict as well as representing the variety of peoples and places involved.

We welcome interdisciplinary approaches and perspectives covering the period from at least the 1740s to the 1760s. Papers may include or engage:
 
·      Material Culture
·      Biographical Analysis
·      Campaign Histories
·      Archaeological Investigations
·      Cultural, Social, and Political Ramifications
·      Indigenous Populations

Sessions are 30 minutes in length followed by 10 minutes for audience questions. Fort Ticonderoga may provide speakers with partial travel reimbursement. Please submit a 300 word abstract and CV by email by July 31, 2026 to Richard M. Strum, Director of Academic Programs: rstrum@fort-ticonderoga.org.

CALL FOR PAPERS - DEADLINE EXTENDED TO MAY 30TH
The Kansas State University Department of History and The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum would like to announce this year’s Flint Hills Military History Symposium, which will take place from November 7 to 9, 2025. Our theme is military leadership. The event will occur on the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum campus and in the Kansas State University Student Union. The Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library and Museum will host panels and events on November 7, with the remainder of the symposium occurring at the Kansas State University Student Union on November 8 and 9.

Some have observed that a team is only as good as its leader. This statement has been proven time and time again in athletics, the workplace, and most prominently on the battlefield. At the 2025 Flint Hills Military History Symposium, presenters and attendees will explore how civilian and military leadership has shaped and continues to influence warfare. Topics may include but are not limited to, why leaders succeed and fail, how battlefield leadership influences success, changing definitions of leadership throughout time, why being a good leader or a bad leader is not a predetermination for success or failure, how technology aids or hinders leadership in war, and how military leadership transitions into the civilian world?

Topics for presentations and panels are not limited to modern warfare; presentations about all historical periods and regions will be considered.

Please submit abstracts to flinthillsmilitary@fastmail.com by May 30, 2025.

Those whose papers are accepted for the symposium will receive information about lodging, food, and the event.

Registration opens via flinthillsmilitary.com on June 13, 2025. The registration fee is $25.

CALL FOR PAPERS - DEADLINE EXTENDED
Society for Military History Panels at the 60th Northern Great Plains History Conference

The 60th Annual Northern Great Plains History Conference will be held 17-20 September 2025 in Mankato, Minnesota. The Society for Military History sponsors a full slate of sessions at the NGPHC, and proposals for all types of military history papers are welcomed. Both individual proposals and session proposals are encouraged. For individuals, send a cv and short one-page proposal. For sessions, send a one-page session proposal, a short one-page proposal for each paper, and short cvs for all participants. Deadline for proposals is 30 May 2025. Send proposals, cvs and inquiries to Dr. Mike Burns at smhatngphc@gmail.com, and please cc Mr. George Eaton at smhatmvhc@gmail.com. If you would like to volunteer to chair a panel or comment, please contact Mike and George. Please note that all SMH at NGPHC communication must go to and will come from Mr. Eaton at smhatmvhc@gmail.com after 4 April 2025.

For non-SMH sponsored panels, you can send proposals to NGPHC2025@gmail.com by 5 April 2025, indicating “NGPHC” in the subject line. For additional information on the conference, you can visit ngphconference.org.

The Society for Military History sponsors the SMH award for the best graduate student paper in Military History at NGPHC. This prize is valued at $400 dollars. For information on competing for this prize please send inquiries to Mike Burns.

In addition to the panels, the conference will hold a luncheon for SMH participants and attendees and the SMH will again be sponsoring a reception either Thursday or Friday evening, 18 or 19 September. Hope you can make it to Mankato!

CALL FOR PAPERS
The LBJ Presidential Library and Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library are inviting emerging scholars to submit a presentation abstract to be a featured speaker during the National Archives & Records Administration's first annual Vietnam War Symposium, held on September 24th - 25th, 2025.

For the purposes of these submissions, the term emerging scholars includes, but is not strictly limited to: PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career faculty.

The symposium's theme is "Forgotten Humanity: The Personal Stories of the Vietnam War."

This symposium seeks to explore stories of the war not related to combat strategy and tactics. Our goal is to enhance the future of Vietnam War scholarship by examining the human experience and showcasing new and emerging scholars. Presentations might examine, for example, the everyday realities of service in Vietnam, relations between Americans and Vietnamese, veterans’ experiences after returning from Vietnam, and the literature, film, and music of the war.

Each scholars' program is scheduled for one hour. The guest speaker will present their topic for approximately 40 minutes allowing time for audience participation and questions at the end. Each program also includes a Scholar Spotlight where we get to know a little bit more about each of the up-and-coming scholars.

Submission packets should include the presentation abstract, applicant contact information, education status, and academic goals summary. Email submission packets to the National Archives care of richard.weld@nara.gov with the subject line "Vietnam Symposium" no later than May 30, 2025. Selected participants will be notified by July 4, 2025, and will receive a modest honorarium for their participation.

CALL FOR PAPERS
Material Matters: It’s in the Details
January 24, 2026

The vast majority of participants in the military events of the long 18th century left no written traces of themselves. Fortunately for scholars, and the public, evidence of their presence survives in material form. From the arms they carried, to the archaeological evidence of their presence, the material experience of soldiering extensively survives if we look carefully. Often seen as mementos or souvenirs of war, or as distinct areas of avocational collecting, military material culture is pervasive, yet understudied, as a rich body of material culture.

However, “military material culture” is not limited to the weapons men wielded or the uniforms they wore. The dense networks of manufacturing supporting early modern militaries connected civilians across the world and expands our definition of this area of study. Furthermore, militaries left their impact on societies through the appropriation and re-use of materials, as well as physically on landscapes shaped by the presence, or absence, of soldiers. Thus, material culture provides a unique and compelling way to engage with topics and individuals for which no written sources survive.

The Fort Ticonderoga Museum seeks papers relating broadly to material culture made, used, or altered in a military context. From soldier’s encounters with domestic furnishings on campaign, to the weapons designed and built for battle. We are seeking new research from established scholars in addition to graduate students, professionals, and artisans that relate to material culture made, used, or altered in a military context between roughly 1609-1815. Papers may engage but are not limited to:
 
·       Objects made for military purposes
·       Civilian objects used in military contexts
·       Archeological research into sites of military occupation
·       Ephemeral material cultures such as food or fuel
·       Military material culture crossing cultural, national, and geographic lines
·       Construction and fabrication of material culture
·       Craft, trade, experimental archeology, or living history perspectives on material culture
·       Art and representations of material culture in military contexts

This conference takes place online, using Zoom Webinars, on Saturday, January 24, 2026. Sessions are 30 minutes in length, followed by 10 minutes for audience questions. Traditional illustrated papers, combined with live or recorded videos of trade practice or object analysis, will all be accepted for consideration. Fort Ticonderoga may provide speakers with an honorarium. Please submit a 300-word abstract and CV by email by July 1, 2025 to Richard M. Strum, Director of Academic Programs: rstrum@fort-ticonderoga.org

CALL FOR PRESENTERS
The Second World War Research Group, North America (SWWRGNA) is dedicated to promoting scholarly work on the long global Second World War. We have some slots open for chapter- or article-length (unpublished) work to present at our monthly Zoom reading group in 2024-2025. Those who are interested in presenting or who would like to join the SWWRGNA should contact the co-directors Mary Kathryn Barbier and Jadwiga Biskupska at swwresearchgroupna@gmail.com. All topics and methodologies on the history of the war, and graduate students, independent, and military-affiliated scholars are always welcome.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Home Front Studies is calling for article submissions. Published by the University of Nebraska Press, this interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal explores the concept of the home front, broadly considered, in times of war, civil war, and similar conflicts from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Its interests include the roles of art, discrimination, finance, gender, identity, literature, music, morale, propaganda, race, and/or sexuality as experienced by civilians on home fronts in locations around the world. Its interdisciplinary editorial board is open to submissions from across the humanities.

All submissions must be original, unpublished, and not under review elsewhere. HFS welcomes manuscripts of up to 9,000 words, inclusive of endnotes. Prepare contributions in accordance with the most recent edition of the Chicago Manual of Style, using humanities-style endnote citations.

HFS uses Editorial Manager to process submissions at this page: https://nebraskapressjournals.unl.edu/journal/home-front-studies/. Please direct any questions about manuscripts in development to the journal’s editor, James J. Kimble (james.kimble@shu.edu).

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Announcing a New Series from Naval Institute Press
Studies in Marine Corps History and Amphibious Warfare
William A. Taylor, Series Editor
 
This series advances understanding of Marine Corps history and amphibious warfare by publishing original scholarship across a broad spectrum of innovative studies. The series analyzes an extensive array of vital aspects of the Marine Corps, amphibious warfare, and their collective role in global security, including battles, leaders, strategy, operations, tactics, doctrine, technology, personnel, organization, and culture. Incorporating both historical and contemporary perspectives, this series publishes important literature about the Marine Corps and significant works relevant to amphibious warfare that span the globe, feature diverse methodologies, and reach general audiences. As a result, the series provides a professional home, central venue, and premier destination for the best and newest research on Marine Corps history and amphibious warfare.

William A. Taylor is the holder of the Lee Drain Endowed University Professorship, previous department chair, and award-winning professor of global security studies at Angelo State University in San Angelo, Texas. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, he holds an MA degree in history from the University of Maryland, an MA degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University, and MPhil and PhD degrees in history from George Washington University. Taylor is the author or editor of four books, including Military Service and American Democracy (University Press of Kansas) and Every Citizen a Soldier (Texas A&M University Press).

Send inquiries and proposals to william.taylor@angelo.edu.

CALL FOR BOOK PROPOSALS
New Series – Vernon Press Series in Classical Studies

Vernon Press invites proposals on the history, literature, art, philosophy, political or social structures, religion, languages, or archaeology of the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations for its new Series in Classical Studies.

The classics are the earliest branch of the humanities, with a long history of scholarly value, but the field continues to evolve. The past two decades have seen exciting developments in key research areas, especially material culture, reception studies and gender studies. The books in this series will examine such growth areas, while also being open to more traditional approaches.

Comprising edited volumes, co-authored books and single-author monographs, the series will be useful for senior researchers, scholars and practitioners with an interest in this field of study, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate students.

To receive more information about submitting a proposal or to discuss your idea, please contact James McGovern: james.mcgovern@vernonpress.com

Information also available on: https://vernonpress.com/proposal/47/24ac37c606272b4a01c1bcc8b4b15627

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS
From Balloons to Drones

Established in 2016, From Balloons to Drones is an online platform that seeks to provide analysis and debate about air power history, theory, and contemporary operations in their broadest sense including space and cyber power. Air power is to be understood broadly, encompassing not only the history of air warfare, including social and cultural aspects but also related fields such as archaeology, international relations, strategic studies, law and ethics.

Since its emergence during the First World War, air power has increasingly become the preferred form of military power for many governments. However, the application and development of air power is controversial and often misunderstood. To remedy this, From Balloons to Drones seeks to provide analysis and debate about air power through the publication of articles, research notes, commentary and book reviews.

From Balloons to Drones welcomes and encourages potential submissions from postgraduates, academics, and practitioners involved in researching the subject of air power. Submissions can take the following forms:

• Articles – From Balloons to Drones publishes informative articles on air power that range from historical pieces to the analysis of contemporary challenges. These well-researched articles should attempt to bridge a gap between the specialist and non-specialist reader. They should be around c.1,000 to 1,500 words, though From Balloons to Drones will accept larger pieces and we reserve the right to publish them in parts.
• Air War Books – From Balloons to Drones publishes a series of review articles that examine the top ten books that have influenced writers on air power.
• Commentaries – From Balloons to Drones publishes opinion pieces on recent news on either contemporary or historical subjects. These should be no longer than c.1,000 words.
• Research Notes – From Balloons to Drones publishes research notes related to contributor’s current research projects. These take the form of more informal pieces and can be a discussion of a source or a note on a recent research theme. These should be c.500 to 1,000 words.
• Book Reviews – From Balloons to Drones publishes occasional book reviews that aim to be an accessible collection of appraisals of recent publications about air power.

CALL FOR ARTICLES
International Bibliography of Military History
of the International Commission of Military History
Published by Brill (Leiden and Boston)

In existence since 1978, the International Bibliography of Military History (IBMH) has traditionally published historiographical articles, review articles, and book reviews. Since its recent move to Brill, however, it has been undergoing a transformation into a fully-fledged military history journal. As a next step in this process, the portfolio will be enlarged to include also original research articles.

The IBMH thus invites scholars to submit articles on any military historical topic that can appeal to an international readership, e.g. a topic involving more than one nation and, preferably, based on multi-archival research. There is no chronological limitation. The journal publishes articles ranging from antiquity to the contemporary period, as long as the research method is historical.

The articles should be based extensively on primary research, not have been published in another form or outlet, and not currently be considered by another journal. The submitted work should be between 8,000 and 10,000 words (including footnotes), and be thoroughly referenced. For further information on style and referencing, please visit the journal’s website.

Submitted articles will – after a first editorial screening – be sent out for peer-review (double-blind). This process, from submission to decision, normally takes six to eight weeks. Please submit your article directly to the Scientific Editor, Dr Marco Wyss (m.wyss@chi.ac.uk), who is also available for any potential preliminary queries.

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
The Council on America’s Military (CAMP) past is calling for papers for its Journal. We welcome submissions of interesting, original articles on American military history, especially topics that deal with significant sites (which could include installations, battlefields, ships and airplanes).  We also welcome articles on biography and historic preservation, especially if they are related to particular sites.  Maps and photos are strongly encouraged.  We ask that authors submit manuscripts by e-mail to our editors, using a system that is compatible with Microsoft Word.  The length of the articles that we publish varies roughly between 2,500 and 7,500 words.  The author is responsible for obtaining permission to publish any copyrighted material, and for bearing the costs of obtaining or reproducing illustrations. Interested parties should refer to the CAMP website or contact the editor, Vincent Rospond at EditorJamp@yahoo.com.

A non-profit educational association, CAMP was founded in 1966, representing diverse professions from historians to archeologists, museologists to architects, engineers to authors, active and retired military of all ranks, genealogists to archivists, and just plain hobbyists, the Council on America’s Military Past has only one requirement for membership: commitment to its objectives.

Its focus is on the places and things from America’s military past, and their stories. CAMP looks to all types of military and naval posts, from stockade forts of early New England to adobe presidios of the Southwest, from temporary camps and battlegrounds of a military on the move, to elaborate coastal defense installations along America’s coastlines. For CAMP, old ships and airplanes are also posts.

The Journal of America’s Military Past is a scholarly publication with interesting, illustrated articles on historic posts and battlefields and their people. The journal includes a robust book review section that, by itself, makes it worth reading. It is published three times a year.