Tentative Conference Program
All details are subject to change.
ROUNDTABLES
“Municipal History in the Digital Age”
Moderator: Lauren Roberts, Saratoga County Historian
Matt Urtz, Madison County Historian
Amy Kasuga Folk, Southold Town Historian
Mary Cascone, Babylon Town Historian
“Flight of the Dodos? The Challenges of Academic History in the Era of Declining Enrollments and the ‘Collapse’ of the Humanities”
Devin R. Lander, New York State Historian
Ryan M. Irwin, University at Albany
Alexander Dawson, University at Albany
Maeve Kane, University at Albany
Christopher Pastore, University at Albany
“Preparing for the 200 Year Anniversary of the Erie Canal in Upstate New York”
Moderator: Christian Goodwillie, Director and Curator of Special Collections at the Burke Library of Hamilton College
David Bolingbroke, Associate Historian with the Research and Outreach Division of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ Church History Department
S.B. Rodríguez-Plate, Hamilton College
Derrick Pratt, Erie Canal Museum
Thomas A. Guiler, Director of Museum Affairs, Oneida Community Mansion House
“History and Tourism: Perfect Together”
Moderator: Devin Lander, New York State Historian
Lauren Roberts, Saratoga County Historian and Saratoga 250
Bob Provost, Executive Director of the NYS Tourism Industry Association
Natasha Caputo, Director of Tourism and Film, Westchester County
PANELS
“Artifact NY: Women’s History in Objects”
Moderator: Ashley Hopkins-Benton, New York State Museum
Monica L. Mercado, Colgate University
Jennifer Lemak, New York State Museum
Tamar W. Carroll, Rochester Institute of Technology
Emily Stegner, Oneida Community Mansion House
“The Grand Erie Canal: Precedents, Growth and Preservation”
Moderator: Patrick Stenshorn, Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor
David Brooks, Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site
Derrick Pratt, Erie Canal Museum
Brad L. Utter, New York State Museum
“Constructing Community: Resilience on the Margins in New York History”
Moderator: Gabrielle McCoy, University of South Carolina
Edward Paulino, City University of New York, “Community Memory of Latin American Immigration to New York City and Latino Diasporic Memory through Statues in New York”
Jennifer Jones Marler, University of South Carolina, “Self-Emancipation and Spatial Freedom in Revolutionary Era New York, 1776-1783”
Emma Kistner, Goucher College, “Re-Constructing Polonia: The Survival of Polish-American Buffalo During Suburbanization”
“Constructing Cultures of Gender and Identity in New York State”
Moderator: Lauren Kozakiewicz, University at Albany
Kelly Marino, Sacred Heart University, “The League of Women Voters and the Legacy of the Women’s Movement during the ‘Inter-Wave’ Years”
Taylor Mason, University of Maryland, “‘F’ is for Feminism”: Social Conflict and Sesame Street”
Holland Schmitz, University of Maryland, “Constructing the Sapphic City: Lesbian Bar Culture in Postwar New York and Lesbian Pulp Novels in Postwar America”
“Uncovering the Underground Railroad on the Niagara Frontier: Archives, Archaeology, and Black Agency”
Moderator: Ally Spongr DeGon, Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center,
Judith Wellman, Principal Investigator, Historical New York Research Associates, and Professor Emerita, SUNY Oswego, “Black Waiters at the Cataract House”
Karolyn Smardz Frost, historian, archaeologist, and award-winning author, “Cecelia Jane Reynolds and her Escape from the Cataract House”
Douglas J. Perrelli, Anthropology Department, SUNY, Buffalo, “Public Archaeology at the Cataract House”
Yao Kahlil Newkirk, Artistic Director, Black Feather Theatre Company, and SUNY Buffalo, "The Cataract House and the National Park Service's Network to Freedom”
“Innovative Women in New York State History”
Moderator: Laura Dull Professor of Secondary Education, Social Studies, SUNY New Paltz
Susan Ingalls Lewis, SUNY New Paltz, Emerita, “The Entrepreneurial Innovations of Self-made Businesswomen in New York City, 1909-1969”
Shannon Butler, Poughkeepsie Public Library District, “'The Lady Doctor will see you now': Early Female Physicians in Poughkeepsie”
“HistoryForge: A Digital Mapping and Demography Tool for Exploring Local History”
Eve Snyder, The History Center in Tompkins County
Marietta Carr, Schenectady County Historical Society
Pat Gosda, Niskayuna School District (retired)
“Deconstructing the Empire's Carceral State: Innovation and Imagination from The Upstate New York Policing Research Consortium”
Moderator: Frankie Bailey, University at Albany
Laura Warren Hill, Binghamton University, “The Upstate New York Policing Research Consortium”
Andrew J. Pragacz, State University New York Cortland, “The War on Drugs in Upstate New York (1980-2000)”
Delaney Painter, Binghamton University, “Creating the UNY-PRC Digital Archive”
Carissa Bayack, Binghamton University, “Limits of the State Archive: Freddie Peacock and the Critical Role of Primary Sources in Exoneree Research”
Joshua Fishkin, Binghamton University, “Collective Bargaining and the Rochester Police, 1974-2024”
“Expanding the Narrative of the Erie Canal”
Moderator: Will Pedigo, WMHT
Catherine Rafferty, WMHT
Renée Barry, Erie Canal Museum
Steph Adams, Erie Canal Museum
“Conflicting Constructions of Americanism in Early Twentieth Century New York State”
Moderator: Richard Hamm, University at Albany
Sebastian Garcia, University of Central Florida, “‘To Be a Good Catholic, You Cannot Be a Good American”: Radio Broadcasting and Ethnic Politics in New York, 1926-1929”
Diana C. Gildea, Lund University, “We are “American” Family: Social Reproduction and Cheap Enough Labor in the Southern Tier (1900-1930)”
Harvey Strum, Russell Sage College, “The Albany Four”
“Commerce, Technology, and Culture in the Nineteenth Century Hudson Valley”
Moderator: Chris Pryslopski, Hudson River Valley Institute at Marist University
Amanda Berman, J. Paul Getty Museum, “Culture and Commerce: The Artists’ Fund Society Erie Canal Excursion”
Stephen Mercier, Marist University, “John Burroughs’s ‘Our River’: Natural Beauty, Recreation, and Commerce on The Hudson River in the late Nineteenth Century”
Bill Merchant, D&H Canal Historical Society, “The D&H Canal and Gravity Railroad, Nineteenth Century Engine of Prosperity”
“Constructing History from the Archives: New Sources and Black History in New York”
Moderator: Michael Boston, SUNY Brockport
Michael Monescalchi, Rutgers University, “Teaching the Archive of the 1793 Albany Arson Plot”
Nicholas Webb, New York Medical College in Valhalla, “The Education of Black Physicians in Greater New York, 1865-1918”
Shu Wan, University at Buffalo, “Unended Educational Segregation in the Rust Belt: Arthur v. Nyquist”
“Utopian New York”
Moderator: Devin Lander, New York State Historian
Paul Lubienecki, Boland Center for the Study of Labor and Religion, “The Community of True Inspiration at Eben-Ezer”
Roger Panetta, Fordham University, Emeritus, “The Founding of Sing Sing Prison as a Utopian Scheme”
Scott White, Dominican University New York, “Shanks Village and the Start of Rockland Suburbia”
“Craft, Community, and Enterprise in the Empire State”
Moderator: Jennifer Lemak, New York State Museum
Moira Fitzgibbons and Max Moughan, Marist University, “Comics and Community at Western Printing in Poughkeepsie”
Christian Vischi, Chenango County Historical Society, “Stitched Together: A History of the Norwich Knitting Company and Walt Disney”
EDUCATOR WORKSHOPS
“Innovations in Civics Instruction: New Approaches for New York State”
Allyson Schettino, The New York Historical
“Urban Renewal in the Classroom”
David Hochfelder, University at Albany, SUNY
“Step Into the Past: Uncover the Erie Canal Mystery Through History”
Doreen Pietrantoni, Monroe One BOCES
“History Even Happens Here?: Infusing Local Connections into Your Curriculum”
Holly Marcolina, SUNY Potsdam
“Consider the ‘Why’: Historic Sites Practices for Civic Engagement
Myriah Martin, SUNY Empire State University
“Erie Canal’s Pathway”
Marisa Gitto, Office of Cultural Education, New York State Library
Jacqueline Stapleton, Office of Cultural Education, Public Broadcasting
BONUS SESSIONS
“Fire History in the Empire State”
Moderator: Brad Utter, New York State Museum
David Rocco, The Fireboat McKean Preservation Project, “Historic Fireboats in New York State and the United States”
Jacob McElroy, University of Maryland, “The NFPA Committee on Safety to Life: Another Legacy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911”
Tour of Fire Engine Hall by Brad Utter, New York State Museum
LIGHTNING ROUND
Connor Hu-Jae Mulvaney, Syracuse University, “The Fabric of Time: Chinese Immigrant Labor in New York’s Garment District”
Clanci Jo Conover, SPIRITS Museum, “Dr. Santomee Pieters, America’s First Black Physician”
Jery Huntley, OurStoryBridge, “OurStoryBridge: An Oral History Methodology and Collection NYS Historians Should Know About”
Mary Liz Stewart & Paul Stewart, Underground Railroad Education Center, “Looking Forward: Building on New York State's Support of Innovation, Environment, and Imagination”
Patricia Salmon, Friends of Olmsted-Beil House, “An Enduring Advancement in Transportation: The Staten Island Ferry”
