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2022 VIRGINIA FORUM PROGRAM

Thursday, April 7th

4–6PM: REGISTRATION & TOURS in the ROBINS LOBBY, VA WAR MEMORIAL

5-6PM: Opening Session

“How Will We Look When Man in the Great Future Shall Gaze Back Upon Us?” Comics and Conflict: An Illustrated Account of Faith during the Civil War

Location: Veterans Hall East

Dash Shaw — Independent Artist and Author
Raised as a Quaker in Richmond, Virginia, Dash Shaw is a prolific cartoonist, animator, writer and director. His graphic novel, Discipline, tells the story of a Quaker teen who defies the pacifism of his faith to join the Union Army. Shaw will discuss how he incorporated the words of real Quaker soldiers to convey the harsh experiences of war with historical deference. Civil War era illustrations by Thomas Nast, Winslow Homer, and others influenced the aesthetic style of Discipline. Scenes taking place in Virginia are featured and depict lesser-known parts of the Commonwealth’s history with that brutal war.


7PM: Virginia Forum attendees are welcome to gather on Thursday night, April 7, for a networking social. This is a great opportunity to meet fellow history enthusiasts from around the Commonwealth. Please join us at Canon & Draw where craft beer and food will be available for purchase. Canon & Draw is located at 1529 W. Main St, Richmond, VA 23220

**One panel per session will be livestreamed.**

Friday, April 8th

8AM: Registration opens in Robins Lobby

830–10AM: SESSION I

1. Suzanne Lebsock and Virginia Women’s History: A Retrospective Panel Discussion

Location: Veterans Hall East

Chair: Sandra G. Treadway, Librarian of Virginia, Library of Virginia

  • Elizabeth R. Varon, Williams Prof. of History, University of Virginia

  • Woody Holton, McCausland Prof. of History, University of South Carolina

  • Vanessa M. Holden, Assoc. Prof. of History & African Amer. Studies, Univ. of Kentucky

  • Jennifer Ritterhouse, Professor of History, George Mason University

2. (Re)Naming & Commemorating Virginia Locations

Location: VMI Alumni Hall
Chair: Laura Macaluso, Independent Scholar & Writer

Point Comfort National Emancipation Memorial

  • Steven T. Corneliussen, Independent Scholar

Welcome to the Hometown of Robert E. Lee: How Alexandria Embraced its Confederate Identity in the Mid-20th Century

  • Amy Bertsch, Instructor of History, Northern Virginia Community College

'But they were Christians': White Memory and College Renaming in Martinsville VA

  • Shawn McAvoy, Assoc. Prof. of History & Religious Studies, Patrick Henry CC

10-1015AM: BREAK

Location: Schumann Conference Room and Veterans Hall West

Complimentary coffee, tea, and light snacks.

1015–1145AM: SESSION II

3. Challenging White Narratives and Reclaiming Spaces

Location: Veterans Hall East
Chair: Alphine Jefferson, Prof. of History, Randolph-Macon College
‘They took complete possession of the day and of the city; the highways, the byways, and Capitol Square’: The Politics of Emancipation Celebrations in Virginia in the Early Twentieth Century

  • Evie Terrono, Prof. of Art History, Randolph-Macon College

‘A Different Vision for Richmond’: Urban Revitalization, Public History, and the Reimagining of Space and Race in Richmond, Virginia, 1978–Present

  • Marvin Chiles, Asst. Prof. of History, Old Dominion University

Material Culture, Community Engagement, and BLM Protests in Richmond, Virginia

  • Incoronata (Nadia) Inserra, Asst. Prof. of Focused Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University

4. “Too Much for One Mere Man”: Finding Women at the Polls and on the Campaign Trail

Location: VMI Alumni Hall
Chair: Brent Tarter, Independent Scholar
A Snapshot of Virginia: Looking at Voter Registrations

  • Barbara Batson, Exhibitions Coord., Library of Virginia

‘Many offices in Virginia will be filled by women’: Women Running for Office in the 1920s

  • Mari Julienne, Editor, Dictionary of Virginia Biography

Lynchburg Women in Politics, 1920–1970

  • Ted Dulany, Director, Lynchburg Museum

5. Contested Justice for Virginia Emigrants to Liberia

Location: Russell Scott Hall
Chair: Stephanie J. Richmond, Assoc. Prof. of History, Norfolk State University
The Herndon Appeal: Revealing the Complexities of Antislavery and the Colonization Movement in Virginia

  • Deborah A. Lee, Independent Scholar

Resources for the Virginia Emigrants to Liberia Project

  • Jane E. Ailes, Independent Scholar

Complexity of Emigration Process

  • Worthy N. Martin, Dir., Inst. for Advanced Technology in the Humanities (UVA)

1145AM–130PM: LUNCH

Location: Veterans Art Gallery

Boxed lunches served in the Veterans Art Gallery.


6. Lunch Discussion Session, 1215–115pm

Location: Russell Scott Hall
“The Great Experiment”: Re-Debating the Electoral College in Virtual Reality

  • Kevin Hardwick, Prof. of History, James Madison University

  • Warren Hofstra, Prof. of History, Shenandoah University

  • Mohammad F. Obeid, Dir. Augmented/Virtual Reality, Shenandoah University

  • J. J. Ruscella, Chief Immersive Officer & Executive Vice President, AccessVR


The virtual reality demonstration will be available for viewing throughout the day on Friday.

130–3PM: SESSION III


7. Violence in Virginia’s Past

Location: Veterans Hall East
Chair: Catherine Saunders, Term Prof. of English, George Mason University
A Pestilent and Prevalent Logical Discourse: Violence and Rhetoric in Bacon’s Rebellion

  • Nicholas Mohlmann, Asst. Prof. of English, University of West Florida

‘A Cruel Punishment’: The Story of Martha Ann Banks and Ann Catherine Abrahams

  • Anne Cross, Ph.D. Cand. in Art History, University of Delaware

8. The Great Unmasking: Coming Face to Face with Difficult History Hidden in Plain View

Location: Russell Scott Hall
Chair: David Kiracofe, Prof. of History, Tidewater Community College
Unmasking the Stories of Slavery: Building an Understanding of Early American Material Culture

  • Heidi Campbell-Shoaf, Dir. & Chief Curator, DAR Museum

Unmasking the Truths Behind Acquisitions: We Have the Objects to Tell Marginalized Stories, but Should We Use Them?

  • Bly Straube, Senior Curator at Jamestown Settlement, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

Unmasking Hard Truths: Beyond the Object Labels at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown

  • Kate Egner Gruber, Act. Dir. of Curatorial Services, Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation

9. Finding and Unmasking Women’s Civil War Experiences

Location: VMI Alumni Hall
Chair: Madeleine Forrest Ramsey, Asst. Prof. of History, Virginia Military Institute
Finding the Browns Island Victims

  • Bert Dunkerly, Park Ranger, Richmond National Battlefield Park

Unmasking ‘Mother Crim’: The Rise and Persistence of a Lost Cause Heroine in the Shenandoah Valley

  • Susan Hines, Independent Scholar

Love Letters and Recipes: Women in Civil War Richmond

  • Clara Silverstein, Community Engagement Dir., Historic Newton (MA)

3-315PM: BREAK

Location: Schumann Conference Room and Veterans Hall West

Complimentary coffee, tea, and light snacks.


315-4PM: SHORT SESSIONS

10. ‘When I have More Perfectly Entered into their Secrets, You Shall Know All’

Location: Russell Scott Hall

James R. Adams, Senior Historian, National Museum of the American Indian

​Moderator: Mathias Bergmann, Prof. of History, Randolph-Macon College

11. Disrespecting the Lost Cause: The Revival of the Ku Klux Klan and the White Supremacist Politics of Memorialization

Location: VMI Alumni Hall

Aaron Jacobs, Ph.D. Student in History, Brown University

Moderator: Evie Terrono, Prof. of Art History, Randolph-Macon College

4PM: Virginia Forum Board Meeting

Location: Schumann Conference Room

All are welcome to join this meeting with Virginia Forum Officers and Board members.

530-8PM: Evening Reception and Plenary Session

Location: Veterans Hall

Heavy hor d'oeuvres.

12. "Two Years of Reinvention" Plenary Session
Location
: Veterans Hall
A roundtable discussion about how different leaders in the historic museums field have adjusted and reinvented their organizations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Chair: Dr. Clay Mountcastle — Director, Virginia War Memorial

  • Howard Hoege III — President and CEO, The Mariners’ Museum

  • Robin Wilson von Seldeneck — President and CEO, The Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and Museum

  • Jennifer Hurst-Wender — Director of Museum Operations & Education, Preservation Virginia

Saturday, April 9th

830–10AM: SESSION IV

13. Unmasking 19th-Century Virginians

Location: Russell Scott Hall
Chair: Jennifer Hurst Wender, Dir. of Museum Operations and Education, Preservation Virginia
Unmasking Bushrod Washington’s Life

  • Elizabeth Brand Monroe, Assoc. Prof. of History, Indiana University-PUI

Daniel Dangerfield’s Freedom Story: Unmasking the Underground Railroad in Virginia

  • Deborah A. Lee, Independent Scholar

‘I have been subjected to repeated losses ever since...’: Pardons from Postwar Hanover County VA

  • Shawn McAvoy, Assoc. Prof. of History & Religious Studies, Patrick Henry CC

14. Virginia Community Studies

Location: Veterans Hall East
Chair: Meika Downey, Education Coordinator, Preservation Virginia
Community Development Model for Digital Community Archives

  • Nathan Hall, Dir. of Digital Imaging & Preservation, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Roads, Race, and Retail: Continuity and Change in Short Pump, Virginia

  • Will Tharp, Instructor, Brightpoint Community College


10–1015AM: BREAK

Location: Schumann Conference Room and Veterans Hall West

Complimentary coffee, tea, and light snacks.

1015–1145AM: SESSION V


15. A Discussion of Brent Tarter’s Virginians and Their Histories

Location: Veterans Hall East
Chair: Warren Hofstra, Prof. of History, Shenandoah University

  • John Kneebone, Prof. Emer. of History, Virginia Commonwealth University

  • Nadine Zimmerli, Editor, University of Virginia Press

  • Deborah Lee, Independent Scholar

  • Brent Tarter, Author

16. Virginia Legal History

Location: VMI Alumni Hall
Chair: Jon Kukla, Richmond, VA
An Unexpected Forum for Marginalized Voices: Petitions for Redress and Freedom Suits in Colonial Virginia

  • Jacqueline A. Delisle, Attorney, Brown, Brown, & Young

Lawyers as Historians: Three Early 19th Century Lawyers Collect and Preserve Virginia History

  • R. Neil Hening, Independent Scholar

James Madison, Slavery, and Federalist 54

  • Kevin Hardwick, Prof. of History, James Madison University

17. Desegregating Virginia

Location: Russell Scott Hall
Chair: Brian Daugherity, Assoc. Prof. of History, Virginia Commonwealth University
‘Island of Integration’: The Desegregation of the Women’s Army Corps at Fort Lee, Virginia, 1948–1954

  • Meika Downey, Education Coordinator, Preservation Virginia

‘Am I in Hell?’ – The 1960 Richmond Sit-In, and its Antecedents and Repercussions: The Unmasking of Jim Crow in the Former Confederate Capital

  • Raymond Hylton, Prof. of History, Virginia Union University, and

  • Kimberly A. Matthews, Assoc. Prof. of Interdisciplinary Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University

Pioneering Freedom Schools: Queens College Students’ Tutoring Service for African-American Children in Prince Edward County, Virginia, 1963

  • Miyuki Kita, Professor of International Relations, University of Kitakyushu, Japan

1145AM–130PM: LUNCH

Location: Veterans Art Gallery

Boxed lunches served in the Veterans Art Gallery.


12pm–130pm: Virginia Forum Planning Meeting

Location: Schumann Conference Room
Please join members of the Forum leadership for a discussion of this year’s Forum and future Forums—all are welcomed and encouraged to participate!

130–3PM: SESSION VI


18. Stories of Epidemics and Racial Injustice Found at the Library of Virginia

Location: Russell Scott Hall
Chair: John Deal, Editor, Dictionary of Virginia Biography
How Virginians Confronted Smallpox Epidemics

  • Gregory Crawford, Local Records Program Manager, Library of Virginia

Virginia Untold

  • Lydia Neuroth, Virginia Untold Project Manager, Library of Virginia

Newspaper Coverage of Pandemics

  • Errol Somay, Virginia Newspaper Project Director, Library of Virginia

19. Using Augmented Reality to Explore the History of Slavery at Virginia Tech

Location: Veterans Hall East
Chair: Todd Ogle, Exec. Dir. Immersive Environments & Simulations, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Technology, Transdisciplinary Teamwork, and Truth-Telling

  • Paul Quigley, Robertson Prof. of Civil War Studies, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

  • Todd Ogle, Exec. Dir. Immersive Environments & Simulations, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Exploring Augmented Reality with Approaches that Humanize the Subjects: Commemorating Lives versus Giving Life

  • Kerri Moseley-Hobbs, Exec. Dir., More Than A Fraction Foundation

Campus History through Oral and Digital History

  • Jessica Taylor, Asst. Prof. of Public History, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

  • Ren Harmon, Proj. Manager VT Stories, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Navigating the ‘Burden of Historical Representation’ within an Augmented Reality Exploration of Slavery at Virginia Tech

  • David Hicks, Prof. of Education, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

20. Northern Virginia is Just Different (Or Is It?): Past and Present

Location: VMI Alumni Hall
Chair: George D. Oberle III, Dir., Center for Mason Legacies, George Mason University

  • LaNitra Berger, Senior Director of Fellowships, George Mason University

  • Steven Harris-Scott, Asst. Prof. of Humanities and History, George Mason University

  • Sheri Ann Huerta, Adj. Prof. of History and Art History, George Mason University

2022 Hosting & Logistics Committee:
Dr. Clay Mountcastle, Committee Chair, Virginia War Memorial Foundation

Stephanie Saavedra, Virginia War Memorial Foundation

2022 Program Committee:

Dr. Mathias D. Bergmann, Committee Chair, Randolph-Macon College

Dr. Marvin T. Chiles, Old Dominion University

Dr. Madeleine Forrest Ramsey, Virginia Military Institute
Dir. Jennifer Hurst Wender, Preservation Virginia

Dr. Alphine W. Jefferson, Randolph-Macon College

Dr. Kenneth White, Highland Springs High School

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