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History as Dialogue

2025 ANNUAL MEETING

Thursday, May 29 — Friday, May 30, 2025

Registration is now open! 

The Final Program is now available


Library of Congress
James Madison Memorial Building
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington, DC 20540


History as Dialogue

The process of producing federal history rarely results from individuals working alone. Instead, history is a collaborative process that involves professionals reaching out across disciplines, integrating skills and experiences in creative ways. This occurs within organizations, but also between federal agencies, educational institutions, and in dialogue with the public.

This year’s SHFG conference will explore the ways in which federal historians, curators, archivists, editors, administrators, contractors, and other professionals make federal history across boundaries and in collaboration with colleagues and with the public. We will discuss both the challenges this brings and the benefits of creating projects about and within the federal government.

Thursday, May 29

8:00 am

Registration Opens (Light Breakfast)

 Dining Room C

9:00-10:30 am

Session 1: Plenary


The Current State of Federal History

Montpelier Room

Felicia Wivchar, President, SHFG

SHFG Executive Council


10:30-10:45 am

BREAK

10:45 am -12:15 pm

Session 2 

 Panel 1

Montpelier Room

Panel 1: To Serve the Country and the 54: History in the National Guard 

Montpelier Room

Chair/Moderator: Elizabeth Borja, National Guard Bureau, History Office

Andrew Hargroder, Historian, National Guard Bureau, History Office

Richard Clark, National Guard Bureau, History Office

Blair Haworth, Air National Guard History Office

Joseph Miller, National Guard Bureau, History Office

Julie Shively, Maryland National Guard

Miranda Summers Lowe, National Guard Bureau, History Office


Panel 2

Dining Room A

Panel 2: Communicating History's Importance to the Federal Government and the Public 

Dining Room A

Alexandra Levy, American Historical Association

Daniel S. Holt, U.S. Senate Historical Office

Mark Folse, U.S. Army Center of Military History


Panel 3

West Dining Room

Panel 3Career Pivots: Finding Inspiration and Avoiding Professional Stagnation

West Dining Room

Chair: Kate Hallgren

Sarah Weicksel, American Historical Association

Scott Vierick, Congressional Research Service

Matthew Goguen, Geosyntec Consultants, Inc.

Susan Dawson, U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Stanley Contrades, Coast Guard Office of Heritage, Historian's Office


12:15-1:45 pm

LUNCH BREAK


SHFG BUSINESS MEETING

Dining Room A

1:45-3:15 pm

Session 3

Panel 4


Panel 4: American Revolution at 250 Commemorations: Perspectives and Insights 

Montpelier Room

Chair: Shannon Granville, U.S. Army Center of Military History 

Jonathan D. Bratten, U.S. Army Center of Military History

Zach Klitzman, Library of Congress

Susan Reyburn, Library of Congress

Suzanne Isaacs, National Archives and Records Administration

Joseph Seymour, U.S. Army Center of Military History


Panel 5



Panel 5: Celebrating 70 Years of the Nuclear Ship Savannah Program 

Dining Room A

Anna Gibson Holloway, U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration

Barbara Voulgaris, U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration

Erhard Koehler, U.S. Department of Transportation Maritime Administration


Panel  6

Panel 6: Building the Archive: Oral History, Data Collection, and Collecting Documents in Federal History

West Dining Room

Chair: Joel Christenson, Virginia Military Institute

Jason Chernesky, Organization of American Historians "Federal Employees and Contractors Oral History Project"

Chrissie "Zero" Reilly, University of Maryland Baltimore County and Michael "DAZE" Shields, U.S. Air Force "Lessons from Operation Allies Welcome and the RFF Deployment to Ramstein AB"

Joseph Ballegeer, U.S. Census Bureau
"Enumeration Nation: 1960 Census Evaluation and Research Program"

Francis Park, Defense Security Cooperation University "Field History Over the Horizon: Collecting Records from U.S. Forces, Afghanistan in 2021"


 


3:15-3:30 pm

BREAK

3:30-5:00 pm

Awards Ceremony and Trask Lecture

Montpelier Room

Kristin L. Ahlberg, Office of the Historian, Department of State, Retired will deliver the Trask Lecture


5:00-7:00 pm

Reception

Montpelier Room, Dining Room C



Friday, May 30

8:00 am

Registration Opens (Light Breakfast)

 Dining Room C

9:00-10:30 am

Session 4

Panel 7

Montpelier Room

Panel 7: Commemoration and Public Outreach in War and Peace

Montpelier Room

Chair: Mindy Farmer, Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

Sean Graham, Directorate of Heritage and History at the Department of National Defense (Ottawa, CAN)
"Whose Story is It? Cross-Department Historical Training at Canada's First World War Sites"

Ellie Kaplan, University of California, Davis
"Implementing Disability Civil Rights at Our National Parks"

Shane Story, U.S. Army War College
“Frank and Honest? U.S. Army Histories of the War on Terror"


Panel 8

Dining Room A

Panel 8: History's Mysteries: Crowdsourcing Answers to Your Most Vexing Questions

Dining Room A

Structured Conversation/Workshop

Chair: Leslie Poster, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution 


Panel 9

West Dining Room


Meeting of the Oral History Working Group

West Dining Room

Discussion Lead: Richard Hulver, Chair, Oral History Working Group 


10:30- 10:45 am

BREAK

10:45 am- 12:15 pm

Session 5

Panel 11

Montpelier Room

Panel 11: Capturing History: Insights into Joint Oral History Programs 

Montpelier Room

Chair: Angela Riotto, Defense Security Cooperation University

Heather Haley, Naval History and Heritage Command

Kate Tietzen-Wisdom, U.S. Army Center of Military History

Jessica Sheets, U.S. Marine Corps History Division


Panel 12

Dining Room A

Panel 12: Cold War Solutions: Recollections of International Security Practitioners;  Promoting Private Insights and Next Generation Engagement through Federal Negotiating Records 

Dining Room A

The Foreign Relations of the United States Series and Arms Control Documentation 
Elizabeth Charles, Historian, Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State

Creating a Collection of Arms Control, Disarmament, and Nonproliferation Lessons Learned
Jennie Gromoll, Senior Advisor (retired) for Europe and Eurasia, Office of Policy Coordination, International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau, U.S. Department of State

50th Anniversary of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty: Reviewing the Record
Mark Goodman, Senior Scientist (retired), Office of Multilateral Nuclear and Security Affairs, International Security and Nonproliferation Bureau, U.S. Department of State

 

Panel 13

West Dining Room

Panel 13: Expanding the Archive: Rewriting the Histories of Soldiers and Bureaucrats

West Dining Room

Chair: Andrew Salamone, Department of Defense

Donald Hall, Defense Health Agency
"Making Medical History: The 27th Military History Detachment and the Documentation of Medical Support during the Vietnam War"

Sabrina Waite, Texas A&M University
"The Prized Plum: Black Ideology and African American Diplomats in Haiti, 1869-1914"

Eric W. Boyle, U.S. Department of Energy
Atomic Fission: The Breakup of the Atomic Energy Commission and the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974

Orlando Pacheco, Defense Intelligence Agency
"'We are Dealing with a Gifted Toddler:' Practical Applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in History"


12:15-2:00 pm

LUNCH BREAK

2:00-3:30pm

Session 6


Panel 14
Montpelier Room

Panel 14: Celebrating the Navy's 250th Birthday and the Navy Department Library's 225th Birthday: A Roundtable with NHHC Historians, Curators, and Librarians

Montpelier Room

Chair: Breanne Robertson, Naval History and Heritage Command

Jeff Bowdoin, Naval Histories and Heritage Command

Dennis Wilson, Navy Department Library, Naval History and Heritage Command

Rajshree Solanki, National Museum of the United States Navy


Panel 15

West Dining Room 

Panel 15: Early Career Historians in Army History

West Dining Room

Chair: Ashley Vance, U.S. Army Center of Military History

David Hipple, U.S. Army Center of Military History (Texas Tech University)

Bearington Curtis, U.S. Army Center of Military History (University of Southern Mississippi)

Brynne Long, U.S. Army Center of Military History

Julia Wall, U.S. Army Center of Military History 


4:00pm

Informal Happy Hour (Off site)




           

Society for History in the Federal Government 
shfg.primary@gmail.com
PO BOX 14139
Ben Franklin Station, Washington, DC 20044

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