For 2026: New Republic, New Worlds
For 2026: New Republic, New Worlds
Friday Evening Plenary:
Dr. Ronald Johnson
Entangled Alliances: Racialized Freedom and Atlantic Diplomacy during the American Revolution
Dr. Ronald Angelo Johnson is the 2026-2027 Mellon Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the American Antiquarian Society and the Ralph and Bessie Mae Lynn Professor of History at Baylor University. He is the author two books: Entangled Alliances: Racialized Freedom and Atlantic Diplomacy during the American Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2025) and Diplomacy in Black and White: John Adams, Toussaint Louverture, and Their Atlantic World Alliance (UGA Press, 2014). He co-edited the volume In Search of Liberty: African American Internationalism in the Nineteenth-Century Atlantic World (UGA Press, 2021). His current book manuscript We Are All Equal: Turmoil and Triumph in the Early United States and Revolutionary Haiti is under contract with Princeton University Press.
The Final For 2026 Conference: New Republic, New Worlds
October 23-24, 2026
Hosted by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture, and William & Mary
The American Revolution forged a new nation out of thirteen British colonies, triggering a host of predictable and unexpected consequences. This conference will explore the novel circumstances, challenges, and opportunities of the transitional era that followed victory in the War for American Independence. What were the fresh constitutional and political structures fueled by the Revolution, and what were the possibilities in play then and after? How were families, communities, boundaries, and environments changed in the new era? What were the ambitions of this new nation, and what do we now know about how diverse communities assessed its prospects? How did the various peoples within its borders and beyond respond to this new moment? In addition to proposals focused on the opportunities and obstacles that marked the founding era, the Program Committee invites proposals for sessions and papers exploring all aspects of Vast Early America.
“A New World,” the final meeting of the five-year “For 2026” project, seeks to bring into conversation scholarly and public-facing research exploring the far-reaching effects of the American Revolution. The program committee invites proposals for panels, roundtables, workshops, and individual papers focusing on any aspect of the founding era – broadly conceived. The scope of the conference is not limited to North America nor the Anglophone Atlantic, and the organizers hope to assemble a program that represents the width and breadth of early American studies.
The conference will take place October 23-24, 2026, at the William & Mary School of Education and at Colonial Williamsburg in Williamsburg, Virginia.
Daytime programs will take place on the campus of William & Mary and throughout the Historic Area of Colonial Williamsburg, with two evening plenaries open to the public with no pre-registration required.
For more information on the full conference, please visit https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/research/educational-conferences-forums-symposiums/for-2026-a-five-year-conference-series/
