The Department of History at the University of California, Davis is hosting the 16th Annual Western History Dissertation Workshop, which will be held May 12-14, 2022.

The Workshop

This year’s workshop is hosted by the Dept. of History at the University of California, Davis. UC Davis will pay travel expenses for up to five advanced graduate students writing a dissertation exploring any topic dealing with the history and culture of the American West. The workshop is co-sponsored by: the Center for the Study of the Pacific Northwest at the University of Washington; the Center for the Southwest at the University of New Mexico; the Autry National Center/University of California-Los Angeles Department of History; the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West; the Center of the American West/University of Colorado Boulder Department of History; the University of Nebraska Department of History; the Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University; the Pennsylvania State University History Department; the University of Kansas; and the History Department and L&S Dean’s Office of UC Davis.

This writing workshop offers vigorous dissertation support to advanced western history PhD students in a collegial group of 10-12 leading scholars from participating institutions across the United States. Applicants who are most likely to benefit from this workshop are those who have completed a few chapters of their dissertation and who expect to defend in the 2022-23 academic year. Selected participants will share one chapter (of no more than fifty pages) at the workshop and receive feedback from other participants and from senior scholars affiliated with the sponsoring institutions.

How to Apply

Please provide the following:

• a brief cover letter
• a short CV
• a dissertation prospectus/description of not more than two single-spaced pages. Your cover letter should indicate which chapter of your dissertation you intend to circulate for the workshop.

Send all items in a single PDF document to Louis Warren (lswarren@ucdavis.edu). Please arrange for your dissertation adviser to send a letter of recommendation via email to Louis Warren as well; that letter should address the significance and the status of the dissertation to date. 

Applications are due March 15, 2022, and participants will be notified of their selection by April 1. Selected applicants must submit a complete draft of a dissertation chapter for distribution to the group by April 15.