What Forms Can History Writing Take? AHR's History Unclassified and Experimental Historical Narratives

AHA Session 113
Saturday, January 4, 2025: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Mercury Ballroom (New York Hilton, Third Floor)
Chairs:
Kate Brown, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Emily J. Callaci, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Panel:
Lucas Bessire, University of Oklahoma
Melani McAlister, George Washington University
Joy Neumeyer, independent scholar
Lilia Topouzova, University of Toronto
Organized by the AHA Research Division and the American Historical Review

Session Abstract

What is the relationship between historical scholarship and creative writing? What new possibilities arise when historians experiment with genre? History Unclassified, a section of the AHR, gives authors a green light to experiment with narrative form and voice. The participants of this round table published essays in HU that spurred them on to novel, new book projects. The roundtable will explore topics including questions of authenticity in narrative voice, the impact of shifting from the omniscient third person to the first person, and the relationship of the architecture of story telling with the story itself.
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