WESTERN SOCIETY FOR FRENCH HISTORY
2012 CONFERENCE

The Fortieth Annual WSFH conference will be held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, October 11-13, 2012. In the heart of Banff National Park in the magnificent Canadian Rockies, the conference will take place at the world famous Banff Centre (formerly the Banff School of Fine Arts). With the Centre's breathtaking scenery, fine cuisine, and cultural attractions, the 2012 meeting is sure to be one to remember. The Banff Center is situated on the slope of Tunnel Mountain, and is a 10 minute walk to downtown Banff.

The theme for the 2012 meeting  is “On the Frontier: French History and Social Sciences without Borders.”  The plenary speakers will be Martin Staum, professor emeritus of history at the University of Calgary, whose latest book is Nature and Nurture in French Social Sciences, 1859-1914 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011), and Laurier Turgeon, Canada Research Chair and Professor of History and Ethnology at Université Laval, author of Patrimoines métissés. Contextes coloniaux et postcoloniaux (Paris et Québec, Éditions de la Maison des sciences de l'homme et Les Presses de l'Université Laval, 2003).

The closest major airport is Calgary International Airport, with very good connections to many major US hubs. Banff is then a 90 minute via a shuttle bus.


The Call for Papers for the 2012 conference will be posted soon. Panel proposals should include the following items, integrated into one file: an abstract (no more than 1 page) for each paper; a CV (no more than 1 page) for each presenter, including contact information; and the proposed chair's and commentator's name, affiliation, and email address.

The WSFH encourages interdisciplinary scholarship and the participation of advanced graduate students by awarding prizes for outstanding papers presented at the conference in the following areas: 

• the best interdisciplinary paper;
• the best paper presented by a graduate student on French history after 1800;  
• the best paper presented by a graduate student on the history of France and / or connections between France and the wider world before 1800.