Annual History Graduate Student Conference
2025 Conference Theme: History Across Disciplines
This year, the History Graduate Student Association (HGSA) collaborated with the NIU Libraries’ Regional History Center (RHC) to launch the inaugural NIU History Conference, held April 18–19, 2025, at Swen Parson Hall in DeKalb. The two-day gathering merged HGSA’s Graduate Student Conference with the Northern Illinois Regional History Conference and featured panels with graduate students, faculty, alumni and historians with expertise in Illinois public history. Attendees presented on topics spanning regional, national and international history.
Alfred F. Young Keynote Speaker
Dr. Mary Hicks, University of Chicago
Lecture
Researching in the Para-Archives of Slavery: Methods for History from Below
About the Speaker
Mary Hicks is an associate professor at the University of Chicago and author of Captive Cosmopolitans: Black Mariners and the World of South Atlantic Slavery, 1721–1835 (University of North Carolina Press, 2024). She is a historian of the Black Atlantic with a focus on transnational histories of race, slavery, capitalism, migration and the making of the early modern world. Dr. Hicks received her B.A. from the University of Iowa and her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia, where she was awarded the Jefferson Fellowship.
About the Conference
This annual event brings together faculty, graduate students and historians to explore critical topics in historical research. Workshops and lectures focus on cutting-edge scholarship and provide professional development and networking opportunities.
For questions or additional information, please contact us at history@niu.edu.
Contact
Department of History
Zulauf 715
Phone: 815-753-0131
Email: history@niu.edu
Our office is open Monday through Thursday, from 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m., except for a daily lunch break from noon-1 p.m.
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