The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture was founded as the Institute of Early American History and Culture in 1943 by the College of William and Mary and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation to foster "study, research, and publications bearing on American history approximately to the year 1815." Still jointly sponsored by the College and Colonial Williamsburg, the Institute was renamed in 1996, in recognition of a generous endowment pledged by Mr. and Mrs. Malvern H. Omohundro, Jr. The Institute publishes the William and Mary Quarterly, books in its field of interest, and a newsletter, organizes and supports a variety of conferences, seminars, and colloquia, and annually awards a two–year NEH postdoctoral fellowship and a one–year Andrew W. Mellon postdoctoral research fellowship.

In June 1995 the Institute inaugurated a series of annual conferences specifically designed to serve as a forum for the rich variety of work underway in the early American field. Organized exclusively by calls for papers and panels and held in a different geographic region each year, these meetings are intended to bring together and facilitate exchanges among junior and senior scholars from several disciplines who share a common interest in the history and culture of early America.

The program committee for the 2005 conference is chaired by Patricia Cline Cohen (University of California, Santa Barbara) and Jack N. Rakove (Stanford University), and includes Ruth Bloch (University of California, Los Angeles), Caroline H. Cox (University of the Pacific), Edith Gelles (Stanford University), Christopher Looby (University of California, Los Angeles), Peter Mancall (University of Southern California), Ann Marie Plane (University of California, Santa Barbara), Terri L. Snyder (California State University, Fullerton) and Jennifer Spear (University of California, Berkeley).

The meeting will take place on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and at the Casa de la Guerra in downtown Santa Barbara. The Institute and the conference organizers are grateful to Stanford University and the University of California, Santa Barbara, for their sponsorship and to The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, and The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation for their support.

The Twelfth Annual Institute Conference, chaired by Allan Greer and Laurier Turgeon, will be held June 9–11, 2006, on the campus of Laval University, in Old Québec City, the site of the first permanent French colony established in North America in 1608, and the political, religious, and cultural capital of New France. The location affords an opportunity to consider the French Atlantic world and the cultural history of New France, and to draw comparisons with those of the British, the Dutch, and the Spanish, including the nature of their relationships with native American peoples.

The program committee invites proposals that address topics on the entire range of subjects that constitute the early American field of study. Priority will be given to proposals advancing innovative thinking based on fresh and comprehensive research. Panels consisting of two or three papers organized around a coherent theme or theoretical problem that include commentators and panel chairs are especially encouraged, but the committee reserves the prerogative to make changes to the overall configuration of panels. Proposals for individual papers will also be considered. To encourage the widest possible participation, the committee will not approve more than one appearance by a scholar at the conference. Participants in the Eleventh Annual Conference may not participate in the 2006 meeting in the same capacity, but 2005 paper presenters may comment and commentators may present. Assistance in the formation of panels is available at the Panel Locator, http://it.wm.edu/oieahc/panel.

Panel proposals must be submitted by the panel organizer and include a one–paragraph description of the panel, one–page summaries of each paper, and a one–page c.v. for each presenter. Individual paper submissions must include a one–page proposal and a one–page c.v. Each should include mailing and email addresses and telephone numbers. Proposals must be postmarked no later than September 15, 2005. They must be submitted in hard copy; no fax or email submissions will be accepted. Send ten (10) hard copies of each proposal to Professor Laurier Turgeon, Département d’histoire, Université Laval, Québec, Québec, Canada, G1K 7P4.