Contact:

Dr. Nicole St-Onge
ASE Local Arrangements Committee Chair
nstonge@uottawa.ca
613-986-4267

Ottawa hosts the American Society for Ethnohistory’s (ASE) Annual Conference

The American Society for Ethnohistory (ASE) is proud to announce that its annual conference will be held October 13-17 at the Lord Elgin Hotel in Ottawa, Ontario. This year’s conference entitled “Creating Nations and Building States: Past and Present,”will feature some of the top historical researchers from around the world. This year’s topics include environmental protection on reserves, First Nations’ sovereignty, and the role of language in Native society. Panels will run Thursday October 14 through Saturday October 16 between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM.

The ASE is particularly excited to welcome Pulitzer Prize winning author Dr. David Hackett Fischer to deliver the Keynote address on Saturday afternoon. Dr. Fischer’s address, entitled “Ethnohistory and Nation Building: Champlain’s New France as a Case Study” will explore Samuel de Champain’s early exploration of Canada. Dr. Fischer, one of the foremost historians in the world, is perhaps best known for his Pulitzer Prize winning Washington’s Crossing, part of the renowned ‘Pivotal Moments in American History’ series and examined George Washington’s famed crossing of the Delaware River during the American Revolution.

Since the meeting is being held in Canada's capital during the 125th anniversary of the second Métis provisional government and resistance movement at Batoche, discussions will include the role of indigenous populations in the creation of modern nation-states. Attracting historians from Europe, Australia, and North America, there are to be many diverse points of view, which will make for an informative, entertaining, and lively conference.

The ASE was founded in 1954 to promote the investigation of the history of the Native Peoples of the Americas. The ethnohistorical method involves developing histories informed by ethnography, linguistics, archaeology, and ecology. Today, the ASE is a thriving organization of over 1,200 scholars and related members. The ASE prides itself on representing the best of North American research and to that end its Conference has been held in various cities across the continent. The ASE is proud that next year’s Conference will be held in Los Angeles, California.

For further information, including a complete schedule of events please visit the conference website (http://www.ethnohistory.org/sections/meetings/2010/index.html) or contact Dr. Nicole St-Onge.