CALL FOR PAPERS - Please Post or Distribute Sixteenth Biennial Ulster-American Heritage Symposium Conference Theme: Three Centuries of Ulster-American History, Tradition, and Shared Experience Wednesday, June 28 - Saturday, July 1, 2006 The East Tennessee History Center will host the Sixteenth Ulster-American Heritage Symposium in Knoxville, Tennessee from Wednesday, June 28 to Saturday, July 1, 2006. The conference theme is "Three Centuries of Ulster-American History, Tradition, and Shared Experience." . Since 1976 the Symposium has met every two years at a university or museum in Northern Ireland or the United States in order to encourage and promote the scholarly study and public awareness of connections between Ulster and North America in all their dimensions. While programs in the past have provided the premier forum for historians to discuss the colonial-era immigration from Ulster and the settlement of the American interior and Southeast, the Ulster-American Heritage Symposium is by tradition and design inter-disciplinary, featuring papers on history, language and literature, folklore and folklife, archaeology, economics, religion, social and political relations, and music. The summer 2006 Symposium seeks to broaden the program offerings further by seeking scholarly papers on artistic traditions of all kinds, travel and tourism, and the American GI experience in Northern Ireland in the World War Two, among other topics. Original papers from any field that concern relations, links, and parallels between Ulster and North America over the past three hundred years are invited for presentation. Knoxville promises to be an excellent venue for the Symposium. In the Scotch-Irish/Scots-Irish heartland of the country, it lies less than an hour from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and other major attractions. Comprising the East Tennessee Historical Society, the East Tennessee History Museum, and the McClung Historical Collection (a major genealogical library), the East Tennessee History Center has recently opened a new twenty-million-dollar facility in downtown Knoxville. Special events planned for the Symposium will include  Address "Ulster Immigrants and the Settlement of Tennessee," by Walter Durham, Tennessee State Historian, following a general reception at the East Tennessee History Center on Wednesday, June 28.  Address on the American GI experience in Northern Ireland in World War Two, by Jonathan Bardon, Queen's University Belfast, on Thursday, June 29.  Address on early stone houses in Kentucky and Tennessee, by Carolyn Murray-Wooley, Drystone Conservancy on Friday, June 30.  Banquet at Ramsey House and after dinner talk by Charles Faulkner, University of Tennessee, on archeological excavations at the site, on Friday, June 30.  Special half-day session on genealogy on Saturday, July 1.  Bluegrass session on Saturday, July 1, to close conference. To propose a paper at the conference, please send by JANUARY 15, 2006 three copies of a 250-word abstract with a cover letter indicating your name, postal and email addresses, institutional affiliation (if any), equipment needs, and a one-sentence biographical note, to Program Committee, Sixteenth Ulster-American Heritage Symposium c/o East Tennessee Historical Society PO Box 1629 Knoxville, TN 37901-1629 Address any inquiries to the Co-Chairs of the Program Committee: Michael Montgomery (_ullans@yahoo.com_ (mailto:ullans@yahoo.com) ) or Michael Toomey (_toomey@east-tennessee-history.org_ (mailto:toomey@east-tennessee-history.org) ). Notice of acceptance will be made no later than January 31, 2006, at which time presenters will also receive information on hotels and local arrangements. Conference updates will be posted at _www.east-tennessee-history.org_ (http://www.east-tennessee-history.org)