Dear Scotch-Irish L: The announcement below of a forthcoming conference should have wide interest to members of this list and well beyond academia. We anticipate having one or two sessions on genealogy in addition to the offereing on many other topics, and hope to see some of you in Knoxville next summer. (Linda, we would certainly be open to helping to publicize this list, if you want new members.) With regards Michael Montgomery University of South Carolina 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 is pleased to announce that it will host the Sixteenth Ulster-American Heritage Symposium in Knoxville, Tennessee. 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. Next year's 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. The Museum's signature exhibit "Voices of the Land: The People of East Tennessee" will open in January 2006. Special events planned for the Symposium will include => Plenary address "Ulster Immigrants and the Settlement of Tennessee," by Walter Durham, Tennessee State Historian => Tour and banquet at Ramsey House, a late-18th-century historic home and grounds in Marbledale, Tennessee => Plenary address on early architecture: "Stone Houses of Bluegrass Kentucky: Dwellings of the Ulster Gentry, 1780-1830" by Carolyn Murray-Wooley => Plenary session on the American GI experience in Northern Ireland in World War Two => Bluegrass concert at Jubilee Community Arts Center in Knoxville To propose a paper at the conference, please send by DECEMBER 1, 2005 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, 16th Ulster-American Heritage Symposium c/o East Tennessee Historical Society PO Box 1629 Knoxville, TN 37901-1629 Address inquiries to the Co-Chairs of the Program Committee: Michael Montgomery (ullans@yahoo.com) or Michael Toomey (toomey@east-tennessee-history.org). Notice of acceptance will be made no later than January 15, 2006, at which time precentors will also receive information on hotels and local arrangements. Conference updates will be posted at www.east-tennessee-history.org ____________________________________________________ Yahoo! Sports Rekindle the Rivalries. Sign up for Fantasy Football http://football.fantasysports.yahoo.com