The Association of Public Historians of New York State (APHNYS) is pleased to announce that our 2023 Annual Conference will be held in Ithaca, NY, September 18-20, 2023. Our conference draws more than 100 government-appointed historians and affiliates from across the state. The conference will be held at the Hotel Ithaca, located at 222 South Cayuga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850.
Named after the island home of Homer’s King Odysseus, Ithaca sits on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake and is the seat of Tompkins County in the Finger Lakes region of Central New York. As we gather in Ithaca this fall, we consider the pull that the city’s mythological eponym had on its homesick hero and invite you to explore our theme— “Home, Sweet Home”—and its various implications.
How have people connected with the places they call home, whether their birthplace, adopted community, or ancestral origins? How have geographies and landscapes influenced people’s social, cultural, and economic experiences, whether in urban, suburban, or rural homes? How have people used the land they call home? How have people’s homes been a point of pride? How have people defined or redefined their homes? Their families? How have home spaces reflected safety and protection, or threat and vulnerability? What disruptions to homelife—war, captivity, enslavement, migration, natural disasters—have people faced? What have been the experiences of those without homes, those displaced from their homes, or those who lived in places they might not have considered home?
At this year’s conference, we invite New York’s public historians to explore these and other questions relating to the concept of home and its influence on the lives of people throughout our state’s history.
APHNYS is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
