Presenting at History Camp

History Camp is the only history conference in the country that welcomes people from all walks of life, regardless of degree, profession, occupation, or organizational membership to share what they’ve learned with others. It’s developed a well-deserved reputation for the breadth and depth of the topics covered, and as a result, people travel from across the country to attend History Camp Boston every year.

As we enter our 11th year, we’re doing even more to curate a day of presentations that history lovers will find fascinating.

To give yourself the best chance to be selected, read all of the information below, browse session information from prior years, and watch videos of outstanding presentations before drafting and submitting your information.

Presenting at History Camp Boston 2025
Deadline for you to submit your application to present — See below	Tuesday, April 1 at midnight Eastern
Deadline for us to notify you	Monday, April 21
Deadline for you to . . . confirm your participation and agree to the general terms register for History Camp Boston send any updates to the title and description of your presentation send your bio(s) and headshot(s) for the person or persons presenting	Thursday, May 1
History Camp Boston 2025	Saturday, August 9

If you have questions that aren’t answered below, send e-mail to Jessica.

Why present at History Camp?

History Camp welcomes people from all walks of life who love history—authors, professors, Park Rangers, professional as well as armchair historians, volunteers, docents, reenactors, performers, architects, archeologists, medical doctors and nurses, exhibit designers, curators, students, genealogists, executive directors, tour guides, and you!

People love History Camp. History Camp attendees are are engaged, passionate history fans.
Tell the history stories you’re passionate about. You can speak on whatever history-related topic you wish with two important exceptions: No politics—we draw the line right after the Nixon presidency—and no sales pitches.
Connect with your audience. Engage with your audience during your session and throughout the day as you participate as an attendee.

If you’re not familiar with History Camp, check out the photos and videos on our About History Camp page.

I’d love to present. How do I get started?

Read the information below, making note of the important deadlines listed at the top of this page. Once you understand all the rules of the road, submit your session proposal using the form at the bottom of this page.

1) Learn about presenting at History Camp

Read this page as well as the other pages about the upcoming event carefully and view our archive of past presentations, including our most recent Camps. Important aspects to review are:

restrictions on presenting for the sole purpose of selling a product or service (i.e., no “infomercials”);
restrictions on discussing current politics or, generally, any politics more recent than the Nixon administration (it’s about history, after all!); and
what will be expected of you as a presenter, including presentation format and timing, what you will need to prepare for your session, registering for History Camp as an attendee, as well as agreeing to the general terms—the same for all presenters. Please review all the following sections and FAQs.

2) Apply

Complete the ”Apply to Present at History Camp” form below. You will be asked for your topic title, description, biography, and other information. The deadline for applications is Midnight (Eastern) by Tuesday, April 1, 2025. (Applicants will receive a confirmation email of their submitted session.) Applicants will be notified by Monday, April 21st and we will reach out to you if we have questions about your proposal.

3) Confirm Participation, Send Promotional Materials, and Register for History Camp

Accepted presenters will need to confirm their participation; send their final presentation title, presentation description, and bio(s) and headshot(s) for all those involved in the presentation; agree to general terms; and must register for the conference—all by the deadline of April 1, 2025. (Note: Unlike a traditional conference, History Camp is supported by everyone who participates, including presenters.)

4) Prepare, Practice, and Polish

Develop a presentation and slides (if you plan to use them) that you can present confidently without reading them. You should know your topic and your presentation well enough that you can engage your audience and aren’t stuck behind the podium reading. (Unlike academic conferences, people do not read their papers at History Camp.)

History Camp will provide A/V equipment. You should bring your presentation on a thumb drive as a back up even if you plan to bring your own laptop. Use this time to prepare your presentation slides, script, and any handouts—and reach out to us if you have questions!

What makes a great History Camp presentation

History Camp was founded on an “un-conference” model—which encourages a wide variety of topics and speakers. If you’ve never attended, view schedules, session topics and titles, and recordings from past History Camps—including History Camp Boston 2024.

Your presentation must relate to history—all facets of history are welcome. Unlike traditional conferences, you don’t have make your presentation conform to a theme, geography, or narrow subject area. You might cover historical people and events, historical research and methods, managing a historic site or history organization, careers for people who love history, teaching history, or other topics related to history.
Don’t worry if your topic has been covered before—make it your own, bringing your own knowledge, viewpoint, and expertise.
What can’t be covered? There are only two general categories to steer clear of: product pitches and current or recent politics. (We draw the line right after the Nixon administration.)
Pick a format that reflects how best to present the topic. Your format might be a traditional single-speaker presentation, a round-table discussion or panel discussion (you assemble the participants), or even a performance. Many presenters use the History Camp format to air their research and receive audience feedback and questions which helps them hone their arguments.
Engage the audience. Know your presentation. Don’t read your presentation or your slides. Work from notes, not a script. The best presentations are ones in which the presenter steps out from behind the podium and really engages the audience. This takes skill and experience, something that most folks haven’t had the opportunity to acquire, but as an example to model, if not for your entire presentation, then for part of it, check out Christopher Christopher Sherwood Davis’s presentation, The Boston Tea Party: Separating Myth from Reality after 250 Years.
Support your claims. This is especially true if what you’re planning to present goes against widely accepted beliefs. In fact, History Camp may be the ideal place for your presentation—and our committee won’t dismiss your topic because it is a new point of view. However, you must be able to defend whatever you present. Merely asserting controversial things without having research that backs up your claims undermines your argument as well as the reputation of our event.
We stay on schedule. History Camp begins on time and each session begins and ends on time. Sessions are 45 minutes. This includes Q & A, so you’ll want to make your presentation shorter than 45 minutes so that there is time for at least a few questions. A volunteer in each session will hold up time cards to help you know when your time is about up and at the end when your session is over and it’s time leave the room. If there are questions and continued discussion, please move to the hall or lobby, away from the session room, to answer questions and discuss.
Slide quality matters. Some text is welcome, but no one wants to look at a slide full of text—so be sure to include images and make it visually-rich. Please also make sure to use the best quality images you can find and source your images and text!
Be respectful of copyrights. If you have things that you don’t want to appear online, or are using materials copyrighted to others, do not include them in your slides or consider modifying your presentation to avoid them. Educational copyright fair-use can cover a wide array of primary source materials (always cite your sources!) but using publications, images, film or video, and/or music protected by copyright may prevent us from including your presentation in the on-demand replay materials. All speakers will be responsible and liable for the content of their presentation(s).
History Camp sessions are recorded and may be streamed to social media and placed in our archive. At History Camp Boston at Suffolk Law School, there is video recording capability in most rooms and your session will most likely be recorded and made available online for others to discover and enjoy.
Promotional uses. You agree to be in photos and videos of the event. In addition, History Camp® and The Pursuit of History® retains the right to use presentations, either whole or in parts, in related promotional materials in any media and for any term.
We reserve the right to interrupt or terminate sessions if they violate our content guidelines. Some recorded sessions may not be archived. Recorded sessions may be edited.

Preparing your slides, including A/V requirements

Presentations, other than panels and first person interpretation, should have slides. (Panels and first person interpretation can have them, too, of course.) There are many resources online for creating slides—both content and design—including this one. (If you have one you recommend, please send it to me and I may add it here.) The most important characteristics are making your slides, clear, concise, and easy to read. They should support your points, not draw attention away from the person you are presenting to.
Bring your slides on a thumb drive. Bringing them on your laptop is fine, too, but be sure and bring them on a thumb drive.
They should be in PowerPoint format. If you used Keynote to create your presentation, save a version out as a PDF and bring that.
Arrive when the doors open. Pick up your badge and head to your room to familiarize yourself with the location and set up, and then head to the A/V prep room, which will be announced in e-mail before History Camp.

Drafting your session titles, description, and bio

With six to eight sessions in each time slot, unless you are well-known, your session title is the single most important factor in attracting an audience, followed by the description. Your session title and description should help someone who is unfamiliar with your topic understand what you’re going to discuss and communicate why they’ll find it fascinating.

(Note that we edit many of the titles, descriptions, and presenter bios for clarity. If the change is major, we’ll likely contact you. Please follow the guidelines below and check-out previous History Camp schedules, under the History Camp Boston 2022 menu, for inspiration.)

Session Titles:

Titles are critical. When people scan the list of sessions or the session grid and see your title, will they want to attend? The best titles are clearly written, easy to understand, and stand on their own, without relying on the session description. Resist the urge to make something cute or to use the standard academic construction of “[something cute]: [what I’m actually talking about].” If you do that, you risk people only seeing the “cute” part, not understanding what you’re actually talking about, and simply moving on to read the titles of the five to seven other sessions in your time slot. (You can put whatever you title you want on your title slide.You can put whatever you title you want on your title slide.) Of course, avoid jargon or acronyms that would not be familiar to a general audience.
Be detailed. Including details on timeframe (e.g., “…English Civil War, 1642–1651,…”) or place (e.g., “…Johnston, RI,…”) is encouraged.

Session Descriptions:

Session descriptions should be clear and succinct. Most people will choose a session because the story sounds fascinating and that they’ll learn something interesting or useful. Use tightly-constructed prose that deliver a punch. If your topic requires background or context, include it.
Avoid academic prose. Instead, use “plain English” that will appeal to expert and novice, alike. (Think about how you might describe your session to relatives gathered for Thanksgiving.)
Do not adapt a title and description from an academic conference. It will be much more effective, and you’ll attract more people to your session, if you draft something that will appeal to the folks who attend History Camp.

Presenter Bios:

Present the facts. List your experience, interests, accomplishments, passions, and whatever you think history-minded people would like to know about you. Include URLs for websites and blogs and social media links if you share useful content.We edit almost all bios, sometimes substantially.
Include your post-nominals (e.g., PhD, MA, MFA) as you would like them presented across materials. History Camp will refer to the bio you submit when we list your presentation in other media, so make sure the way you want your post-nominals are reflected in your bio.
Authors are encouraged to list relevant publications. Direct readers to your website, blog, publisher, or LinkedIn page for your full publication catalog. (You can also sell your books through the The Pursuit of History online bookshop—contact us for more information!)
Include at least one way for people to contact you, such as your website or blog, your social media accounts, or an e-mail address. (Remember that this information will be on a public website.)
If your session is accepted, you will be asked to provide a headshot for us to use on the website and in promotional materials. Speaker headshots will be cropped to a square or circle. If your headshot requires a photographer credit, please include that, too. (We do not compensate photographers, so please make sure you can use the image.)

Presenting at History Camp FAQs

Q: I’ve studied this one topic extensively and I’d like to present, but I’m not an author or professor nor do I have a degree in history. Can I apply?

A: History Camp is for everyone who is interested in history and wants to share their knowledge. Some of the most well-received sessions come from people who pursued a particular history topic with a passion and have a deep understanding of their subject, but it’s not been their livelihood. By day, some of our presenters are attorneys, mechanics, systems administrators, farmers, nurses, retired insurance executives, stay-at-home moms, or … you!

Q: There’s a panel I see listed that I’d like to be on. What do I need to do?

A: Contact the person who is organizing the panel as the decision will be made by the organizer of the session. If the panel is full or you’re told that your topic isn’t a good fit for the existing panel, consider your own session or creating another panel dedicated to your topic.

Q: What’s a roundtable discussion?

A: A roundtable discussion is a format for a session in which everyone who wishes to contributes to the discussion. For example, a recent roundtable session was: “Ideas for Programming, Outreach, and Operations of Smaller History Organizations: What worked, what didn’t, and what we learned from it.” During the session, the leader went around the room and each attendee shared one idea and explained what they learned.

Q: I’ve got a book out that I’d like to sell—can I sell it at History Camp?

A: Inform, don’t sell or grand-stand. You cannot use your session for commercial gain, such as promoting a book, or political one, such as talking about current politics or grand-standing for a political position. You can prepare a session about the topic of your book and be generous with the information about the time, place, people, and/or event—building tangential interest is a great way to attract people to your book. And while you cannot promote your book in your talk, you can include the book title and link to your website in your bio. This rule helps us avoid “infomercial” presentations—which no one likes.

Author tables are available where you can sell and sign your books throughout the day, before and after your session. You can also sell your books through the The Pursuit of History online bookshop—contact us for more information!

Q: How many applications can I submit?

A: You may submit more than one application, but because we have a limited number rooms for sessions, each selected speaker will receive only one solo session. We suggest you choose the presentation you are most passionate about to submit for consideration.

Speakers may partner with others to offer panel discussions on a topic, which does NOT count against an application for a solo presentation slot. If you wish to present on a second topic, we recommend a panel discussion or joint presentation so that we can accommodate as many presenters as possible.

Q: Who do I contact if I have a question that’s not answered above?

A: Please send e-mail to Boston@HistoryCamp.org.