The 1st Annual National Muslim History Conference
The National Muslim History Project, initiated informally by Precious many years ago, is now the formal umbrella under which many of her research efforts on the history of Islam in America will function.
The first effort up, under this new framework, is the 1st Annual National Muslim History Working and Training Conference that will take place in Spring 2018. It will have four on-site components: analysis, documenting, disseminating, and training.
The theme for the inaugural conference, The Future of the American Muslim Past, is inspired by the 2016 conference, The Future of the African American Past, held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The event built on a 1983 convening of historians who gathered "to share what they had learned about the African American past and to establish what issues still needed to be explored." The proceedings "provided both a landmark assessment and a helpful guide for moving forward."
The analysis component of the inaugural National Muslim History Conference aims to do the same with the historical topic of the American Muslim past. Like the 2016 conference, the idea is not just to look back but, also, to reach forward with "a new generation of historians," who will bring "fresh insights to long-standing questions," as well as answer "others only dimly imagined" by their predecessors.
Location and date to be announced.