It’s election time! The United States will choose a new president in 2016, consigning Barack
Obama’s administration to the history books. More frequently than ever before, the White
House press office talks about “legacy,” and while it is perhaps too early to pass unequivocal judgment on Obama, the speculation compels attention. In recent years, presidential scholars have turned to memory studies as a means of revealing the way historical images evolve, and therefore it seems particularly timely to consider presidential legacy as the current incumbent does the same.
The Presidential History Network, in conjunction with Northumbria University, will host a two-day symposium to analyze the phenomenon of “presidential legacy.” We invite scholars to submit paper proposals that investigate the presidential image in:
 popular culture,
 political rhetoric,
 monuments and memorials,
 and depictions produced outside the United States.
Proposals for individual papers or panels (up to 4 papers) should include a 250-word abstract.
E-mail submissions to michael.cullinane@northumbria.ac.uk
. The deadline is October 16,
2015.
The symposium will begin with a keynote panel from H. W. Brands, the
Jack S. Blanton Sr. Chair in History at the University of Texas, Austin and renowned author of over twenty-five books on American history, among which include biographies of Andrew Jackson, Theodore
Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan.
The symposium will also include a panel on presidential libraries to understand the way they shape public memory. Speakers will include staff and scholars from presidential libraries.