Molly O'Connor is one of two program assistants for the Society's 61st Annual Meeting in San Diego. Her advisor, Dr. Ben Justice of the Rutgers GSE, is the vice president and president-elect of the History of Education Society. Part of his responsibility is to plan this year's conference, and he asked two of his advisees to help. In this role, Molly helped compose the call for proposals, spread the CFP far and wide, and brainstorm panels and keynotes to fit the theme of Decolonizing History of Education.
According to Molly, "it's been exciting to dream up who we could ask to submit proposals or participate at the conference to unpack what it means to decolonize our research, the field, and even our organization. We've made a special effort this year to reach out to scholars of public history (such as museum professionals) and archivists, as well. One other aspect that's important in our planning is connecting with local scholars doing history of education work, educational institutions, and public history sites to root our conference in the history of and scholarship produced in our host city, San Diego."
