I'm looking to build a panel for OAH (Organization of American Historians ) in 2026. It will take place in Philadelphia and I'd love to create a Philly-centric panel. More broadly, decolonization focusing perhaps on city spaces, art, monuments, ecologies, and histories. 

My abstract is below. Email me ASAP if your ideas feel simpatico. 

Abstracts due via email by MARCH 17th, 2025

Tabitha Morgan: Cartography has often been utilized as a colonial tool to carve up landscapes and wreak havoc on interconnected ecosystems and communities. The same dissection was practiced by the founding fathers and the creation of the City of Philadelphia; in particular, William Penn's geospatial ideals of the 1700s perpetuated a colonial caste system above and below ground. I will utilize counter-mapping methodologies to "read" a local monument of memorialization above ground and a mass burial site below, discuss the role of cultural landscapes and public history narratives, and posit solutions to return desacralized land back to the public imagination of Philly residents.