Drawing on the theme “Underground,” this proposed panel considers the hidden, unearthed role of nineteenth-century forms of education. We think of education broadly here, including textbooks, expositions, World’s Fairs, newspapers, public history, and other print and material culture with didactic purpose. The panel will consider how these forms of education challenge or uphold prevailing nineteenth-century historiographies, as well as how they engage with counternarratives, reveal buried histories, reshape public memory, or critically construct belonging.

We invite papers that consider covert, unconventional, and clandestine forms of education during the long nineteenth century. Papers might consider how education affected Black and Indigenous communities, or how nineteenth-century authors challenged the suppression of diverse histories. What stories were not told? What histories remain uncovered? In a moment of particular challenges to historical truth-telling, can these uncovered forms of education help us chart a path forward? 

Please submit an abstract of no more than 250 words and a brief bio by August 1st to DeLisa Hawkes at ddhawk@wm.edu and Annemarie Mott Ewing at amewing@umd.edu.