Over the weekend we met @utpress.bsky.social author Meredith Linn, pictured below at our @socscihistory.bsky.social exhibit with her book, Irish Fever: An Archaeology of Illness, Injury, and Healing in New York City, 1845-1875. #ssha2025

This is the final instalment of the #SSHA2025 edition of the Academic Conference Fashion Report. It was great to reconnect with mentors, swap research ideas with colleagues, and 3/

Academic Conference Fashion Report, #SSHA2025 Edition, Day 3: I had to cut the conference shorter than usual because I also managed to schedule my family’s first visit to Montreal in 5 years for the same weekend (my life these days), so today called for a conference-to-airport outfit. 🧵 1/

Academic Conference Fashion Report, #SSHA2025 Edition, Day 2: today was about both the best and worst of conference life. 🧵 1/

Academic Conference Fashion Report, #SSHA2025 Edition, Day 1: I was up at an ungodly hour to catch my 6:00 am flight to Chicago for this year’s Social Science History Association meeting, my favourite conference of the year. 🧵 1/

Book cover: slavery and capitalism: A New Marxist History by David McNally

Description of the book. The first systematic Marxist account of the capitalist character of Atlantic slavery. Karl Marx's writings on enslavement and labor have fallen out of favor among historians, but David McNally injects new life into them. Slavery and Capitalism, a Marxist History, gives the first systematic Marxist account of the capitalist character of Atlantic slavery, presenting new evidence-including colonial travel literature, planter records and diaries, and slave narratives —to support the provocative claim for the centrality of slavery not only to capitalist production but also to capitalist labor. Weaving together history, political economy, and radical abolitionism, McNally demonstrates that plantation slaves formed a modern working class. Unlike those scholars who insist that enslaved people were too sensible to set their sights on liberty, he highlights the self-activity of enslaved people fighting for their freedom and reframes their resistance as a labor struggle, with significant implications for US history and racial capitalism.

#SSHA2025 has turned out to be good so far. Loved celebrating, and interrogating David McNally’s wonderful new book, Slavery and Capitalism. A Marxist History.

Thanks to Zach for organizing!

Image of a record and explaining we are exhibiting at the SSHA conference in Chicago.

Excited to be at #SSHA2025

📅 Nov 20–23 | 📍 Palmer House, Chicago

Join us at our booth to explore The Social History Archive and discover resources that support research and teaching.

#AcademicConference #HigherEd #ResearchCommunity #Chicago2025 #InnovationInScholarship#AcademicSky

Photo credit: Joey van der Naald

This concludes the #ASA2025 edition of the Academic Conference Fashion Report. See you back in Chicago in November for fall-winter looks at #SSHA2025 ! 4/end

Meme of Dr. Manhattan from Wacthmen saying "It is 2010. I am registering for SSHA in Chicago." "It is 2019. I am registering for SSHA in Chicago." "It is 2025. I am registering for SSHA in Chicago."

It's that time of year again. Hope to see some of you there! #SSHA2025