Central Coast Conference – Seldom Heard History of the Civil War Era
May 2 @ 6:30 pm – May 4 @ 4:00 pm
Greetings American History enthusiasts,
Registration is now open for the 2nd annual Central Coast Conference, to be held at the Stanton Center on Custom House Plaza during the first weekend in May, 2025. Another fantastic lineup of scholars have signed on for the event, including professors from Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, and Duke, and the new Attorney General of the United States Virgin Islands.
The 2025 conference will present a series of intriguing presentations under the umbrella of Seldom Heard History of the Civil War era, offering new and important perspectives on America’s great, 19th-century conflagration, the shadows of which we are still coming to terms with today. The event will kick off with a Friday evening program, followed by two full days of presentations (including a book signing Saturday afternoon, managed by Bookshop Santa Cruz).
Registration information is available here.
Presenters
William B. Gould, IV, author of Diary of a Contraband: The Civil War Passage of a Black Sailor (Stanford University Press, 2002). Professor Gould is the Charles A. Beardsley Professor of Law at Stanford University. He served as Chairman of the National Labor Relations Board during the Clinton administration, and has written extensively in labor law.
Victoria Bynum, author of The Free State of Jones: Mississippi’s Longest Civil War (University of North Carolina Press, 2001), is Distinguished Professor of History Emerita, Texas State University, San Marcos. Her research focuses on Southern dissenters, including families that opposed secession and the Confederacy. The 2016 Hollywood film, “Free State of Jones,” was based on her book.
Gordon Rhea, author of Stephen A. Swails: Black Freedom Fighter in the Civil War and Reconstruction (LSU Press, 2021). A distinguished attorney, Mr. Rhea served as Special Assistant to the Chief Counsel of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Activities, and as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington D.C. and the United States Virgin Islands. In April 2024 he was nominated to be the Attorney General for the United States Virgin Islands.
Edda L. Fields-Black, author of Cumbee: Harriet Tubman, the Combahee River Raid, and Black Freedom During the Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2024). Fields-Black is associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University. Her new volume offers the fullest account to date of Tubman’s Civil War service, including the untold story of the Combahee River Raid from the perspective of Tubman and the enslaved people she helped to free.
Stacey L. Smith, is an Associate Professor of History at Oregon State University where she specializes in the history of the American West and the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. She is the author of Freedom’s Frontier: California and the Struggle over Unfree Labor, Emancipation, and Reconstruction (UNC Press, 2013). She is currently working on a book about early African American civil rights activists in California entitled An Empire for Freedom.
Kevin M. Levin, author of Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder (University Press of Kentucky, 2012) and Searching for Black Confederates: The Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth (University of North Carolina Press, 2019) is an educator and historian based in Boston. His research focuses on the Civil War era and historical memory. You can find his online writing at Civil War Memory, which he has maintained since 2005.
Sasha Biscoe, is the President of Friends of Allensworth. Allen Allensworth fled enslavement to join Union forces and was later honorably discharged as a chief petty officer from the United States Navy. The Friends group is the cooperative association for the Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park, a unique California town founded, financed, and governed by African Americans. The park today features a collection of restored and reconstructed buildings.
