Throughout the history of the United States, social and political movements have depended upon individual activism, grassroots organizing, and community engagement for success. This conference aims to explore the various and changing ways in which both the theories and methods of activism have been defined and/or challenged, as well as the experiences of the people and organizations who have formed the foundations of mass movements.

The keynote speaker will be Professor Bryant Simon, author of A Fabric of Defeat: The Politics of South Carolina Millhands, 1910-1948, (1998), Boardwalk of Dreams: Atlantic City and the Fate of Urban America, (2004) and Everything But the Coffee: Learning about America from Starbucks, (2009), The Hamlet Fire: A Tragic Story of Cheap Food, Cheap Government, and Cheap Lives (2017). The keynote address will be delivered on March 19, with panels to follow the next day.