The American Catholic Historical Association invites submissions on any topic relevant to the study of Catholicism for its annual meeting in New Orleans, January 7-10, 2027.

The ACHA is delighted to be gathering once more in New Orleans, a city with great cultural significance to the history of Catholicism in the United States.

We are especially hopeful to receive individual paper and panel submissions focused on the following topics:

• Catholic communities with distinctive histories in New Orleans
• Regional Catholicisms with connections to New Orleans, including the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Valley, and the Caribbean
• Catholicism and higher education, including Xavier University of Louisiana, Loyola University New Orleans, and the University of Holy Cross
• Catholicism, disease, and healthcare
• Catholicism, music, and sound
• Catholicism, food, and festivity
• Catholicism, race, and ethnicity
• Antiquity, medieval, and pre-modern Catholicism

We invite proposals that depart from the traditional paper session format, including roundtables, book discussions, and site visits. Submissions that demonstrate disciplinary and/or methodological diversity – including panels composed of scholars outside the field of history who understand history as relevant to their discipline – are especially welcome. 

We strongly seek out panels that include diverse participants and reflect generational diversity, as well as participants in various career paths and of various ranks (including graduate students, contingent faculty, public historians, curators, librarians and archivists, independent scholars, and those employed outside the traditional academy). To encourage making connections before the proposal deadlines, consider connecting with others interested in the ACHA conference via this link. The program committee will monitor the spreadsheet and encourages sharing ideas in this way to build out panel proposals.

To ensure the broadest possible participation in the ACHA annual meeting, we ask that participants limit themselves to taking a role in any capacity in no more than two proposed sessions during the conference. The ACHA encourages panelists to submit their proposals for co-sponsorship with the American Historical Association.

This year’s AHA deadline is February 15. The ACHA will continue to accept paper and panel proposals until March 15.