The California Council for the Promotion of History's annual conference will convene in the Sierra foothill gold rush towns of Sonora, Jamestown and Columbia, October 21-23. Join us to explore the theme: What's So Funny About History?

Funny means comical and clownish, but it also means humorous, witty, surprising, eccentric, satiric, ironic, farcical, absurd, quirky and, in Shakespeare's phrase, wondrous strange.

In these broader senses, much of California history has been very funny. Funny has greased political and economic wheels, disarmed and emboldened, spoken truth to power, and earned this State a reputation for creative spontaneity and a high tolerance for odd-balls. In all of this, funny has been a powerful agent of historical change.

To encourage development of future professionals in the fields of public history and historic preservation, the California Council for the Promotion of History (CCPH) is offering up to eight conference stipends to public history students and new public history professionals (in the field fewer than three years). The stipends are funded by CCPH and through a grant from the California Office of Historic Preservation.

Click here for the 2010 Conference Program and Registration Forms.

Click here for information about stipends for the 2010 Conference.

For all those interested in attending Session 13 with Dick Miller and Phil Borden, please read this article prior to the conference.

If you have questions, e-mail the CCPH Program Committee at ccphprogram@hotmail.com.