Early Career Scholars Book Proposal Workshop

2026 BHC Meeting

The BHC’s Emerging Scholars Committee is once again organizing an in-person book proposal workshop during the 2026 conference in London. To be held on Thursday, March 26th, this is an exciting opportunity for up to five emerging scholars to improve their first-book proposals under the guidance of senior faculty. We are very happy to announce that award-winning historian (and past BHC president) Sharon Murphy will convene the workshop.

Participants will pre-circulate and read all book proposals ahead of the conference. On the day of the workshop, they will meet in a group with the faculty director to discuss each proposal in detail. Workshop participants may also have the opportunity to engage with university press and/or series editors. We’re happy to share that participating in the workshop in the past has directly led to a book contract.

“The book proposal workshop exceeded all my expectations: intensely intellectually rewarding, highly practical and targeted, and an introduction to [...] fascinating work across the entire spectrum of business history. The workshop simultaneously helped to shape my book project, and gave me a new set of colleagues, mentors, and friends.” (Joshua Lappen, 2025 participant)

This initiative aspires to support a new generation of historians working on topics related to business history in innovative ways. We invite applications from those working in business history broadly defined and welcome proposals on a wide variety of topics, including but not limited to political economy, labor history, consumption studies, financial history, and the history of science and technology, among others.

Sponsored by the Inquire Capitalism Program, University of Florida.