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.

We envision being able to provide successful workshop applicants with additional funding to help defray the cost of attending. Additional conference sessions related to careers and publishing questions will be open for all to attend; please check the conference program closer to the date. To apply for a place in the book proposal workshop, please send the following documents to emerging.scholars.committee.bhc@gmail.com with the subject line “London Book Proposal Workshop Application” by December 15th, 2025:

  • A cover letter, max. 1 page, that briefly summarizes your dissertation and states why you would benefit from the workshop. 

  • A writing sample, max. 20 pages, that shows promise for your first book. This could be part of your introduction, a concept document, an article, etc. 

  • A brief academic curriculum vitae, max. 2 pages.

We strive to notify applicants by late January 2026. If accepted, workshop participants should be prepared to circulate their draft book proposals in advance of the conference meeting.

Selection criteria and eligibility: Our primary interest lies in helping early career scholars develop great dissertations into convincing book proposals. We will therefore first consider the quality and novelty of the scholarship as reflected in the application materials. We are seeking well-researched work with strong analysis. In light of the ESC’s mission to help the career development of all recent graduates as well as the BHC’s DEI guidelines, we may also consider the applicant’s level of available institutional support and the diversification of BHC membership. Applicants must hold a Ph.D. by the time of the workshop and must be writing their first book.

Learn more about our first Book Proposal Workshop: 

The BHC’s Emerging Scholars Committee put together the first edition of the Book Proposal Workshop during BHC’s annual conference in Atlanta in 2025. Historian Seth Rockman and University of Chicago Press editor Timothy Mennel acted as convenors. 

The participants were: 
Adam Hefetz (Title of Book Proposal: “Capitalizing Zionism: The Anglo-Palestine Bank and the Commercial Economy of Interwar Palestine”) 
Joshua Lappen (Title of Book Proposal: “Cultures of Power: Electrification, Politics, and Visibility in Greater Los Angeles”) 
Tracy Mensah (Title of Book Proposal: “Shopping for all Pocket: A Business History of Indians in Ghana, 1890-1980”) 
Meng Wu (Title of Book Proposal: “Silver Remittance Across the Empire: Growth, Governance Structure, and Business Strategy of the Chinese Shanxi Piaohao Banks, 1820s–1930s”) 
Che Yeun (Title of Book Proposal: “Finishing Touch: Technologies for the Modern American Body, 1880-1980”) 
Faculty director Seth Rockman has called the workshop “valuable for the five early career scholars, intellectually enriching for me as the convener, and important for the BHC in opening doors for new scholars and promoting the quality of business history scholarship in print.”