Each year, the GHA hosts the annual Milton Plesur Graduate History Conference, a graduate conference named in honor of the late Milton Plesur, a distinguished professor of History who taught at the University at Buffalo from 1955 to 1987. The conference has no overarching theme, and all works of historical inquiry are considered, with no restrictions placed upon the themes, chronological periods, or general areas of study that the papers can cover. Like the GHA, the conference embraces interdisciplinary approaches to the study of history, and graduate students from a number of different disciplines have presented papers on a wide variety of historical topics since the conference was first held on April 15, 1993.
A highlight of the Plesur conference is its keynote address. The GHA invites a prominent historian to give the keynote, with past presenters including Brianna Theobald(2020), Katherine Ott(2019), Robert Deal (2018), Dr. Mauricio Tenorio (2017), Jonathan Dewald and Bridget Chesterton (2016), Tong Lam (2015), Erin K. Rowe (2014), Barbara Krauthamer (2013), Paul Deslandes (2012), Jelani Cobb (2011), Jon Sensbach (2010), Susan Myers-Shirk (2009), Nan Enstad (2008), Penny Von Eschen (2007), Victoria De Grazia (2006), Hasia Diner (2005), Matthew Guterl (2004), David Thelen (2003), Joseph A. McCartin (2002), and Volker R. Berhahn (2001).
In light of the Covid-19 Pandemic the Milton Plesur Conference was canceled in 2021 and 2022. We hope to resume the Conference in the future.