The Association of Business Historians conference 2025 will be held in Belfast, UK, from 19 to 21 June 2025 and invites submissions to the conference committee on the theme of ‘Business History Applied’.

Applied history, the use of the past to inform understanding of current challenges and support decision making, is a growing field. It is creating an interesting intersection between business history, numerous management disciplines, and areas of practice. Expanding literatures in various fields are examining how the histories of organizations and individuals are used, proactively and implicitly, through mechanisms such as memory, artefacts, rhetoric, and narratives, to contextualize the organization, managers, entrepreneurs, and the environments in which they operate. This sense making is shown to shape routines, practices, and decisions. This is opening exciting collaborative approaches and the development of methodologies to the historical study of organizations and individuals.

Outside the academy, demand for historically informed analysis amongst policy makers, corporate decision makers, and actors in civil society is also growing. Historical reasoning, using analogues, precedents, and long run trends, is important in the development of deeper understanding of contemporary challenges in business and the economy, and has the potential to improve decision making.

Business historians are well-positioned to make significant contributions with this agenda both inside and outside the academy. We invite participants in considering the conference theme to reflect on these opportunities and challenges – We also welcome papers and panels on any aspect of business history and will look to develop a diverse programme for the conference.

How to submit a paper or session proposal

The programme committee will consider both individual papers and entire panels. We are keen to encourage both developmental and mature papers. Individual paper proposals should include a one-page (up to 300-word) abstract with title of the presentation and brief biographical note. Panel proposals should include a cover letter stating the title and rationale for the panel and the name of its contact person; one-page (300-word) abstract and author’s CV for each paper; and a list of preferred panel chairs and commentators with contact information. The deadline for submissions is 24th January 2025.

The ABH Conference organiser is Dr Michael Aldous.

The Program Committee intend to send notifications of acceptance as soon as possible once the deadline has passed.

All questions and queries regarding the conference should be directed to Michael Aldous at ABH2025@qub.ac.uk

More details and information are in the call for papers