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The purpose of our conference is to cross boundaries and find new ways of exploring and teaching the early history and culture of the Americas. Panel presentations represent one fruitful way of disseminating original research and creating dialogue among conference participants. However, participating in one of our workshops, either as a presenter or a respondent, represents an innovative way of privileging dialogue and interactivity among conference participants. The workshop setting enables scholars and teachers to find common ground and engage with each other on substantive historical case studies, theoretical questions or methodological concerns. By promoting workshops, our conference seeks to create mechanisms for collaboration and dialogue that are not always possible in standard panels.

While there is no single way of achieving the objectives of the workshop format, in what follows we offer some specific suggestions for maximizing interactivity between its participants.

One possible model is having core panelists and respondents in a workshop setting. Core panelists or presenters make initial presentations and respondents, who have previously read the papers of the panelists, engage them in a discussion that is open to all, including audience members.

The presentations of workshop panelists should be briefer than that of regular panels. Presenters might think of their "presentations" in terms of position papers that grow out of longer and more specific, on-going research.

Unlike presenters in non-workshop panels, who gather for their panel with little (if any) contact with their co-presenters, workshop presenters are encouraged to think of the workshop panel in terms of an intervention that results from a previous dialogue.Ideally, the workshop is a collaborative process that begins before the conference, and not simply a narrow and fleeting coming together of presenters.

To facilitate discussion with conference attendees, workshop participants may decide to post their position papers or other supplementary papers on the conference website.

1. "Translation and Comparative Colonial Studies." Panelists: Kathleen Ross (NYU) (Chair); Maureen Ahern (Ohio State), Daniel Reff (Ohio State), Cynthia Stone (Holy Cross).
2. "Colonial American Studies in the national Context." Panelists: Christopher Conway, (Brown University) (Chair), Matt Cohen (Duke U), Richard Gordon (Southern Methodist U), Domingo Ledezma (Wheaton C), Juan Luis Suarez (U Western Ontario).
3. "Food in the Colonial Americas." Panelists: Nina Scott (U Massachusetts) (Chair); David Shields (U South Carolina); Janet Long (National Autonomous University of Mexico); Silvia Navia (Webster University); Sandra Oliver (editor and publisher Food History News).
4. "Women and Conquest: colonial and postcolonial perspectives" Panelists: Sandra Cypess (U Maryland) (Chair) and Zabelle Stodola (U Arkansas) (Chair) (Panel closed)
5. "American Enlightenments". Panelists: Karen Stolley (Emory) (Chair); Dennis Moore (Florida State); Frank Shuffleton (U Rochester); Mariselle Meléndez (U Illinois Urbana), Shannon Lee Dawdy (U Chicago), Jerry Williams (Westchester University).
6. Beyond 'Female Friendship': Co-Chairs Jodi Schorb (Hamilton College) and Amanda Powell (U Oregon)
7. "The Challenge of Comparativism: Practical Strategies for Reading Early American Women's Literature." Panelists: Lisa Logan (U Central Florida) (Chair), Electa Arenal (CUNY Graduate Center), Tamara Harvey (George Mason U), Jode Schorb (Hamilton College), Karen Weyler (U North Carolina, Greensboro).
8. "The Rhetoric of Slavery in the Early Americas." Panelists: Dan Williams (U of Mississippi) (Chair); Philip Gould (Brown University); Kathryn McKnight (U New Mexico).
9. "Beyond the Survey: Colonial American Studies in the Classroom." Panelists: Anne Myles (University of Northern Iowa) (Chair)
10. "Catholicism in the Early Americas." Panelists : James Levernier (U of Arkansas) (Chair)
11. "Editing and reading Native 'texts'". Panelists: Kristina Bross (Purdue U) (Chair) and Hilary Wyss (Auburn U) (Chair).
12. "The legacy of Bartolome de Las Casas in the early modern world." Panelists: Eyda Merediz (U Maryland) (Chair), Thomas Scanlan (Ohio University), Santa Arias (Florida SU), Jonathan Hart (U Alberta), Veronica Salles-Reese (Georgetown U).
13. “Collaborative Teaching of Comparative Topics” Panelists: Michael Householder (Southern Methodist) (Chair)
14. “Epistemologies and Environments in the Colonial Americas.” Panelists: Susan Scott Parrish (U Michigan) (Chair), Gustavo Verdesio (U Michigan) (Chair)