McMullen Naval History Symposium


The McMullen Naval History Symposium is a biennial international academic conference held at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland devoted to the history of the world's navies. It has become the "largest regular meeting of naval historians in the world" and has been described as the U.S. Navy's "single most important interaction with academic historical audience"

History

This regular biennial series of symposia began as the U.S. Naval Academy Naval History Symposium. The first regular symposium was held in Annapolis on 27–28 April 1973, following a successful 1971 conference that had been conceived as an annual event and on a smaller scale with limited, invited participation. In 1977 for the Third Symposium, the Naval Academy History Department decided to expand the concept and model it along the lines of the academic conferences sponsored by the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians
The conference that had been planned to open on 12 September 2001 was abruptly cancelled by the attacks that occurred in New York and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001 and left the future of the conference in grave doubt. It took four years for the Naval Academy's leadership to approve the resumption of the conference on a biennial schedule, but with strong support the series resumed with the Fifteenth Conference in 2007. Facilitating this, in 2006 the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Foundation granted funds from the estate of Bill Daniels and the McMullen Seapower Lecture gift funds to support the symposium and to name it the McMullen Naval History Symposium in memory of Dr. John J. McMullen, Naval Academy Class of 1940, a naval architect, engineer, and sports club owner. Dr McMullen is also commemorated through a keynote McMullen Seapower lecture given at the symposium by the holder of the Class of 1957 Distinguished Chair of Naval Heritage.
The symposium has shown strength and growth in recent years. Despite the economic recession, more than two-hundred participants from seventeen countries attended the 2009 symposium. and the 2011 symposium had over 250 in attendance over 125 papers presented.

Fellowships

In 2009, the McMullen Seapower Fellowship was established for U.S Naval Academy faculty members to research, write, and deliver Seapower lectures at the biennial naval history symposium.
McMullen Seapower Fellows
McMullen Post Doctoral Fellows
In 2012, a postdoctoral fellowship was created and is to be filled biennially:
No symposia were held in 2003 and 2005.