Speaking — James P. Ambuske

Speaking

Connecting with audiences and sharing my love of history is one of the best parts about being a professional historian. I’ve been fortunate to speak to scholarly and public audiences in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.
I regularly deliver talks on the American Revolution and Early Republic, Scottish-American relations in the 18th century, and Digital History.
I have also appeared in documentary films and I formerly hosted and produced the podcast *Conversations at the Washington Library* as well as produced and co-hosted the Washington Library’s Digital Book Talk Series.
I am delighted to speak in person or virtually to general audiences, teacher workshops, students, and fellow academics. Please contact me if would like me to speak to your group or moderate your event. You can find my upcoming and recent appearances below.

Upcoming Events:

Teaching American and Digital Revolutions, 2024 Institute for Thomas Paine Studies Annual Conference, Iona University (NY): 27 September 2024.

Roundtable: New Directions on Early Modern Scottish Studies, Northeast Conference on British Studies, Hartford, CT: 28 September 2024.

Recent Appearances and Podcast Interviews:

“Thomas Jefferson and George III: American Revolutionaries.” City Tavern Foundation, Georgetown, Washington, D.C., 24 July 2024.

“The Second Exile: Scottish Loyalists in British Canada after the American Revolution.” Annual Meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early Republic Philadelphia, PA., 21 July 2024.

Panel Comment – “Revisiting Scotland and America.” Annual Conference of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Poitiers, France, 18 June 2024.

“Worlds Turned Upside Down with James Patrick Ambuske” - Revolution 250 Podcast hosted by Robert Allison, 23 April 2024.

“Jumonville’s America: A View from His Glen.” Keynote Address. Virginia Phi Alpha Theta History Honor Society Regional Conference, Lexington, VA., 13 April 2024.

“Turning Worlds Upside Down: Challenging Public Assumptions about the Past through Podcasting.” Keynote Address. The Virginia Forum, Richmond, VA:
4 April 2024.

“Building Your Podcast Brand.” Podcast Learning Network: Brock University (Canada),Virtual: 19 January 2024.

“Worlds Turned Upside Down: Podcasting the American Revolution.” Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, San Francisco, CA: 7 January 2024

“Wicked to Keep Your Subjects Home By Force”: Thomas Miller, Henry Dundas, and the Suppression of Scottish Emigration in the Revolutionary Atlantic World.” Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies, Monticello, 12 December 2023.

“Colonel Allan Maclean of Torloisk and the Mobilization of Scottish Highland Emigrants during the War for Independence.” Southern Historical Association Annual Meeting, Charlotte, NC: 12 November 2023

“Thomas Jefferson and George III: American Revolutionaries.” National Society of the Colonial Dames of America: Virginia: 8 December 2023.

“To a realm without want” Scotland’s American Revolution. City Tavern Preservation Foundation, Georgetown, Washington, D.C. : 13 December 2023.

The Craft of Podcasts”: Humanities Podcast Network Symposium, Virtual: 27 October 2023 | Co-panel moderator.

“Scottish Immigrants & the American Economy,” The George Washington Teacher’s Institute: George Washington’s Mount Vernon: 20 July 2023.

“The Long Tail of Loyalism,” Loyalism and Memory: A Roundtable on the Place of Loyalist Stories in the Coming 2026 Anniversary. Annual Meeting of the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Philadelphia: 15 July 2023.

“Jefferson and George III” – A Life in Letters: A Celebration of Dr. Barbara Oberg, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia: 7 June 2023.

“Scotland, Loyalism, and the American Revolution,” 2023 Tartan Day Symposium, Washington, D.C., 6 April 2023.

“I Cannot Tell a Lie: George Washington and the Cherry Tree,” Washington, D.C. Chapter of the Children of the American Revolution, Arlington, VA:
18 February 2023.

“The Pieces of Podcasting You Don’t Know but Should, ”Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association. Philadelphia, PA: January 6, 2023 | Panel Chair

“Archibald McCall’s American Revolution,”Scottish Freemasons in America, 1750–1800, The George Washington National Masonic Memorial: 5 November 2022.

“Intertwined: The Enslaved Community at George Washington’s Mount Vernon,” Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello: 14 September 2022 | Featured Speaker with Jeanette Patrick.

“The Music of the American Revolution,” Crafting Narratives of Empire, 2022 Institute for Thomas Paine Studies Annual Conference, Iona University (NY)
22 September 2022 | Featured Speaker.

“King-Size Disappointment, with Dr. Jim Ambuske, ”Stopping to Think hosted by Will Dole: 21 June 2022.

“Podcasting the Past,” Historians and the Public Symposium, Jefferson Scholars Foundation: 27 May 2022.

“Scottish Court of Session Project: Learning from Legal Archives with Jim Ambuske,” The Quill Project Conventions Podcast hosted by Dr. Grace Mallon:
13 May 2022.

Roundtable on Public History, Teaching Independence: Bridging the Communications Gap (Online), University of Pennsylvania: 26 March 2022.

“Jim Ambuske, Digital Historian at the George Washington Library at Mount Vernon, and Podcast Host and Producer,” Success InSight hosted by Howard A. Fox:
18 March 2022.

“The Radicalization of Washington's Friends and Enemies Before the Revolution,” 2022 George Washington Symposium, The George Washington National Masonic Memorial (Washington, D.C.): 26 February 2022.

“An American Revolution with Jim Ambuske,” Beautiful Bastards Podcast hosted by Griz and Gerry: 22 February 2022.

“Enslavement at Mount Vernon: A Conversation with Dr. Jim Ambuske, ”Inclusive History hosted by Erica Kennedy, 20 February 2022.

“Podcasting as Publicity, Pedagogy, and Publishing,” Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians, Boston, MA: 1 April 2022.

“An Overview of George Washington’s Life,” Tandem Friends School, Charlottesville, VA: 14 January 2022.

“Digitizing the Hidden Voices of Scotland’s Legal Past,” History Scotland, (Online): 12 January 2022.

“Narrative Podcasting as Scholarship,” Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, New Orleans, LA: 7 January 2022.

The Strange Genius of Mr. O.: A Conversation with Carolyn Eastman, Washington Library Ford Evening Book Talk, (Online) 27 October 2021 | Moderator.

“History of Pandemics with Ph.D. holder Jim Ambuske,” TAO Podcast: The Pandemic Press hosted by Rashni Hewawasam: 21 September 2021.

The Howe Dynasty: A Conversation with Julie Flavell, Washington Library Digital Talk Series, (Online): 7 September 2021.

“Washington Library’s Dr. Jim Ambuske and Jeanette Patrick: The Whiskey Rebellion,” Whiskey Lore: The Interviews hosted by Drew Hannush: 25 August 2021.

Religion and the American Revolution: A Conversation with Katherine Carté, Washington Library Digital Talk Series , (Online): 22 July 2021 | Moderator.

“Scotch and Foreign Mercenaries”: Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence…and John Witherspoon’s,” Thomas Jefferson Chapter | Virginia Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (Charlottesville, VA): 5 June 2021.

The Trials of James Graham in the Revolutionary Atlantic World, Benjamin Franklin House of London, (Online): 17 May 2021.

EDITOR: To Catalogue Where No One Has Catalogued Before, Centre for Research Collections, University of Edinburgh and University of Virginia Law Library
(Online): 10-12 March 2021.

“Episode 1: Podcasts,” Public History in a Virtual Age hosted by Dr. Lindsey Chervinsky: 28 September 2020.

“American Loyalists before the Court of Session: Litigating the American Revolution in Scotland’s Supreme Civil Court,” Foundations of Independence: 2020 Institute for Thomas Paine Studies Annual Conference, (Online): 25 September 2020.

“Begin The World Again A Newe,” Your Most Obedient & Humble Servant hosted by Kathryn Gehred: 13 October 2020.

“Mapping the Backcountry before the American Revolution,” Washington’s Trail, 1753 Annual Symposium, (Online): 8 October 2020.

“Scotland and America in an Age of War and Revolution,” Westlake Village, California Rotary Club, (Online): 11 November 2020.

“The Scottish Court of Session Digital Archive Project and the Legacies of the American Revolution, ”American Philosophical Society Virtual Brown Bag Series:
21 July 2020.

“Washington’s Era” With Sadie Troy, a discussion with students of the ASPIRE Congressional Academy (Clark County, KY), via Zoom:
11 May 2020 | Co-presenter.

“George III and the Loyalist’s American Revolution,” Dr. David Arnold’s National War College students via Zoom: 25 March 2020.

“Mapping the American Revolution at the Washington Library, ”Virginia Consortium of Early Americanists (Richmond, VA.): 23 January 2020.

“Digitizing the Enlightenment and the Law: Reconstructing Enlightenment Identities in the British Atlantic World through the Records of Scotland’s Court of Session,” International Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Congress (Edinburgh, Scotland): 18 July 2019.

“A Family Divided: The Transnational Legal History of the Duguid Family in the Era of the American Revolution,” Family and Justice in the Archives (Montreal, Canada): 5 May 2019.

“A Loyal Island in a Sea of Rebellion: Prince William Henry’s New York City in the American Revolution, ”British Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies Annual Conference (Oxford, England): 5 January 2019.