Shenandoah University Hosts Virginia Forum On Its 20th Anniversary

Shenandoah University, which hosted the inaugural Virginia Forum in 2006, welcomed hundreds of visitors back to its main campus in Winchester, Virginia, in March for the 20th anniversary of the premier conference devoted to Virginia history.

Over 200 historians, students, museum professionals, archivists, and independent scholars from across the country participated in the March 19-21 event. This year’s theme, “Revolutions and Resistance,” treated attendees to scholarship and conversation about how periods of upheaval, transformation, and dissent throughout Virginia’s history impacted the state and its people.

The forum began on March 19, with a walking tour of downtown Winchester – led by Jonathan Noyalas ’01, M.A., the Hugh & Virginia McCormick Chair in Civil War History at Shenandoah, director of the university’s McCormick Civil War Institute and chair of the 2026 Virginia Forum – which focused on the lives of enslaved people in Winchester during the Civil War era. Over the next two days, 31 sessions in Shenandoah’s Brandt Student Center, Halpin-Harrison Hall and Hazel-Pruitt Armory, covered a range of topics that explored political, social and cultural revolutions, from colonial resistance during the American Revolution and 19th-century rebellion, to civil rights activism and present-day engagement with a controversial past and contentious present.

“The Virginia Forum has significantly influenced my growth as a historian. Many of my published books over the past 20 years originated from papers presented at the forum or from conversations there. The Virginia Forum is more than just a gathering for anyone interested in Virginia history; it is a platform that can help launch careers.” 

Jonathan Noyalas, Director of the McCormick Civil War Institute at Shenandoah University

Nearly 100 research papers were presented at the forum, Noyalas said. In addition to having the opportunity to listen to various panels and engage with exhibitors, attendees enjoyed a special presentation and performance by historian Gregg Kimball about music as resistance, during the Virginia Forum’s 20th anniversary banquet on March 20.

The forum also showcased how Shenandoah University is finding new, innovative ways to teach history, as Nathan Prestopnik, Ph.D., co-director of the Shenandoah Center for Immersive Learning (SCiL) and director of Shenandoah University’s Bachelor of Arts in virtual reality design, led the group session “Present in the Past: Exploring History with Immersive Learning Technologies” to end the forum on March 21.

In recent years, SCiL has launched two immersive, educational virtual reality projects: “The Great Experiment,” which places users in the Assembly Room of the Pennsylvania State House (now known as Independence Hall) in Philadelphia during the debates that led to the creation of the Electoral College at the Constitutional Convention of 1787; and “Lewis and Clark VR,” which follows the famed cross-country expedition led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in the early 19th century, and allows users to interact with historic artifacts at many key sites along the trail and hear from experts about the individuals who played a role in the expedition.

“The forum, by all accounts of the participants, was a great success,” said Warren Hofstra, Ph.D., the Stewart Bell professor of history at Shenandoah University and founding president of the Virginia Forum. “And insofar as the annual conferences of the forum for 20 years are also an indicator of success, its origins at SU and its return for the 20th anniversary speaks very well for the creativity, innovation, and rigor fostered by the university.”

The Virginia Forum is an interdisciplinary conference that welcomes work in a variety of disciplines and brings together students, historians, academics and other professionals who engage in the study and interpretation of Virginia history and culture. The forum takes place at a different location – primarily colleges and universities – each year, and 2026 marks the first time the Virginia Forum returned to a previous host site.

“Over the past two decades, I have attended numerous forums held at various institutions across the commonwealth of Virginia, including the inaugural forum at Shenandoah in 2006,” Noyalas said. “It was a great honor to chair this year’s forum at the very place it all began, especially alongside Warren Hofstra, one of my undergraduate mentors from my time at SU — someone I now proudly call colleague and friend. The Virginia Forum is a welcoming place and I would strongly encourage anyone interested in Virginia history to attend.”

For more information about the Virginia Forum, visit virginia-forum.org.