The 130th annual meeting was held in the Hilton Atlanta, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, and the Hyatt Regency Atlanta hotels on January 7 - 11. The theme of the 2016 meeting was "Global Migrations: Empires, Nations, and Neighbors." The AHA was joined by 57 affiliate organizations, and distinguished scholars spoke at approximately 400 sessions in the course of these four days. Nearly 3,800 scholars attended the meeting.

Highlights from this meeting included expanded digital history offerings, such as the workshop on "Getting Started in Digital History," as well as two lightning round sessions, and a bustling digital drop-in session. We had 60 poster presenters this year, up from 20 in 2014, and 40 in 2015. The AHA's Career Diversity initiative hosted several exciting professional development events. These included the "Job Workshop for Historians," a "Media Training Workshop for Historians, and panels such as "The Promise of History Internships" and "Digital Publishing Initiatives: Training Humanities Scholars." Career Diversity also hosted the Career Fair, which gave graduate students the opportunity to chat with historians working in a variety of different professions.

Awards and honors were announced Friday, January 8, followed by the plenary session, in which historians discussed the complex history of Confederate symbols. 2015 AHA president Vicki Ruiz delivered the Presidential Address on Saturday, January 9; it is available for viewing online. The address was titled "Class Acts: Latina Feminist Traditions, 1900-1930." Ruiz handed the AHA gavel over to 2016 president Patrick Manning at the business meeting, held on Sunday, January 10.