American Historical Association

Professional Division

The AHA Professional Division promotes integrity, fairness, and civility in the practice of history—in educational institutions, museums and archives, government agencies and non-profit organizations, and all other places where historians study and interpret the past. 

Among the Professional Division’s many responsibilities are the following:

• articulating ethical standards and best practices in the historical profession;

• working to ensure fair treatment of all historians, regardless of ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, age, and/or disability, in the course of their professional training and their careers in the historical profession;

• supporting the free movement of students, scholars, and ideas into and out of the United States: the Division will pay special attention to the problems faced by foreign scholars invited to speak or do research or offered positions in the United States;

• responding to queries about the AHA’s Statement of Standards of Professional Conduct and proposing revisions to that document as needed;

• developing additional advisory materials to assist historians in navigating the professional opportunities, challenges, and dilemmas they encounter in their work;

• addressing concerns relating to the practice of public history;

• collecting and disseminating information about historical employment;

• monitoring job markets in history and overseeing AHA roles therein;

• selecting recipients of the Troyer Steele Anderson Prize and any other prizes for professional service.

Members

Vice President

• Jacqueline Jones, Univ. of Texas, Austin

Councilors

• Sara Abosch, Dallas Holocaust Museum

• Mary Louise Roberts, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison

• Andrew Jon Rotter, Colgate Univ.

Staff

• Sharon K. Tune, Director, Meetings and Administrative Operations

 

Reports

Plagiarism

• Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct (2005)
• Plagiarism and Historical Journals (November 2007)
• How to Detect and Demonstrate Plagiarism (2006)
• Plagiarism: Curricular Materials for History Instructors (2006)
• Reflections on Plagiarism- Part 1: "A Guide for the Perplexed" (February 2004)
• Reflections on Plagiarism - Part 2: "The Object of Trials" (March 2004)
• A Watershed for the Professional Division (September 2003)
• AHA to Cease Adjudicating Complaints (May 2003)

History in the Public Realm

• The Professional Division has primary oversight over public history in the Association, including developing Resources for Public Historians and implementing the Report of the Task Force on Public History.
• Tenure, Promotion, and the Publicly Engaged Academic Historian, report of the Working Group on Evaluating Public History Scholarship (joint with the National Council on Public History and the Organization of American Historians) (June 2010)
• Building Successful Partnerships between Museums and Universities (December 2007)
• Meeting the Press: Twelve Tips for a Better Interview (November 2005)

Employment

• When Academic Departments Merge: First Principles, Best Practices (April 2012)
• Best Practices on Transparency in Placement Records (April 2012)
• Telephone and Video Interviews for Academic Hiring: Some Guidelines (March 2011)
• Age Discrimination and the Community of Historians: An Advisory Opinion from the Professional Division (December 2008)
• Running a Job Search: Some Practical Suggestions (October 2008)
• Guidelines for Job Offers in History (2007)
• Best Practices for Interviewers (October 2006)
• Practical Advice for Treating Job Candidates (November 2007)
• Best Practices for Interviewers (October 2006)
• Writing Letters of Recommendation Revisited: The Undergraduate Case (February 2008)
• Letters of Recommendation: Some Songs of Experience (October 2007)
• Letters of Recommendation: Problems and Practices (October 2007)
• Letters of Recommendation: The Art and the Science (October 2007)
• Letters of Recommendation: Haikus or Hagiographies? (October 2007)
• The Pitfalls and Opportunities of Hiring in Non-Western History (February 2007)
• What We Owe Our Young: Honest Information about Placement (February 2006)
• Disability and the Transformation of Historian's Public Sphere (November 2006)
• Standards for Employment of Part-time Faculty (May 2003)
• Guidelines for the Employment of Part-Time and Temporary Faculty in History (November 1998)
• Moral Fables and Cautionary Tales from the Job Market (April 1998)
• Good Practices and Common Goals: The Conference on Part-Time and Adjunct Faculty (January 1998)
• Statement on Discrimination and Harassment in Academia (May 1991)
• Statement on Diversity in History Teaching (May 1991)

Reputation and Trust

• Advisory Opinion Regarding Conflict of Interest (May 1991)

Last Updated: March 23, 2013 1:07 PM