Annual Report 1997
Nominating Committee
On behalf of the Nominating Committee, I am pleased to report
the results of the 1997 election for AHA offices. Elected candidates
are indicated with an asterisk. Total ballots cast: 3,292.
President (one-year term)
*Joseph C. Miller, University of Virginia (Africa, world, history
of slavery and the slave trade, social/economic) 2,421
President-Elect (one-year term)
*Robert Darnton, Princeton University (early modern Europe,
18th-century France, history of the book) 1,864
Joan Wallach Scott, Institute for Advanced Study (modern Europe,
modern France, history of women and feminism, feminist theory) 1,341
Vice President, Teaching Division (three-year term)
*Leon Fink, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (U.S.
and comparative labor, Gilded Age and Progressive Era, American
political culture, occupational folklore, history of intellectuals)
1,652
Maris A. Vinovskis, University of Michigan (U.S. social, education,
family, demography) 1,298
Council Members (three-year terms)
Place 1:
*Nadine Ishitani Hata, El Camino College (Asia Pacific, Asian-Pacific
American, U.S. social, historic preservation in California) 1,382
Evelyn Edson, Piedmont Virginia Community College (Europe, Western
civilization, interdisciplinary humanities) 1,288
Place 2:
*Marilyn B. Young, New York University (U.S.-East Asian relations,
modern China, Third World women) 1,595
Michael P. Adas, Rutgers University (comparative colonial, global,
modern South and Southeast Asia, history of technology, cultural
history of colonialism) 1,269
Division Members (three-year terms)
Professional
*James Grossman, Newberry Library (United States since the Civil
War) 1,579
Richard V. W. Buel Jr., Wesleyan University (early America,
revolutionary, early Republic, America through the Civil War) 1,189
Research
*Gale Stokes, Rice University (19th- and 20th-century East European
political)
1,760
Cemal Kafadar, Harvard University (social and cultural history
of the Middle East and the Balkans, 1300-1800) 897
Teaching
*Nupur Chaudhuri, Kansas State University (British colonial,
British women, India)
1,425
Stephen J. Kneeshaw, College of the Ozarks (American diplomatic,
20th-century United States, history education) 1,235
Committee on Committees (three-year term):
*Madeleine Zelin, Columbia University (modern Chinese history,
social and social movements, economic, legal and comparative legal,
modern Chinese literature and translation) 1,448
Gail Hershatter, University of California at Santa Cruz (modern
China, labor, women, history of sexuality) 1,160
Nominating Committee (three-year terms):
Place 1:
*Philip D. Morgan, Omohundro Institute of Early American History
and Culture, College of William and Mary (early America, early Caribbean,
African American, Atlantic) 1,669
Gary Y. Okihiro, Cornell University (Asian American, southern
Africa) 1,070
Place 2:
*Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, Smith College (U.S. cultural, women,
higher education, landscape) 1,431
Sarah J. Deutsch, Clark University (U.S. social, women, race
relations, West)
1,320
Place 3:
*Michael Les Benedict, Ohio State University (American legal
and constitutional, Civil War and Reconstruction, Gilded Age) 1,399
David J. Weber, Southern Methodist University (Latin America,
Spanish Borderlands, American Southwest, Mexican American) 1,385
The total number of ballots cast was 3,292. Eighty-one ballots arrived
after the November 1 deadline and could not be counted. Survey and
Ballot Systems, Inc., of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, scanned the ballots
and tabulated the results. Only 20 ballots needed to be hand counted.
Some voters registered their opinions about candidates, and the
committee will review these criticisms and comments at its next
meeting in February 1998.
The committee met, as usual, in Washington, D.C., February 1-3,
for what turned out to be a most productive and congenial meeting.
In a break from tradition, we began our meeting on a Saturday. We
had planned to meet until Tuesday, February 4, but found that we
had finished our work by Monday morning. All of us thought that
the new pattern for the meeting-beginning on Saturday-was a highly
successful innovation and we recommend that it continue. The new
schedule, however, makes it very important to have as much information
about potential candidates as possible. The committee, therefore,
recommends that members of the next Nominating Committee be informed
as soon as possible of the slots that will be open and they be urged
to accumulate and bring c.v.'s to the meeting. The committee also
recommends that the AHA's membership list be available electronically
in the meeting room for the committee's use.
Participation in the election this year was higher than last year,
with 3,292 votes cast as opposed to the 2,730 cast the year before.
In general, however, participation rates have been disappointingly
low considering the size of the AHA. Because last year's committee
expressed concern about this, we were asked by the AHA Council to
look at the candidate biography booklet that accompanies the election
ballot. Sharon K. Tune of the AHA staff provided us with samples
of candidate information used by other learned societies.
In our discussions, we unanimously agreed that radical change is
needed to make the booklet more attractive and user-friendly. The
present format carries a lot of useful information but it is filled
with abbreviations and it looks too much like a sea of type. We
believe that it would be preferable to present less total information
but to present the central information in a truly readable form.
This is a case of "less is more," because our effort to make a great
deal of information available means that none was actually
being communicated.
We recommend that the new booklet be primarily narrative in format.
A narrative would give the candidates some choice as to how to present
themselves to the membership, and they would have the opportunity
to advance some interesting ideas. The new format would still include
information about major publications, awards, and service.
Specifically, we recommend that the individual candidate's narrative
begin with his or her name, affiliation, job title, and fields of
interest. This would be followed by a statement of a limited number
of words, and with limited entries in a number of categories. These
categories (as modified by the AHA Council) presented in the narrative,
not a list, would include:
1. Major publications (we would want to provide some guidelines
as to what constitutes major publications).
2. Major awards and service.
3. Other contributions (a category that would allow public historians
to list their accomplishments).
We also thought that the AHA should explore the possibility of using
individual pictures. (The Council rejected this proposal.) We also
recommend that the AHA explore the use of a typographic consultant
on graphics and layout. Several committee members thought that such
advice might be available at low cost, perhaps through the use of
a friend of the organization or a graduate student in the field
of design.
We also thought that candidates should have the option of placing
their c.v.'s on the AHA's web site.
All of us felt strongly that the final vote should not be published
in the newsletter; it would still be available, of course, in the
AHA's Annual Report and reported to the business meeting.
Several committee members suggested revisions in the Manual of Policies
and Procedures developed last year. The chair of the committee will
submit revisions to the AHA office.
Executive director Sandria B. Freitag gave us valuable advice, and
all of us appreciated the many ways in which assistant director
Sharon K. Tune helped us to perform our tasks. I would also like
to thank the eight other members of the committee, and the members
of the previous Nominating Committees I served with who, while keeping
their focus on our duties, also kept their sense of humor and made
our meetings congenial as well as highly effective.
Arthur Zilversmit (Lake Forest College) is Chair, 1997 AHA Nominating Committee
Last Updated: July 6, 2007 1:31 PM