Annual Report 2003
Decisions of the Council
January 2003
At its meeting in Chicago, held January 4–5, 2003, the AHA
Council reached the following decisions:
- Approved minutes from the Council’s June 29–30, 2002,
meeting in Washington, D.C.
Reappointed Randy Norell as controller of the Association for another five-year term.
Approved the appointive committee slates for 2003. See listing on page xx.
Accepted the Society for Automotive Historians and the Center for History and New Media as the 113th and 114th affiliated societies, respectively, of the AHA.
Appointed the 2004 Program Committee, with Joe Trotter (Carnegie Mellon Univ.) as chair and John Thornton (Millersville Univ. of Pennsylvania) as cochair. Other committee members are Harriet Alonso (City Coll. of New York), George Reid Andrews (Univ. of Pittsburgh), Linda T. Darling (Arizona State Univ.), Michael Devine (Truman Presidential Library), Prasenjit Duara (Univ. of Chicago), Susan Pedersen (Harvard Univ.), Alex Roland (Duke Univ.), Barbara Rosenwein (Loyola Univ. Chicago), Vicki Ruiz (Univ. of California-Irvine), and Stephanie Shaw (Ohio State Univ.), with Paul Freedman (Yale Univ.) as the 2005 Program Committee chair and Barbara Weinstein (Univ. of Maryland at College Park) as 2005 Program Committee cochair.
Commended Wm. Roger Louis and encouraged his continuation on his work for the National History Center.
Directed the Professional Division to evaluate the current adjudication process and its pedagogical role to the profession. Approved the division’s recommendation for a moratorium on accepting new complaints until the evaluation is completed.
Endorsed the draft report of the Committee on Graduate Education, “The Education of Historians in the 21st Century.”
Agreed to postpone implementing Beer, Fairbank, and Gershoy research grants for one year, in order to further study the financial feasibility of the grants.
Approved the consolidation of subject areas for the Morris D. Forkosch Prize, which will now be awarded for the best book in the field of British, British imperial, or British Commonwealth history since 1485.
Endorsed the Teaching Division’s document, “Advice to History Departments on National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Review of Teacher Preparation Programs.”
Approved a revision to Section 5 (“Credentials”) of the Statement on Standards and Professional Conduct. The section will now read:
Historians are obligated to present their credentials accurately and honestly in all contexts. They should take care not to misrepresent their qualifications in c.v.’s and in grant applications.
The status of a book, article, or other publication that is still in the production pipeline is often an important piece of information for search committees, tenure/promotion review committees, and fellowship committees. Yet the profession has no standardized terminology for works in progress, often rendering their status unclear. The AHA suggests the following lexicon.
“In Press”: the manuscript is fully copyedited and out of the author’s hands. It is in the final stages of the production process.
“Forthcoming”: a completed manuscript has been accepted by a press or journal.
“Under contract to . . .”: a press and an author have signed a contract for a book in progress, but the final manuscript has not yet been submitted.
“Submitted” or “under consideration”: the book or article has been submitted to a press or journal, but there is as yet no contract or agreement to publish.
Historians should not list among the completed achievements on their c.v.’s degrees or honors they have never earned, jobs they have never held, articles or books they have never written or published, or any comparable misrepresentations of their creative or professional work.
Approved the Professional Division’s proposed Theodore Roosevelt–Woodrow Wilson Award, which honors a public official or other civil servant who has made extraordinary contributions to the study, teaching, and public understanding of history. The award is named for two past presidents of the American Historical Association who also served as presidents of the United States and will serve as a reminder that history is not just the domain of professional scholars. The Council will select honorees on the recommendation of the AHA’s president and executive director.
Approved the American Historical Review’s guidelines for book reviewers on dealing with issues of plagiarism when reviewing books.
Asked the Joint OAH–AHA Committee on Part-time and Adjunct Employment to continue its work on a “best practices” document concerning treatment, salaries, and working conditions of part-time and adjunct faculty members.
Approved the nonsubstantive editorial changes, including the change of the title “Secretary–Treasurer” to “Executive Director of the PCB” to the constitution of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association.
Appointed Council members to vacant positions on various committees: Victoria Harden to the Finance Committee and Quintard Taylor to the Committee on Affiliated Societies.
Set the spring meeting of the Council for May 2–3, 2003, in Washington, D.C., with the Finance Committee meeting before the general Council meeting.
May 2003
At its meeting in Washington, D.C., held May 2–3, 2003,
the AHA Council reached the following decisions:
Approved the minutes of the Council meetings held on January 3 and
6, 2003, in Chicago during the 117th annual meeting.
Commended the AHA and AHR staff members on their stewardship of
the Association’s funds.
Approved the budget for 2003–04.
Approved $10,000 a year pledge for three years for a total of $30,000
to the National History Center initiative, the money to be released
upon receipt of yearly reports on progress. Council will revisit
its commitment to the project after three years.
Approved the composition of AHA members on the Joint AHA–OAH
Committee on Part-time and Adjunct Employment.
Requested the Committee on Affiliated Societies to review the criteria
for affiliation to the AHA.
Approved the 2005 Program Committee with a one-time addition of
two Washington, D.C.,-based members to represent public historians
and community college members.
Requested the Executive Committee to review the composition requirements
for the Program Committee.
Approved the Professional Division’s recommendation to end
adjudication processes, with the understanding that the division
will educate the profession about maintaining professional standards.
Approved the Professional Division’s plans to significantly
revise the Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct to reflect
changes in policies on adjudication.
Approved the mission statement of the Professional Division.
Endorsed the Professional Division’s proposal to generate
new documents of “best practices” and “tip sheets”
on a variety of subjects.
Renewed the term of the Task force on Public History for an additional
year beginning in January 2004 (subject to receipt of a formal report
from the task force).
Reappointed Arnita Jones to a second five-year term as executive
director of the Association.
Agreed with the Research Division’s recommendation to include
two current members of the board of editors of the American Historical
Review (along with the vice president of the Research Division)
as members of the search committee to select the next editor of
the AHR.
Endorsed the Oral History Association’s guidelines for review
of oral history.
Recommended that the Research Division develop new language for
the annual meeting “Call for Papers” encouraging alternative
formats for sessions.
Approved permanent membership of the AHA in the History Cooperative.
Approved three new members of the AHR’s board of editors:
Jan Lewis (Rutgers Univ., Newark; U.S. history to 1830, family,
women), Robert Nye (Oregon State Univ.; European intellectual and
cultural, modern Europe, modern France), and R. Bin Wong (Univ.
of California at Irvine; post-1500 China, comparative social/economic,
social theory).
Approved the joint AHA–OAH standards for part-time employment.
Granted the AHA publications department’s request to lift
the moratorium on generating new publications and pamphlets.
Adopted the National Coalition for History’s statement on
the Iraqi heritage crisis.
Approved San Diego (with San Francisco as the backup city), for
the location of the 2010 annual meeting and Chicago for the 2012 annual meeting.
Recommended that when nominations solicited from the AHA (by another
organization) for an award for which historians are eligible, the
AHA executive director and president will present the nominations
to the Council for approval.
