Dear AHA Member,
Fortnightly News is the AHA's new e-mail newsletter to be sent out around the first and fifteenth of every month to keep members up to date with the AHA and the history profession.
In this Issue
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123rd Annual Meeting
January 2-5, 2009, New York City
Only 4 days left to get preregistration prices for the annual meeting! Starting Saturday, December 20, 2008 rates for registration for the annual meeting will increase to onsite rates. Save money by registering now!
“Interviewing in the Job Market in the Twenty-First Century" (Session 51) scheduled for Saturday, January 3, 9:30-11:30 a.m. in the Hilton New York's Trianon Ballroom, sponsored by the AHA Professional Division, the AHA's Graduate and Early Career Committee, and the Coordinating Council for Women in History.
Needed: a large number of volunteer interviewers representing a wide range of job possibilities for PhDs in history, including research institutions, four-year colleges, community colleges, museums, publishing houses, historical societies, national and state parks, and the business world.
There is no preparation required to participate. The AHA will provide a list of possible “scenarios” as a starting point, but the structure is left to each interviewer. Sometimes volunteers use such scenarios; others run general discussions about successful strategies; yet others devise a structure of their own. If you are able to attend, please arrive at the Trianon Ballroom about 15 minutes before 9:30 a.m.
Please let AHA staff member Matthew Keough (mkeough@historians.org) know if you are able to participate.
Precirculated papers are now available for the 123rd Annual Meeting. You can read them all online now.
Precirculated paper sessions are one of the ways the AHA attempts to increase audience participation and discussion at the Annual Meeting. These sessions are organized around presentations (papers, PowerPoint, text from online) and made available online for audience members to access and read before the Annual Meeting.
Deadline For Canceling Job Center Room Reservations
Today is the final day to cancel Job Center room reservations. Invoices will be mailed after today and no refunds will be given.
Housing for the 2009 Annual Meeting
The blocks of rooms at headquarters Hilton New York, co-headquarters Sheraton New York, and overflow Sheraton Manhattan and Waldorf=Astoria have sold out. If you need to cancel, modify, or adjust a previously made reservation at any of these hotels, consult your confirmation for instructions.
An additional hotel has been added, Le Parker Meridien, a luxury hotel located at 118 West 57th Street. The hotel will offer the AHA's meeting rates, $129 single and double, $30 for each additional person, through a cut-off date of December 26. The hotel will also extend the AHA’s rate from December 29 through January 7, inclusive, for a limited number of rooms for individuals who wish to arrive early and/or stay after the annual meeting. Tower king-bedded rooms are also available with Central Park views at $199 per night, single or double. Once preregistered for the meeting, attendees will be provided with information on making at reservation at the Meridien.
If the block of rooms at the Meridien sells out, AHA staff will add additional hotel(s) as needed, with information posted in the Registration Resource Center.
Dates and Deadlines - 2009 Annual Meeting
December 12
(TODAY)Housing cut-off date for Hilton, Sheraton, and Waldorf=Astoria. Subsequent reservations taken on a space-available basis at convention rates.
December 15
Final deadline for canceling Job Center room reservations. Invoices will be mailed after this date, and no refunds will be given.
December 19
AHA preregistration closes; after 12 midnight December 19, attendees registering online pay onsite rates, or must register onsite.
December 19
Deadline to receive preregistration refund.
December 24 (noon):
AHA headquarters office closes until January 8th to allow the staff time with family for the holidays before traveling to and from New York for the annual meeting.
January 2
2009 Annual Meeting opens at 12 p.m., Hilton New York and Sheraton New York
2010 Annual Meeting
Online Submission System for 2010 Annual Meeting Proposals Now Available
The submission system for the 2010 annual meeting is now live and available on the AHA web site. The proposal submission page includes links to the proposal system, the 2010 Call for Proposals, the meeting theme, the AHA Annual Meeting Guidelines, and detailed instructions for using the proposal system.
New this year! To help members find sessions of interest, the online program for the 2010 annual meeting will include links to the abstracts for sessions and presentations entered into the electronic proposal system. Abstracts will be published as submitted to the Program Committee; individuals will not have the opportunity to edit abstracts after the February 15 proposal deadline. Please enter and review the information with that in mind.
What you will need: Before going online, session organizers should collect all the information needed to submit a complete proposal. See the proposals page for a detailed list of what you will need.
December Perspectives Online
The AHA’s president, Gabrielle Spiegel, starts off the December issue of Perspectives on History online with a “Modest Proposal.” She explains that, “January 2009 will mark the beginning of the Association’s 125th year,” looks back at its past activities and concerns, and presents a modest proposal: “That in celebration of the 125th anniversary of the AHA, each and every member commit to giving a $125 to a ‘125th Anniversary Fund’.”
This issue also contains a number of articles on:
Transitioning from graduate student to professional historian
Lynn Sargeant starts the discussion off with “Temping toward the Tenure Track,” followed by Cheryl A. Wells’ look at the transition from student to teaching assistant to faculty member. Then, Natalie Kimbrough details the rewards to be gained from teaching at a community college, while Melissa Jane Taylor explains how one takes the different approach of going into public history.Public history and news from the hill
John Lawrence shares his experiences as a historian in the House of Representatives, Heather Huyck’s explains the role of the Congressional Fellowship in her future career, and Lee White considers the recent “Historic Election’s Impact on History” (see also “Election 2008: How ‘Historic’ Was It?”)AHA Activities
Robert Townsend takes a close look, in “Mission, Media, and Risk: The American Historical Association Online,” at how the AHA continues to try to fulfill its mission, and what roles our publications, databases, and online projects play a part in that. Meanwhile, Robert Schneider, editor of the American Historical Review, takes a brief look at “What’s in the December AHR?”Annual Meeting
In Annual Meeting news, Adam Hochschild will receive the AHA’s Roosevelt-Wilson award in New York, a resolution is on the table for the AHA’s Business Meeting, the call for proposals continues for the 2010 meeting, and a letter to the editor discusses childcare at the annual meeting.
All of this, and much more is available in the online version of the December Perspectives on History. For a more detailed description see the AHA blog.
AHA Today
Some recent posts on the AHA’s blog, AHA Today, include:
“Election 2008: How ’Historic’ Was It?” and Other Late Sessions
Read up on three late additions to the annual meeting program. The session that may be of most general interest is “Election 2008: How ‘Historic’ Was It?”Historians Speak Out Against Proposed Walmart at Wilderness Civil War Battlefield
On December 11, in a letter to Walmart President and CEO Lee Scott, 253 historians from throughout the country urged the retail giant to reconsider plans to build a 138,000 square-foot supercenter immediately adjacent to the Wilderness Battlefield in Orange County, VA.The 2009 Job Center: One Month Away
David Darlington details how the Job Center is shaping up for this year’s annual meeting.History Podcasts
Check out a number of podcasts that cover a variety of topics in history.-
Also, see the most recent What We’re Reading (December 4 and December 11) and Grant of the Week posts (History of Nursing Fellowship and Grants in Printing History).
Please feel free to forward this email on to a colleague or friend.
Contributions to this issue of Fortnightly News came from:
Kelly Elmore, Elisabeth Grant, Robert B. Townsend, and Sharon K. Tune
Last Updated: December 15, 2008
