American Historical Association

 

Dear AHA Member,

Fortnightly News is the AHA's e-mail newsletter, 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:

1. AHA Today – latest blog posts
2. New and Updated Entries at the ArchivesWiki
3. News from Washington
4. Updating the Directory
5. 125th Anniversary Fund

 

Please feel free to forward this e-mail to your friends and colleagues.

 

AHA Today

Perspectives on History will be going on hiatus for the summer, but between issues, we will continue to track information on history and the profession on the AHA’s blog, AHA Today. Recent news includes:

• Jobs and Careers in History: Interview with Tim Grove – Part 1
  See part 1 and part 2 of the interview with Tim Grove, acting chief of education at the National Air and Space Museum.

• Status Update on Paper of Record Materials
  The staff at Google have now posted information about the status of the newspapers obtained from the Paper of Record.

• In Memoriam: Philip D. Curtin, 1922–2009
  Philip D. Curtin died June 4, 2009, in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, at the age of 87.

• Jim Leach Nominated for NEH Chair
  On June 3, 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Jim Leach, former Republican congressman from Iowa, as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

• The National Coalition for History: Latest News
  The most recent news of what the NCH is doing in Washington

• Remembering Our First Ladies
  We thought we might pay tribute to some of the leading First Ladies, highlighting some of their social and political contributions, as well as giving fun trivial tidbits.

• Also, see the most recent What We’re Reading (June 4 and June 11) and Grant of the Week posts (Postdoctoral Bursaries from the University of Edinburgh and National Humanities Center Residential Fellowships ).

 

New and Updated Entries at the ArchivesWiki

Here are some of the archival institutions that have been recently added or updated on the AHA's ArchivesWiki. We hope you will find them useful, and will add any information about them you may have about them, or other institutions.

• Drexel University Archives and Special Collections
• Jewish Women's Archive
• Centre d'accueil et de recherche des Archives nationales
• Woodson Research Center, Rice University
• East Texas Research Center
• Sound & Picture Archives for Research on Women
• The Netherlands: Streekarchief
• Historical Documentation Centre for Dutch Protestantism
• Groninger Archieven
• Documentation Centre Dutch Political Parties

 

News from Washington

The American Historical Association belongs to a number of coalitions that support the Association's agenda and keep track of issues in the nation’s capital that will be of concern to historians. Here are news updates from some of them.

• The National Coalition for History

• State Department Inspector General Issues Report on the Office of the Historian
  Following a report from the State Department’s Inspector General, Marc Susser (director of the Office of the Historian) steps down and is replaced by Ambassador John Campbell who will serve as acting director.

• NARA Signs Agreement to Preserve Millions of Immigration Files
  On June 3, the National Archives and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services designate as permanent the immigration files of aliens in the United States beginning in 1944 until the present day.

• NEH Seeks National Humanities Medal Nominees
  NEH is currently accepting nominations for the National Humanities Medal.

• NEH Solicits Nominees for 2010 Jefferson Lecturer
  NEH is currently accepting nominations for the 2010 Jefferson lectureship.

• President Obama Names Former GOP Congressman Jim Leach to NEH Chair
  On June 3, 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate former Republican Congressman Jim Leach as Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
  

• COSSA
  In the May 18, 2009 COSSA Washington Update (PDF), find more on the following topics.

• Obama Administration Issues Details of FY 2010 Budget Proposal

• Census Nominee Groves Faces Smooth Confirmation Hearing  

• Praise and Prescriptions For The Federal Statistical System

• More Administration Appointments: Robinson To Lead OJP Again; O’Toole New Head Of S&T at DHS  

• Congress Addresses America’s Failing High Schools  

• And more…
  
  

• National Humanities Alliance

• House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee includes $170 million for NEH
  Chairman Dicks and Subcommittee members propose additional funds for the agency (over FY 2009) at June 10’s markup.

• Statement on the Nomination of Jim Leach for NEH Chair
  The National Humanities Alliance greets the nomination of James Leach as chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities with warm enthusiasm.

• President Obama Requests FY 2010 Increase for NEH
  White House budget detail, released May 7, includes $171.315 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities and requests that the agency administer the National Capital Arts & Cultural Affairs program

 

Updating the Directory of History Departments, Historical Organizations, and Historians

Members
The American Historical Association is preparing to publish the annual membership directory as part of the Directory of History Departments, Historical Organizations, and Historians. We are asking every member to review their current information for the listing and their preferences for listing. Please watch for an e-mail with your current information and a personalized link to the membership section of the web site. Or, you may login anytime to the member section to review your information at: http://www.historians.org/members/login.

Departments and Organizations
By this time all departments and organizations should have started to update their information for the Directory. If you are the head of a department or organization and want your institution listed, and have not yet received information about how to do so, please see the listing in the Directory page on the AHA’s web site or write to directory09@historians.org for assistance.

Information updated before August 1, 2009, will be included in the print edition, but changes can be made online throughout the year. When the online version is completed in late September, users will be able to access up-to-date details on all listing institutions.

 

125th Anniversary Fund

We have already received generous support from many members of the Association. If you have not yet contributed, and would like to aid in the expansion of the Association’s public programs and outreach efforts, we hope you will give your support to the AHA 125th Anniversary Fund.

You can contribute to the fund online at www.historians.org/give or by check to AHA Anniversary Fund, 400 A St. S.E., Washington, DC 20003.

 

Please feel free to forward this email on to a colleague or friend.

Contributions to this issue of Fortnightly News came from: David Darlington, Elisabeth Grant, and Robert B. Townsend

 

 

Last Updated: June 15, 2009