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
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Updating the Directory of History Departments, Historical Organizations, and Historianss
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
Institutions that have previously listed in the Directory can make changes to their entry online: http://www.historians.org/members/dosp/. Your department’s login information was sent via a letter to the department in late March. If you did not receive this letter, please write to directory09@historians.org for assistance.
If you are interested in listing your department or organization in the Directory for the first time, please download and submit the appropriate forms found below under "New Institutions" on the listing in the Directory page on the AHA’s web site.
The initial deadline was May 1, 2009. Information updated before August 1, 2009, will be included in the print edition, but changes can be made online throughout the year. Once the online version is complete, users will be able to access up-to-date details on all institutions.
For more information see the listing in the Directory page on the AHA’s web site.
News From Washington
Building the National Museum of African American History and Culture
The Smithsonian announces that Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup is the architectural team chosen to design the National Museum of African American History and Culture to be located on the National Mall near the Washington Monument. The selection was made by a jury chaired by Museum Director Lonnie G. Bunch III. Freelon Adjaye Bond/SmithGroup was among six firms that entered a design competition in January. They will now be asked to respond to an official Request for Proposal to design the new building, scheduled to open on the National Mall in 2015. Watch the news conference of the announcement on the NMAAHC’s Building Design Update page, or read the official Smithsonian news release.
National Coalition for History
The National Coalition for History recently reported on the “First Presidential Records Released Under New Obama Executive Order.” On April 13, the NCH explains, “245,763 pages of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush Presidential records were opened for research at their respective libraries. These records were still pending at the end of the George W. Bush administration on January 20, 2009.”
Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)
COSSA has posted their latest Washington Update (PDF) on April 20th. Among a number of news items it addresses, is a section on human subjects review, which is increasingly an issue for historians' research.
Working Group on Evaluating Public History Scholarship Seeks Comments
How should public history work be recognized and rewarded in promotion and tenure decisions? The National Council on Public History (NCPH), the American Historical Association (AHA), and the Organization of American Historians (OAH) formed a task force in 2007 to advance this discussion and report to the governing boards of the three associations. The group now seeks public comment on its draft report, which is available online here (PDF).
The Working Group on Evaluating Public History Scholarship has held open forums at the annual meetings of each sponsoring organization, conducted a survey of public history faculty, and reviewed sample tenure and promotion policies from a wide variety of history departments. The executive summary of the draft report circulated recently for comment during the 2009 OAH and NCPH annual meetings. After revisions, the report will go to the governing boards of the three organizations for review and ultimately for formal consideration.
Please let us know what you think. E-mail addresses for the group are listed on the cover page of the report.
Plan Your Research with Archives Wiki
As you begin to prepare for your summer research projects, we hope you’ll visit the AHA’s ArchivesWiki. In planning your research trips this summer you will no doubt do a good deal of research just about the archival institutions you plan to visit. The information that you gather is valuable to your colleagues and even more valuable when it can be gathered in one searchable location. Please consider sharing this information at ArchivesWiki.
125th Anniversary Fund
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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.
AHA Today
Between issues of Perspectives on History, we continue to track information on the state of the profession on the AHA’s blog, AHA Today. Among the recent posts:
“Paper of Record” Disappears, Leaving Historians in the Lurch
The digital archive called “Paper of Record”—a significant repository of old newspapers from around the world—disappeared in late January, leaving many historians without a critical tool for their research.StoryCorps – Oral Histories Collected by Loved Ones
StoryCorps, a nonprofit organization, recognizes the value of preserving oral histories, and since 2003 has been recording them and archiving them through the Library of Congress for future generations.Jobs and Careers in History: Interview with Lindsay Flanagan
Jessica Pritchard interviews Lindsay Flanagan, who is working on her PhD in history while holding down a career in the field as a museum program associate for the American Red Cross.YouTube EDU
YouTube created the “EDU” section of the site to make the 100-plus college-affiliated channels easier to find (and to separate them from the sillier videos on the site). It’s like one-stop shopping for lectures, interviews, and other educational videos.Teaching with Historic Places
Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP), a web site that branches from the National Park Service Heritage Education Services Office, embraces the power of teaching history through historic sites and promotes the implementation of such sites into curricula.AHA Member wins Pulitzer Prize
Congratulations are in order for AHA member Annette Gordon-Reed, professor at Rutgers University-Newark and New York Law School, who has won the Pulitzer Prize for History for her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family.In Memoriam: Abraham Lincoln
Jessica Pritchard marks the 144th anniversary of Lincoln’s death with online resources about his life.Also, see the most recent What We’re Reading (April 16, April 23, and April 30) and Grant of the Week posts (LGBTQ Local Histories Contest and 2009 Prizes from the AHA)
Please feel free to forward this email on to a colleague or friend.
Contributions to this issue of Fortnightly News came from: Debbie Ann Doyle, Noralee Frankel, Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, Arnita A. Jones, and Robert B. Townsend
Last Updated: June 2, 2009
