Fortnightly News
 

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:

AHA News

  1. Directory – Online Edition
  2. Job Center – Forms now posted
  3. Task Force on Historians with Disabilities – Mentors Needed
  4. Two-Year College Task Force – Work Begins
  5. AHA Today – Recent history news
  6. Calendar – History Events
  7. 125th Anniversary Fund

 

Other News

  1. National History Center – New Podcast and Congressional Briefing
  2. National Council for History Education – New Director
  3. News from Washington – Updates from NCH, COSSA, and NHA

 

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

 

Directory – Online Edition

Two week free trial
We are pleased to report that a new online searchable edition of the Directory of History Departments and Organizations is now available to members and institutions. For the next two weeks you will be able to sample the online Directory by logging in at http://www.historians.org/pubs/directory2/loginform.cfm and logging in as a Guest (user: Guest, password: To1031).

Easier to search
This new, searchable online edition is intended to make the Directory more useful for historians, administrators, or anyone interested in the history profession. Like the print version, the online Directory has information for over 820 history departments and historical institutions, and nearly 20,000 historians and history specialists. You will be able to identify specialists in particular subjects and from particular schools; develop benchmark groups of departments with similar degrees, tuition levels, and numbers of students and faculty; and you can also look up the holdings and programs of more than 100 historical organizations. Access to the online Directory is free on a trial basis for all members until October 31, 2009. After that, it will remain accessible to members and institutions who have subscribed or purchased a subscription through the Pubs Shop.

Send us your feedback
After using the online Directory, please let us know what you think about it, and how it might be improved, by e-mailing us at feedback@historians.org. We look forward to hearing from you. We will continue to develop the Directory in the coming years, so your comments and suggestions will play an important part in shaping its future development.

 

 

Job Center

Forms for the 2010 annual meeting Job Center are now available online. Search committees can reserve space at free interview tables or parlor rooms (at cost), or notify the AHA that they are interviewing in privately arranged suites. Deadline for reservations is November 15. 

 

 

 

 

 

AHA Task Force on Disability Mentorship Program for Historians

Query for Potential Mentors
Graduate study in history is arduous for all students. Graduate students with disabilities face distinctive issues. The AHA Task Force on Historians with Disabilities believes that historians who themselves understand disability experiences firsthand could aid such students in how to deal with disability-related issues in graduate historical studies and the development of their careers.

If you are interested in mentoring a graduate student with a disability(ies), contact Paul Longmore at longmore@sfsu.edu. The Task Force will keep all information you provide strictly confidential.

 

 

Two-Year College Task Force

The ad hoc Two-Year College Task Force, which had been established by the AHA’s Council in January 2009, has begun its work of exploring various issues relating to history faculty at two-year colleges. At the end of its three-year tenure, the task force is expected to present a set of recommendations to Council.

The Two-Year College Task Force was prompted, among other things, by a recommendation of the Working Group on the Future of the AHA, which was concerned about the small number of faculty from two-year colleges who were members of the Association.

Purpose: The Working Group on the Future of the AHA recommended, therefore, that a new task force should be constituted to explore how to increase AHA membership of community college faculty by better serving their needs. The task force will also address the issues of part-time two-year faculty.

The task force held its first meeting in Washington, D.C., in June 2009. Questions about the task force may be addressed to: Noralee Frankel at nfrankel@historians.org Visit the AHA’s blog, AHA Today, soon for more information on the Task Force.

 

 

AHA Today

Keep up with the latest information on history and the profession on the AHA’s blog, AHA Today. Recent posts include:

 

 

Calendar

The AHA’s online calendar lists upcoming meetings and seminars, research opportunities, awards and fellowships, internet resources, and exhibitions. Contribute your own announcement through this online form. Below we offer snippets of some of the current listings.

  • Conference: Scotland's Global Impact - How one small nation changed the world!—An international conference in Inverness, Scotland, celebrating the contribution Scots have made to business, culture, education and society on a global level. October 22-24, 2009.

  • Call for Papers: Networks—The Center for the Study of Citizenship holds its 7th Annual conference, April 8-10, 2010, at Wayne State University. Submit proposals online no later than Friday, October 23, 2009.

  • Call For Papers: Missouri Valley History Conference—The 53rd annual Missouri Valley History Conference will be held at the Embassy Suites Hotel in Omaha, Nebraska, on March 4-6, 2010. Proposals accepted until November 1, 2009.

Read more about all of these events and more at the AHA’s online calendar.

 

 

125th Anniversary Fund

donate

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.

 

 

 

 

National History Center

The National History Center recently added the first in a new series of podcasts and video of the most recent congressional briefing to its web site. Read on for more information.

  • New Books In History Podcast of Atlantic World Book
    The National History Center has entered into a partnership with New Books In History, which audiocasts interviews with historians discussing their latest research and writing. The first in the series offered in conjunction with the New Books in History, focuses on the “Reinterpreting History” books, published by Oxford University Press

  • Alan Brinkley Gives A Congressional Briefing on the Great Depression
    Professor Alan Brinkley, Nevins Professor of History at Columbia University, gave a briefing to Members of Congress and their staff in May 2009. He spoke on the relevance of the Great Depression to today’s current economic situation, Roosevelt’s actions to stimulate the economy in the 1930s, and the recovery that took place.

 

 

National Council for History Education

The National Council for History Education, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the importance of history in schools and society, has announced the appointment of Peter Seibert as executive director. He assumed this position on September 21, 2009, as director of the 5,000-member national organization headquartered in College Park, Maryland.

Mr. Seibert is the past president and chief executive officer for the Heritage Center of Lancaster County, Inc., a regional history museum located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Pennsylvania State University. For additional information, contact the National Council for History Education at (240) 696-6600.

 

 

News from Washington

In addition to AHA Today, the Association also draws on the efforts of a number of coalitions that support the Association's agenda to keep track of issues in the nation’s capital that will be of concern to historians. Here are news updates from some of them.

  • National Coalition for History (NCH)

     

  • National Humanities Alliance (NHA)

  • Consortium of Social Science Associations (COSSA)

    • The October 12, 2009 (PDF) COSSA Washington Update covered the following, and more:

      • Senator Coburn Threatens to Eliminate NSF’s Political Science Program
      • Groves Updates Senate Panel on 2010 Preparations; Amendment Proposes New Census Question on Citizenship
      • NSF Announces DOD Supported Awards
      • IES Issues Guide to Help Students Prepare for College
      • APSA Report Examines U.S. Standing in the World
      • AAHRPP Issues Final Revised Accreditation Standards

 

 

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

Contributions to this issue of Fortnightly News came from: Miriam Hauss Cunningham, David Darlington, Noralee Frankel, Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, Liz Townsend, and Robert B. Townsend

 

 

 

Last Updated: October 16, 2009