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 on Facebook & Twitter – Become a Fan!
2. Perspectives on History – April 2010
3. Directory – List now!
4. Scholar Saver 2009-10
5. Weekly History Seminars – National History Center
6. AHA Today – Recent history news
7. News from Washington – Updates from NHA and COSSA

 

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

 

AHA on Facebook & Twitter

The AHA has joined Facebook! Become a fan!

What will it include?
The AHA’s Facebook page will have information about the AHA and will provide up-to-date information about blog posts, deadlines, annual meeting news, events, publications, advocacy, and more.

Interested?
If you’re a member of Facebook and would like to become a fan of the AHA, just head to our Facebook page and click on the “Become a Fan” link.

Twitter
The AHA is also on Twitter. Visit our page and follow our tweets for news and information about the AHA and the history profession.

 

 

Perspectives on History – April 2010

Catch up on recent AHA news, learn about public support for the humanities, read up on recent prizewinners, and discover a variety of topics on the history profession in the April issue of Perspectives on History, now online.

News
News in this month’s Perspectives on History includes James Grossman’s future position as AHA executive director, the April issue of the AHR, the new association management system for the AHA, and the opportunity to create interest groups in the Association.

In other news, nominations are in for the 2010 AHA election. Review the candidates for president-elect, Professional Division vice president, Council/Division positions, and Committee positions. Nominations may also be made by petition (see full terms at the bottom of this page).

Supporting the Humanities
AHA President Barbara D. Metcalf considers the importance of public support and federal funding in her article, “Fiat Lux: Public Funding and the Humanities.” Meanwhile, Debbie Ann Doyle, reports on Humanities Advocacy Day 2010 while Lee White of the National Coalition for History provides Status Reports on Transparency in the Federal Government.

History Profession
A variety of topics in the history profession are tackled this month, with Gordon Wood defending academic history writing, John H. Ball offering personal observations from teaching at a community college, Eugenia Russell discussing Byzantine Studies methodologies, and Brett Barrett offering advice on applying for foreign jobs. Also learn about Disability History at 124th Annual Meeting this past January.

More
The April issue also contains articles on recent prizewinners, letters to the editor, and the “In Memoriam” column. Read more on the AHA blog or in the Perspectives on History April issue online.

 

 

Listing in the Directory

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 will be sent by email and by regular mail shortly. If you do not receive communication from us, please write to directory10@historians.org for assistance.

Information updated before August 1, 2010, will be included in the print edition, but changes can be made online throughout the year.

 

 

Scholar Saver – 2009-10

Login to member services to access the new 2009-10 Scholar Saver, a 53-page PDF of discounts on journals, books, and instructional materials in political science and history. Once you’ve logged into member services, look down the page to the last bullet item in the “Partner Offerings” section.

 

 

Weekly History Seminars – National History Center

The National History Center and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars have started a weekly history seminar that take place in the Wilson Center.  The seminar aims to facilitate the understanding of contemporary national and international affairs in light of historical knowledge of all times and places, and from multiple perspectives.  It takes place on Monday afternoons at 4 p.m., January—May and September—December.  The National History Center's founding director Wm. Roger Louis and the Wilson Center's Director of the History and Public Policy Program Christian Ostermann are the co-hosts of the seminar.  The seminar is at its half way point and is a great success, with visiting scholars discussing a wide range of historical topics.  To see the schedule for the remaining semester and to watch videos from the previous seminars, go to http://nationalhistorycenter.org/weekly-history-seminar-schedule/

The seminar will end  for the summer on May 17th but will resume for the fall semester on September 13th and feature the U.S. Senate Historian, Donald Ritchie.

 

 

AHA Today

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

• History Doctoral Programs Site Updated
  The AHA’s History Doctoral Programs web site has now been updated to include current information on students, faculty, and departments as a whole. In addition to department-level fixes, the site has also been updated to include links to a wealth of additional information about universities in the United States.

• Online Oral History Projects, Part V
  This week we add more online oral history projects to our series of recent roundups.

• Computer History Museum – Online Exhibits
  Explore the Computer History Museum’s online exhibits, including The Babbage Engine, Selling the Computer, The Silicon Engine, and Visible Storage.

• Government Comics Collection of UNL
  The University of Nebraska Lincoln online libraries digital collections provide access to Government Comics on topics like consuming energy, contributing to war efforts, training for careers, and preventing forest fires.

• Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704
  The interactive web site, Raid on Deerfield: The Many Stories of 1704, examines the night of February 29, 1704, when French and Native allies raided the English settlement of Deerfield, Massachusetts, capturing men, women, and children and forcing them to march 300 miles to Canada.

• Also, see the most recent What We’re Reading (April 1 and April 8) and Grant of the Week (Dissertation Prize from the American Studies Association and NARA Publishing Historical Records Project Grants) posts.

 

 

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

• History Coalition Submits Congressional Testimony on FY 2011 NARA & NHPRC Budgets
  On March 19, the National Coalition for History submitted testimony on the president’s proposed Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 budgets for the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) to the House Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

• National Security Archive Finds Mixed Results for Obama Administration FOIA Initiative
  To coincide with Sunshine Week (March 15–19, 2010), the National Security Archive at George Washington University released an audit of federal government agencies’ administration of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

 

National Humanities Alliance

• Coalition for International Education Submits Funding Request Increases Recommended for Title VI/Fulbright-Hays, FIPSE and FLAP programs

• Alliance Urges Increased Funding for NEH Humanities Endowment Unable to Meet Current Demand for Grants

 

Consortium of Social Science Associations

• COSSA Washington Update Volume 29, Issue 6

 

 

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, Elisabeth Grant, Vernon Horn, and Robert B. Townsend

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last Updated: April 9, 2010