American Historical Association

 

Dear AHA Member,

Fortnightly News is the AHA's e-mail newsletter, sent out twice a month to keep members up to date with the AHA and the history profession.

In this issue:

1. Call for Submissions – Regions and Regionalism
2. New Association Management System
3. National History Center’s International Seminar on Decolonization
4. AHA Today – Recent history news
5. Listing in the Directory
6. News from Washington – Updates from NCH and COSSA

 

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

 

Call for Submissions – Regions and Regionalism

The AHA invites proposals by October 1, 2010, for a new pamphlet series on Regions and Regionalisms.

Regions and Regionalisms
Regions and the concomitant phenomenon of regionalisms are increasingly receiving attention as an object of historical study. For a large number of issues and questions, regions – understood as more or less integrated arenas of historical interaction that reach beyond the nation-state – appear to be the appropriate level of historical analysis. They promise to mediate between the local and national on the one hand, and global dimensions on the other.

More in this recent post on the AHA’s blog.

Article Proposals
Prospective authors may want to consider including in their essays the challenges that teachers and researchers working in the field encounter, as well as the current state and future prospects for the field of history. Manuscripts should be up to 60 typed pages (double-spaced) or about 15,000 words, with no more than 90 endnotes.

Proposals, of about 300 to 600 words, may be e-mailed by October 1, 2010 to regionalism@historians.org or mailed to Publications Department, American Historical Association, 400 A Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003-3889.

 

 

New Association Management System and member access to job ads and other member services

Since July 1, 2010, the AHA has been up and running with a new association management system (AMS). Data conversion from the old system went well.

Members who joined since July 2 onward can now access member services at: http://www.historians.org/members/services
In the new system, your email address is your login name. Your default password is your member number. If you use the password recovery tool and find that your password is blank, please forward the message to aha@historians.org and ask to have your password reset. A staff member will do this for you as soon as possible. This is a known issue in the system, and should be corrected very soon.

Members who joined before July 1, 2010 can access member services from either the old or the new system. There are now separate links on the home page for the old and new systems. Access to the old system will end on July 30, at which point everyone will login from the new system.

We very much hope to provide you with improved member services with this new system, and welcome your feedback. Any concerns, suggestions or other feedback can be addressed to aha@historians.org. We can't promise to do everything you request, but we will consider all suggestions. When you write, as much as possible, please copy/paste the url of any page you are writing about into your message, and provide as much detail as possible.

We look forward to hearing from you!

 

National History Center’s International Seminar on Decolonization

The AHA’s National History Center welcomed fifteen historians from around the world to the fifth annual International Seminar on Decolonization at the Library of Congress July 11.  Convened by the History Center’s executive director, Wm. Roger Louis, and funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the four-week seminar focuses on the dissolution of the European empires in the 20th century.

The participants, all doctoral candidates or recent recipients of the Ph.D., come from Malaysia, Cote d’Ivoire, Palestine, Italy, Germany, Turkey, India, and South Africa, as well as Britain and the United States. Their projects range from the “oil shock” of 1973 and the politics of medicine in Algeria to the destruction of statues commemorating the British Raj in India and the role of big business in the decolonization of Southern Rhodesia.

Two veterans of the first seminar, held in 2006, will deliver free public lectures at the Library of Congress in conjunction with this year’s gathering. On Wednesday, July 21, Jason Parker of Texas A&M will explore the interplay of Cold War politics and decolonization. On Wednesday, July 28, Dan Branch of the University of Warwick will discuss the airlift that transported thousands of African students to overseas universities during the 1960s. Sponsored by the Library’s Kluge Center, both lectures will take place at 4 p.m. in Rm. 119 of the Jefferson Building. A reception will follow each.

 

 

AHA Today

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

• Top 25 Web Sites for Teaching and Learning
  The AASL  has once again chosen “The Top 25 Websites for Teaching and Learning.” The sites they’ve chosen are all free and “foster the qualities of innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration.“

• Books by Members – July 2010
  As a service to AHA members, we are listing books by members received in the headquarters office in recent months.To have your new book listed, please write to David Darlington for more information.

• Also, see the most recent What We’re Reading (July 8 and July 15) and Grant of the Week (Downing Award for Publications on Historical Topics in Preservation and Shryock Medal Essay Contest in Medical History) posts.

 

 

Listing in the Directory

Departments and Organizations

Last chance to add or update listings in the Directory! 

The final deadline for updates to the print edition of the Directory is August 1. Institutions that have previously listed in the Directory can make changes to their entry online: http://www.historians.org/members/dosp/. Your institution’s login information has been sent by e-mail and by regular mail to department contacts. If you are in charge of one of the listing departments or organizations and did not receive a communication from us, please write to directory10@historians.org for assistance as soon as possible. And if your department or organization is not currently listed, but you think it should be, please contact us for more information.

Please log in and review your institution’s Directory listing immediately and let us know if you will or will not be listing this year. Updates to Directory entries must be received before August 1, 2010, to be included in the print edition, but further changes can be made online throughout the year for the digital Directory.
     

 

 

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

• Tell the House to Move the NHPRC Reauthorization Bill!
  On July 12, the Senate passed legislation (S. 2872) to reauthorize the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) at a $10 million level for fiscal years 2010–14. Unfortunately, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has yet to schedule a markup of a bill (H.R. 5616) to reauthorize the NHPRC at a $20 million level for fiscal years 2011–15.

• Nation’s Historians Speak Out Against Proposed Gettysburg Casino
  On July 1, 276 American historians sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board in opposition to a proposal to license a casino located one-half mile from the Gettysburg National Military Park.

 

Consortium of Social Science Associations

• July 12, 2010 Washington Update

 

 

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, Vernon Horn, Arnita A. Jones, and Liz Townsend

 

Last Updated: July 16, 2010