Fortnightly News
 

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. Assessing the Future of Peer Review
  2. Essays on Twentieth-Century History
  3. Plan Your Research with Archives Wiki
  4. AHA Today – Recent history news
  5. Perspectives on History – Political History Today
  6. Listing in the Directory
  7. News from Washington – Updates from NHA and COSSA

 

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Assessing the Future of Peer Review

One of the more interesting discussions at last week’s The Humanities and Technology Camp (THATCamp) concerned the future of peer review in the humanities, and whether it can and should continue in its current form.

The problem in the eyes of many participants in the session was that the current peer review system promotes conservatism about the form and content of scholarship, and fails to use available technologies to speed up and democratize the system. This seems particularly acute in the digital humanities, where scholars have to struggle with the added challenge of creating new programs to facilitate and disseminate their discoveries. But the alternatives remain quite hazy. They often seem to consist of cataloging the flaws in the current system and asserting that technology can cure all ills. The challenge lies in developing new forms of peer review better fitted to the online environment, both before publication (in the development and assessment stage) and after publication (as a means of validating scholarly quality).

Read the rest of this article on AHA Today.

 

 

 

Essays on Twentieth-Century History

Essays on Twentieth-Century History, is a joint publication of the AHA and Temple University Press, edited by Michael Adas, and available for purchase here. This publication is part of the broader Global and Comparative History series.

Each included essay covers a key theme and one or more critical sub-fields in twentieth-century global history. Chapters address migration patterns, the impact of world wars, transformations in gender and urbanization, environmental transitions, scientific and technological innovations, and the emergence of the United States as a global power. All are written by leading historians in each of the areas represented, and each is intended to provide an introduction to the literature, key themes, and debates that have proliferated around the more recent historical experiences of humanity.

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

AHA Today

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

 

 

Perspectives on History - Political History Today

Perspectives on History invites proposals by July 1, 2010, for articles for a theme issue focused on Political History Today.

Readers interested in submitting articles that discuss different aspects of political history are invited to submit article proposals for consideration by the editorial board for possible publication in a theme issue of Perspectives on History that will be dedicated to explorations of the state of political history today.

The editorial board of Perspectives on History hopes that the essays in the thematically focused issue (expected to be published in May 2011), will provide an overview of different dimensions of political history in its various manifestations, such as diplomatic history, military history, administrative history, and the history of past politics, in teaching as well as research and in the contexts of academia and public history. The topics of the essays need not be limited to these suggested rubrics, however, and prospective authors can suggest other topics that should, in their opinion, be considered for inclusion in the theme issue.

It should be noted that we are not looking for political history essays per se (that is, essays on political history topics), but are seeking, instead, articles that discuss the practice of political history.

Prospective authors can consider including in their articles the challenges that teachers and researchers working in the field encounter, and the current state and future prospects for the field of political history.

Article proposals, of about 300 to 600 words, may be e-mailed by July 1, 2010 to
perspectives@historians.org or mailed to Perspectives on History, American Historical Association, 400 A Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003-3889.

Authors invited to send complete essays will be required to submit them by December 31, 2010.

 

 

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 their annual listing, as well as their preferences about whether they want their name to appear in the annual membership directory, by June 15, 2010. Login to the member section to review your information by June 15, 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 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. And if your department or organization is not currently listed, but you think it should be, please contact us for more information.

If you haven't already, please log in and review your Directory listing immediately and let us know if your institution will or will not be listing this year. Updates to Directory entries before August 1, 2010, will 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 Humanities Alliance

 

Consortium of Social Science Associations

 

 

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, Pillarisetti Sudhir, Liz Townsend, and Robert B. Townsend

 

 

 

Last Updated: June 4, 2010