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. Report: “Tenure, Promotion, and the Publicly Engaged Academic Historian”
  2. Position Open: Historian for the House of Representatives
  3. July 1 Deadline for Proposals for Perspectives on History Special Issue on Political History
  4. Online Member Services Unavailable June 20–July 4, 2010
  5. AHA Facebook Discussions
  6. AHA Today – Recent history news
  7. Plan Your Research with Archives Wiki
  8. Listing in the Directory
  9. News from Washington – Updates from NHA and COSSA

 

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

 

Historical Associations Issue Recommendations about Rewarding Public History Work for Promotion and Tenure

The AHA Council adopted “Tenure, Promotion, and the Publicly Engaged Academic Historian,” a report offering best practices for evaluating public history scholarship in history departments, at its June 5 meeting. The report provides clear advice on evaluating public history work for college and university administrators, department chairs, and faculty. The National Council on Public History and the Organization of American Historians also adopted the joint report.

The report argues that public history work is generally overlooked in a “tenure process that emphasizes single-authored monographs and articles at the expense of other types of scholarly productions.” Despite increasing interest in public history, public scholarship, and other forms of civic engagement in colleges and universities, current standards for evaluating historical scholarship “do not reflect the great variety of historical practice undertaken by faculty members.” Even departments that hire faculty specifically to teach public history often neglect to reward those historians for carrying out the range of public history activities required in their jobs.

Read the full report and the related white paper.

 

Position Open: Historian for the House of Representatives

Robert Remini has retired from his post as the House of Representatives’ Historian after five years in the job. A distinguished search committee (all of whom are AHA members) has been named to find his replacement. And a vacancy announcement has been released, which explains the position:

The Historian provides historical research for House Members, and oversees the creation of presentations and publications by the office.  The Historian supervises and oversees all responses to historical inquiries from the news media, oral history interviews, the Office’s interactive public website and other outreach activities touching Members, the public, students, teachers, and scholars. The Historian leads a staff of more than a dozen professionals including individuals holding M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.

For more information, including salary range, minimum experience required, and the application process, see the vacancy announcement. Applications are due by 6 p.m. EST, August 16, 2010.

 

 

Article Proposals Invited by July 1 for Perspectives on History Special Issue on Political History

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.

 

Online Member Services Unavailable June 20–July 4, 2010

All online membership services are unavailable between June 20 and July 4, 2010.

A reminder to all AHA members: On July 1, 2010, the AHA will flip the switch on a new association management system (AMS), which will allow direct member interaction via the web site in many crucial and time-sensitive areas. Members who join, renew, or wish to update their address or other member information will be able to interact directly with the AMS. The new system will also bring to the member services web pages long sought after features such as changeable passwords, real-time updates, and other member-related services. We expect, as well, that it will open the door to enhancing and customizing the web site for each individual member.

Please note that during this transitional time, from June 20–July 4, all online membership services will be offline; we apologize for any inconvenience and ask that members to bear with us during this time.

 

AHA Facebook Discussions

The AHA’s Facebook page continues to attract fans, now with over 1,500 people who “like” the page. The discussion section also contains a number of interesting conversations, on topics like:

Want to weigh in? Head over to the discussion section of the AHA’s Facebook page and add your thoughts today.

 

 

AHA Today

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

 

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.

 

 

Listing in the Directory

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 Coalition for History

 

 

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 18, 2010