Dear AHA Member,
AHA news and updates for the history profession.
In this issue:
Publications
- The New Directory is Here
- American Historical Review – October 2010
Surveys
- Survey on Childcare at the Annual Meeting
- Calling All Contingent Faculty
- Task Force on Disability Survey
AHA News
- Annual Meeting 2011 Updates
- Annual Election of Officers
- AHA Today – Recent history news
Other News
- Kluge Center Fellowships
- National History Center – Reinterpreting History
- Free Historical Thinking Poster
- News from Washington – Updates from NCH, NHA, and COSSA
Please feel free to forward this e-mail to your friends and colleagues.
The New Directory is Here
The AHA is proud to announce the recent publication of the 36th edition of the Directory of History Departments, Historical Organizations, and Historians. Available in both a print version and online, the Directory offers information on 800 history programs and historical organizations and almost 30,000 historians and history specialists.
The print version of the Directory is divided into three sections: history departments in the United States, history departments in Canada, and historical organizations in both countries. The listings provide a basic snapshot of the activities and personnel in the history departments as of summer 2010, including contact information, tuition, enrollment data, and faculty roster (departments are responsible for keeping this information up to date). Information on historical organizations includes staff, programs, publications, collections, and fellowships offered. Following the body of the directory are two indexes: one including all historians listed in the Directory and the other an index of AHA members as of July 15, 2010.
The online Directory includes the same information as the body of the print Directory, with the added bonus that departments and organizations are able to update their information throughout the year.
Departments that already have paid their fee for listing in the Directory should receive their print copy in the mail in the next 2–3 weeks. If your department does not receive its copy, please contact the Membership office to make sure payment has been received.
Individual copies of the Directory are available for purchase in our Publications Shop.
American Historical Review - October, 2010
By Konstantin Dierks and Sarah Knott, acting co-editors of the American Historical Review
Note: AHA members should be receiving their print versions soon. The online version will also be available soon, and members should login to member services and click the link to the American Historical Review to access the full text from these articles.
The October issue of the American Historical Review includes an article on the links between the seventeenth-century English Revolution and the origins of abolitionism, a piece on the granting of independence to Iraq in 1932, and an AHRForum on “Intimate Life and Sexuality in Mid-Twentieth-Century France.” There are also five featured reviews, followed by our normal extensive book review section. “In Back Issues” calls attention to articles and features in the AHRfrom one hundred, seventy-five, and fifty years ago.
For a more detailed description of the contents of the October 2010 issue, see the AHA Blog.
December’s issue will include articles on international humanitarianism in response to the Armenian Genocide and on repercussions of Chinese decolonization for Kazaks, as well as an AHR Forum on “New Perspectives on the Enlightenment.”
Robert A. Schneider, the editor of the AHR, is on sabbatical leave this academic year. Konstantin Dierks and Sarah Knott, on the faculty of the History Department of Indiana University and former associate editors of the journal, are serving as acting editors.
Survey on Childcare at the Annual Meeting
The Professional Division is exploring whether childcare is a barrier to participation at the annual meeting. The division is considering the feasibility of offering modest subventions of childcare costs to make the annual meeting more accessible to parents or guardians of young children.
In order to understand the potential need for this service, members of the division request that you provide answers to the following brief survey:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5V3HT2M
Your privacy will be respected and protected. Data will be reported in the aggregate and individual responses will be kept anonymous.
Each person who completes the survey will have the option to enter a random drawing to receive a $50 Amazon gift card. Information provided for the drawing will not be connected to survey results.
Please complete the questionnaire by Friday, November 5. Winners of the gift cards will be notified the following week.
Task Force on Disability Survey
The American Historical Association’s Task Force on Disability is gathering information about the status and concerns of historians with disabilities in order to propose concrete, practical solutions for as many of them as possible.
Please participate in our survey so that we may ascertain and assess the issues facing historians with disabilities in graduate school, on the job market, in promotion and tenure, in teaching, research and service-related activities, as well as overall functioning on campus. With this information, the Task Force on Disability will make formal recommendations to the AHA on how to improve accessibility and accommodations in our field.
Please complete the applicable survey:
Survey of Department Heads and Directors of Graduate Studies
Survey of Graduate Students with Disabilities or Health Conditions
Survey of Professional Historians with Disabilities or Health Conditions
These are confidential surveys. Your privacy will be respected and protected. Data will only be reported in the aggregate and no one will see individual responses.
Each person who completes a survey will have the option to enter a random drawing to receive a $100 Amazon gift card. Information provided for the drawing will not be connected to survey results. Responses should be submitted by Friday, October 22, 2010.
Calling All Contingent Faculty:
We Want to Know More about You
On behalf of the Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW), the AHA invites all historians and other faculty employed in the contingent academic workforce in U.S. colleges and universities to participate in a survey about course assignments, salaries, benefits, and general working conditions. We invite participation from all instructional and research staff members employed off the tenure track, including faculty members employed either full- or part-time, graduate students remunerated as teaching assistants or employed in other roles, and researchers and postdoctoral fellows.
This is an exceptionally important study, as most of the data on the working conditions of the contingent academic workforce exist in large data sets that are only aggregated and averaged at the national level. This obscures the similarities and differences that contingent academic workers experience across different institutions and institutional sectors, geographic regions, and disciplines. The survey collects institution- and course-specific information to create a more textured and realistic picture of contingent academic workers’ working lives and working conditions.
With your assistance, this survey will develop a rich dataset to help CAW and its member organizations advocate on behalf of professional compensation and working conditions for the contingent academic workforce. To that end we deeply appreciate the time and effort given by all who fill out this survey. Individuals who wish to be entered in a drawing for one of several $50 book gift cards may include contact information at the end of the questionnaire, but this information will not be used to connect survey data with specific persons.
Please visit the following URL:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VNNNRVS
We hope you will fill out the questionnaire today, but if you cannot, please do so by November 30, 2010. Winners of the gift cards will be notified the following week.
2011 Annual Meeting
Boston, MA
January 6–9, 2011
Pregregistration
Preregister now for the 125th Annual Meeting in Boston, MA, January 6–9, 2011. Members can preregister by logging in to member services and clicking the link to “Meeting Registration” on the main page Members Services page. For information on how nonmembers can register see this page.
Hotel Reservations
For the 2011 meeting, the AHA has combined the registration and hotel reservation process. After preregistering for the meeting, attendees will receive an acknowledgment of preregistration that will include information on making a hotel reservation.
Registration Resource Center
The registration resource center is up and running to provide receipts and links to housing.
Job Center
Are you on a search committee planning to interview at the annual meeting? Will you be arranging a private suite or using the Job Center facilities? Please log on to the Job Center page to find all the information and reservation forms you’ll need for a successful meeting.
The Job Center offers:
Free tables
Rooms that can be reserved for $80 for a half-day or $140 for a full day (prepayment will be required this year)
An information center that will help your candidates find your interview location, even if it’s in a privately arranged suite
Questions? Contact Liz Townsend.
More Information
See the AHA’s Annual Meeting web page for more information on hotels, venue locations, registration, exhibit hall details, transportation, and the Job Center.
Annual Election of Officers
Ballots for the 2010 election were sent to all members in good standing on September 1.
If you need assistance with the online voting process or to change your preference (from paper to online, or online to paper), contact the AHA's Help Desk at (866) 720-4357 (toll free) or e-mail: ahahelp@electionservicescorp.com
Changes of address requests or non-election related questions should be forwarded to the Membership Department by e-mail or phone call (202) 544-2422 (ext. 123).
Please return your completed ballot no later than 11:59 p.m. on November 1.
AHA Today
Keep up with the latest information on history and the profession on the AHA’s blog, AHA Today. Recent posts include:
Designing for Tomorrow
The National Building Museum in Washington launched a new exhibition on October 2, 2010, called Designing Tomorrow: America's World's Fairs of the 1930s. It is the first exhibit to consider the impact of the six American expositions of the 1930s (Chicago, San Diego, Cleveland, Dallas, San Francisco, and New York) on the popularization of modern design andthe creation of a modern consumer culture.Grant Applications from AHA Members: Now Being Accepted
Applications for the Albert J. Beveridge Grants, the Michael Kraus Research Grants, the Littleton-Griswold Grants, and Bernadotte E. Schmitt Grants are now open for submission. Applications for 2011 grants are due on February 15.Task Force on Disability Survey
The American Historical Association’s Task Force on Disability is gathering information about the status and concerns of historians with disabilities in order to propose concrete, practical solutions for as many of them as possible.-
Also, see the most recent What We’re Reading (October 7 and October 14) and Grant of the Week (Boren Fellowships and Digital Humanities Grants) posts.
Kluge Center Fellowships
The John K. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC is seeking applicants for two senior scholar positions: the Kemp Scholar in Political Economy, application deadline Nov 15, and the Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations, application deadline November 1.
The Kemp Scholar in Political Economy is for a distinguished senior research position in residence at the Library. The scholar is expected to engage in research on an aspect of political economy and “The American Idea,” defined as the basic principles of equality, opportunity, and inclusion.
The Kissinger Scholar is for a distinguished senior researcher in residence at the Library for a period of up to ten months and should engage in research on foreign policy and international affairs that will lead to publication.
The John W. Kluge Center seeks to attract to Washington the best available minds in the scholarly world, facilitate their access to the Library's remarkable collection of the world's knowledge, and engage them in conversation with the U.S. Congress and other public figures. More information can be found at: www.loc.gov/kluge
National History Center
Reinterpreting History
“Reinterpreting History,” the National History Center’s partnership with Oxford University Press, is bringing an awareness of historiographical debate into the classroom, according to Susan Ferber, executive editor for American and World History at OUP-USA.
“The first two books in the Reinterpreting History series have clearly filled a market niche immediately on publication,” Ferber said. Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars, edited by Mark Philip Bradley and Marilyn B. Young, has been acclaimed as “cutting-edge research…a crucial addition to the library of anyone interested in the histories of the Vietnam Wars.” Other reviews said “There is little doubt that Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars will influence how future students of the war move forward in their efforts to understand the conflict” and “a must-read for first-year students and scholars alike.”
Jack Greene and Philip D. Morgan’s volume, Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal, has been lauded as “comprehensive, illuminating, engaging and challenging” and “an excellent entrée to the theory and practice of Atlantic history informed by the latest research,” Ferber reported. “Both have already become established on syllabi at a range of schools and set a bright path for future works in the series,” she added.
Interviews with the editors of both volumes have been featured in the podcast series New Books in History. To listen, go to Jack Greene and Philip Morgan, “Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal” and Mark Bradley and Marilyn Young, “Making Sense of the Vietnam Wars”
Call for Applications for the 2011 Decolonization Seminar
The National History Center is now accepting applications from early-career scholars to participate in the sixth international summer seminar on decolonization, which will be held for four weeks, from Sunday, July 10, through Saturday, August 6, 2011, in Washington, D.C. The seminar is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and takes place at the Library of Congress.
The application deadline is November 1, 2010 and due via e-mail at the following address: decol2011apply@nationalhistorycenter.org.
See the call for applications page online for more information.
Free Historical Thinking Poster
Just in time for the new school year the National History Education Clearinghouse has created a two-sided Historical Thinking Poster, and they’re giving it away for free.
Meant to aid K-12 U.S. history or social studies teachers, librarians, and teacher educators, this double-sided color poster features definitions of primary and secondary sources and guides students through the process of historical inquiry. What questions should you ask when examining a primary source? Where should you look for reliable secondary sources? How do you use the evidence you've gathered to make an argument?
Bright illustrations and snappy captions present history as a mystery for elementary students, while the flip side asks middle and high schoolers how historians know what they know about the past. Both sides feature clear visual examples of primary sources.
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 Organizations Fight to Save Teaching American History Grants
In July, the National Coalition for History (NCH), and ten other NCH members joined forces with over 20 educational organizations representing other K-12 academic disciplines in issuing a statement to Congress and the Administration calling for the continued robust funding of core academic subjects including history.
National Humanities Alliance
Congress Passes Continuing Resolution Stopgap measure to fund government through December 3.
Recent Nominations Made to the National Council on the Humanities Three nominations currently pending with the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
Consortium of Social Science Associations
- October 11, 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: Miriam Hauss Cunningham, David Darlington, Debbie Ann Doyle, Kelly Elmore, Elisabeth Grant, James Grossman, Vernon Horn, Pillarisetti Sudhir, Sharon K. Tune, Liz Townsend, and Robert B. Townsend
Last Updated: October 15, 2010
