Dear AHA Member,
AHA news and updates for the history profession.
In this issue:
- Equity Awards – Deadline Aug. 1
- Update Your Department & Organization Directory Entry – Deadline Aug. 1
- Calendar
- AHA Today – Recent history news
- News from Washington – Updates from NCH, NHA, and COSSA
Please feel free to forward this e-mail to your friends and colleagues.
Position Available:
Special Projects Coordinator for the AHA
The American Historical Association is hiring a Special Projects Coordinator who will play a central role in the development of new projects at the AHA, with an emphasis on digital activities and the preparation of grant proposals. The Special Projects Coordinator reports to the Executive Director and shares one direct report.
To learn about the responsibilities of this position, the qualifications needed in an applicant, and how to apply, see this post on AHA Today.
Newest Affiliates of the AHA
By Robert B. Townsend
At its meeting in early June, the AHA Council accepted four new applications for affiliation from the Association for Documentary Editing and three research centers at the Newberry Library (the Hermon Dunlap Smith Center for the History of Cartography, the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies, and the Dr. William M. Scholl Center for American History and Culture). The three centers join the Newberry’s Center for Renaissance Studies as affiliates of the AHA.
Newberry Centers
While all three of the Newberry Centers fall outside the norm for affiliated societies (membership organizations with a peer-reviewed journal), they are similar to other organizations accepted for affiliation over the past few years, such as George Mason’s Center for History and New Media and the German Historical Institute. They clearly represent communities of first-rate history work, even if they do not have membership roles in the traditional sense. We hope to revise the affiliation policy in the coming year to more explicitly reflect this recent trend, and perhaps more clearly differentiate between membership societies and service organizations.
Association for Documentary Editing
The Association for Documentary Editing (ADE) is a more traditional sort of AHA affiliate: a professional association for historians, literary scholars, and other individuals with an interest in the editing of historical documents, who make up its membership.
Affiliate Relationship
The relationship with each of the affiliates varies considerably. In some cases, the ties are close, resulting in collaborative projects and publications, joint prizes and awards, and co-sponsored meetings and conferences. In other cases, the principal activity is consultation regarding special concerns or referral of inquiries. But all of the affiliates are listed in an online directory (which remains a very popular section of the AHA website) and most sponsor sessions at the annual meeting, taking advantage of the Association’s favorable transportation and hotel rates and the availability of free meeting space.
Officers of history organizations who might be interested in affiliation can contact Robert Townsend for more information.
Equity Awards
In 1996, the American Historical Association adopted a statement on equity that acknowledges its commitment “to diversity in the historical profession” and called on “institutions to recruit aggressively and hire members from groups that have been historically discriminated against.”
To further this goal, the AHA has established two Equity Awards to be given annually: one for individuals and another for academic units.
The award can be conferred for new initiatives or for sustained efforts. These equity awards are meant to recognize and publicize individuals and institutions that have achieved excellence in recruiting and retaining underrepresented racial and ethnic groups into the historical profession. While the awards are honorary and have no monetary component, winners will receive a certificate of recognition that specially honors their efforts to secure and sustain diversity in the profession.
Individuals or institutions can nominate themselves or be nominated. Please submit nominations by August 1, 2011. For instructions on how to apply, and more information about these awards, see the Equity Awards page on the AHA’s web site.
Update Your Department & Organization Directory Entry
Departments and Organizations
This is the final call for updates to departments and organizations in the AHA’s 2011-12 Directory! Don't miss your chance to be part of the most comprehensive directory of the history profession.
If you haven’t logged on to our website and accessed your institution’s entry, you must do so by August 1. If not, we will assume you do not want to be listed in the Directory and will remove your institution from the book.
For institutions that have already logged on this year, please be sure to review your Directory listing again. Remember, you can keep updating your entry throughout the year, but changes made after August 1 will not appear in the print version and will only be reflected in the AHA Directory Online.
Calendar
The following items may be of interest to members. See the AHA Calendar for more upcoming meetings and seminars, research, awards and fellowships, internet resources, and upcoming exhibitions. Have a call for proposals, event, or award listing you’d like to submit? Simply send it in through our online form.
13th Conference on Women and the Civil War
The Society for Women and the Civil War presents their 13th Conference on Women and the Civil War. This year our Conference is cosponsored by the Maryland Historical Society. The Conference will be held July 29 - 31, 2011, at the College of Notre Dame in Baltimore, Maryland.Call for Papers: Making Educational Oral Histories in the 21st Century
The Oral History Forum is seeking submissions to a special issue addressing Oral History and Education, entitled "Making Educational Oral Histories in the 21st Century." Submissions might concern, but are not limited to, the following topics: case studies where Oral History strategies are used with students at various levels of the educational enterprise; challenges of Oral History for scholars and educators; advantages of using Oral History for students of History at all levels; recommended software for generating Oral History within educational contexts; combining conventional educational history with Oral History sources; institutional responsibilities and ethical dilemmas in utilizing Oral History with students. Length of submission should be 5,000-10,000 words, excluding notes. Abstract: 250 words, including the name, e-mail address, affiliated institution, and a short c.v. Please send queries and submissions to: makingoralhistory@gmail.com.Franklin Research Grants
Since 1933 the American Philosophical Society has awarded small grants to scholars in order to support the cost of research leading to publication in all areas of knowledge. The Franklin program is particularly designed to help meet the costs of travel to libraries and archives for research purposes; the purchase of microfilm, photocopies, or equivalent research materials; the costs associated with fieldwork; or laboratory research expenses. The APS offers collaborative programs with the British Academy in London and the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities in Edinburgh; details are available at the website. Applicants are expected to have a doctorate or to have published work of doctoral character and quality. Ph.D. candidates are not eligible to apply, but the Society is particularly interested in supporting the work of young scholars who have recently received the doctorate. Funding is offered up to a maximum of $6,000 for use in calendar year 2012.
AHA Today
Keep up with the latest information on history and the profession on the AHA’s blog, AHA Today. Recent posts include:
Finding History Jobs Outside of AcademiaCheck out our roundup of websites that list jobs in history outside of academia, including work in museums, historical societies, state and local government, archives, and more.
100 Years at the National Museum of Natural History
The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History is celebrating its centennial. To look back over the past 100 years, the museum has created a section on its website to highlight items from its collections, present accounts of scientific expeditions, tell stories and collect oral histories of those who’ve worked at the museum over the years, and more.Also, see the most recent What We’re Reading (July 7 and July 14) and Grant of the Week (Civil War Battlefield Preservation Grants from the NPS) 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
NEH and National Park Service Funding Cut by House Appropriations Committee
National Archives Issues Proposed Rule on Declassification Procedures
National Humanities Alliance
House Appropriations Subcommittee Bill Includes $135 million in FY 2012 funding for NEHSubcommittee markup held today, Full Committee to meet on Tuesday, July 12.
Consortium of Social Science Associations
July 11, 2011 Washington Update
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Last Updated: July 20, 2011
