Dear AHA Member,
AHA news and updates for the history profession.
In this issue:
- 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.
Teaching Tools: How Do You Use AHA Resources?
Which of the AHA’s pamphlets, Perspectives on History articles, web pages, and blog posts do you use in the classroom? Which AHA resources are your favorite or engage your students to most?
We want to hear your success stories.
Take part in this discussion today on the AHA’s blog or on the AHA’s Facebook page. Feel free to link to your own web site or blog if you have highlightedyour use of AHA resources there. By hearing your feedback we can improve our current resources and plan improvements for the future.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has announced a high-level commission to discuss "the top ten actions that Congress, state governments, universities, foundations, educators, individual benefactors, and others should take now to maintain national excellence in humanities and social scientific scholarship and education."
AHA president Tony Grafton, Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust, and Annette Gordon-Reed stand out among the scholars representing history. Learn more in this press release and this article from Inside Higher Ed.
Award for Scholarly Distinction
Call for Nominations for the 2011 Awards
The AHA Council established the American Historical Association Award for Scholarly Distinction in 1984 to honor senior historians in the United States. Since then, the award has been awarded to 60 eminent scholars.
A nominating jury appointed by the AHA Council will review the nominations and will recommend up to three individuals for approval at the Council's spring 2011 meeting. The honoree(s) will be announced at the Association's 126th annual meeting to be held January 5-8, 2012, in Chicago.
Deadline for nominations is April 29, 2011.
For more information visit the Award for Scholarly Distinction page on the AHA's web site.
American Historical Review
The American Historical Review has redesigned their web site, the new look paying homage to the journal’s signature glossy white cover and accompanying image, which is forty years old this spring. The redesign also offers a more streamlined user experience with added features like a news section. They’ve also created a Facebook page, where they’ll post information about the latest issues and other news from the journal.
Teaching the Civil War
Looking for classroom resources and ideas for teaching the American Civil War? In anticipation of the Civil War’s 150th anniversary, Teachinghistory.org’s History Education News (a bi-annual publication that provides K-12 educators with classroom resources, tools, and teaching methods) is exploring the causes, events and impact of this defining moment in American history. In this latest issue you will find:
Web site reviews, including a web site of freedmen’s letters, featuring fugitive slave John Boston’s letter to his wife who was still in bondage.
Video of a fourth grade class analyzing the song John Brown’s Body to learn about Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, reactions to the raid and the coming of the Civil War.
A lesson plan review about Civil War photography.
Links to booklists and other resources in response to a teacher’s question about military history resources in “Ask a Master Teacher.”
To request a copy or multiple copies of this free publication, visit teachinghistory.org/node/23853 or call toll-free (866) 539-8381.
Past Issues
For past issues of History Education News, and the resources they include, see Teachinghistory.org’s collection of PDFs online.
You’ll explore maps in History Education News volume 5, find a look at social issues in volume 4, consider material culture in volume 3, and study presidential issues in volume 2 (volume 1 is not available online).
Upcoming Events
The following events 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.
Key Moments in Human Spaceflight
The NASA History Division and the National Air and Space Museum's Division of Space History announce a joint symposium, "1961/1981: Key Moments in Human Spaceflight," at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 26-27, 2011. This symposium is free and reflects on 50 years of human spaceflight using these two key dates in time as an entrée for broader investigation and insight. Find for information on the agenda, presenter bios, abstracts, registration and logistics.
2011 Advanced Oral History Summer Institute
The Regional Oral History Office (ROHO) at the University of California, Berkeley, is offering a one-week advanced institute on the methodology, theory, and practice of oral/video history. This will take place at The Bancroft Library on the Berkeley campus from August 15-19, 2011. The cost of the five-day institute is $900. Designed for graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, college faculty, and independent scholars using oral history interviews as part of a research project, the institute is also open to museum and community-based historians who are engaged in oral history work.
Please Assist with Survey of Career Paths in History
Last Monday, many of you received an invitation to fill out a survey about career paths of historians in academia. The findings from this survey will assist us in our efforts to provide career guidance to future historians, and to identify potential impediments for scholars already working their way through the academic system. If you received the invitation, please take the time to assist with this important survey, by opening the link contained in the message and taking the time to provide us with insights into your career.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Townsend
Assistant Director, Research and Publications
American Historical Association
AHA Today
Keep up with the latest information on history and the profession on the AHA’s blog, AHA Today. Recent posts include:
Life Member Named Routledge History Author of the Month
Karen Offen, a Life Member of the AHA, has been named Author of the Month for March by Routledge, the academic publishing imprint based in Great Britain.A Forgotten Patron of the AHA
What type of person in 1949 bestows a fortune on the AHA? An individual who was a quiet humble indexer who lived a long and full life from 1871 to 1949; a man who was not looking for credit or money, but for the preservation of history.Also, see the most recent What We’re Reading (March 3 and March 10) and Grant of the Week (New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowships and Marine Corps History Dissertation Fellowships) 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
National Humanities Alliance
National Humanities Alliance to Hold Annual Meeting & Humanities Advocacy Day March 7-8 Updated program and participant materials posted on web
Foreign Language Assistance Program in President Obama’s FY 2012 Budget Proposal Administration proposes consolidation of programs under “Well-Rounded Education” umbrella
Javits Fellowships in President Obama’s FY 2012 Budget Proposal Administration proposes consolidation with Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GAANN)
Consortium of Social Science Associations
- March 7, 2011 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, Kelly Elmore, Noralee Frankel, Elisabeth Grant, James Grossman, Vernon Horn, and Robert B. Townsend
Last Updated: March 11, 2011
