February 6, 2012
AHA news and updates for the history profession.
- Perspectives on History – February 2012
- AHA/Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship
- AHR Best Digital Article Prize
- ACLS Public Fellows
- Humanities Advocacy Day
- National History Center
- 127th Annual Meeting – Submit Proposals
- Videos from the 126th Annual Meeting
- Annual Meeting Product Sale
- AHA Today – Recent history news
- News from Washington–NCH and COSSA
Perspectives on History – February 2012
The February 2012 issue of Perspectives online is now available. Some articles are gated, but can be accessed by AHA members after logging in to AHA online services.
From the President & Executive Director
AHA President William Cronon begins the February 2012 issue with his article, “Scholarly Authority in a Wikified World,” in which he describes how his initial skepticism about Wikipedia has now been replaced by a recognition of how comprehensive and useful the online encyclopedia has become. He then calls upon historians to do their part in improving Wikipedia by contributing their expertise.
AHA Executive Director James Grossman stays focused on the digital landscape in his article “The Beckoning Horizon.” He considers “new challenges for the AHA in the digital age,” and invites readers to send in their thoughts.
More
Read on in the February issue for news of the AHR’s new prize for the best digital article, a retrospective look at the 126th annual meeting, using sports to teach history, and much more.
AHA/Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship
The new American Historical Association/Folger Shakespeare Library Fellowship is sponsored jointly by the AHA and the Folger Shakespeare Library, and is available only to AHA members.
The fellowship is awarded for research on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century western European history, and the fellow will be awarded a one-month fellowship to be taken at the Folger Shakespeare Library. Applicants must hold the PhD at the time of application and must be a member in good standing of the AHA. Apply directly to the Folger by March 1, 2012.
AHR Best Digital Article Prize
The American Historical Review invites submissions of online works of digital historical scholarship to be considered for the newly established AHR Prize in Digital Historical Scholarship. The winning submission will be published online by Oxford University Press in April 2014 as a fully peer-reviewed, fully citable work of original scholarship and as an integral part of the AHR. The deadline for submission is March 1, 2013. Learn more in this announcement and call for submissions from the February 2012 issue of Perspectives on History.
ACLS Public Fellows
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) invites applications for the second competition of the Public Fellows program, which will place 13 recent PhDs from the humanities and humanistic social sciences in two-year staff positions at partnering organizations in government and the nonprofit sector.
Fellows will participate in the substantive work of these organizations and receive professional mentoring. Compensation will be competitive with new professional employees of the hosting organization and will include health insurance for the fellow.
The program was launched last spring to demonstrate the value of employing skilled and accomplished young scholars in a variety of capacities, thereby broadening the academy's conventional ideas of the PhD career path. Check out the public fellows selected last year. Learn more and find instructions on how to apply here online. The deadline for applications is March 21, 2012.
Humanities Advocacy Day
Humanities Advocacy Day is an annual event where “scholars and researchers, higher education representatives, association leaders, policymakers, and others” go to Congress to advocate for the humanities. It’s run by the National Humanities Alliance in conjunction with their Annual Meeting, and takes place this year March 19-20 in Washington, D.C. Register here.
On Monday, March 19, formal activities begin at The George Washington University's Marvin Center, with the Annual Meeting of the National Humanities Alliance. Here, scholars and researchers, higher education representatives, association leaders, policymakers, teachers, students and others will convene to discuss the state of the humanities, and its relevance to current policy issues. DC-based experts will brief participants on recent policy developments, including the status of federal funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as other critical programs, such as the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI/Fulbright-Hays International Education programs, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
On Tuesday, March 20, participants will have the opportunity to communicate the value of the humanities to Members of Congress and key Congressional staff as part of organized delegations for Humanities Advocacy Day.
*Please note: Pre-meeting activities will take place on Sunday, March 18 at the One Washington Circle Hotel, beginning with an afternoon session featuring federal agency presentations on select humanities grant opportunities. A separate advocacy training session will be held later that evening.
Register online soon and learn more here.
National History Center
National History Center Announces 2012 Decolonization Participants
The National History Center has announced the names of the fifteen scholars chosen to participate in its seventh annual International Seminar on Decolonization. The seminar will take place from July 8 through August 3 in Washington, DC. Members come from a diverse set of educational institutions in the United States and abroad, from the University of South Florida and the University of Southampton to the University of Amsterdam and Balliol College, Oxford. Their proposed projects explore subjects from “hydropolitics” to the ways that museums’ collecting and display practices reflect the processes of decolonization.
The seminar is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and hosted by the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress.
127th Annual Meeting
AHA members are invited to submit proposals for the AHA’s 127th annual meeting, which will be held January 3-6, 2013 in New Orleans. The deadline to submit a proposal, February 15, 2012, is approaching, so don’t delay. Before you submit, learn more about the meeting theme,“Lives, Places, Stories,” and get some advice from the Program Committee.
Videos from the 126th Annual Meeting
The AHA recorded a number of sessions and events at the 126th annual meeting and has posted them online on the AHA YouTube page. Learn more about each of the videos in this recent blog post. The videos include:
Anthony Grafton's Presidential Address:
"The Republic of Letters in the American Colonies: Francis Daniel Pastorius Makes a Notebook"Turning Your Dissertation into a Book (Session 69)
Whither the Future of the History Textbook (Session 232)
James M. McPherson: A Life in American History (Session 189)
Historians and the Obama Narrative (Session 101-A)
Radical Enlightenment: A Session in Honor of Margaret Jacob (Session 134)
Annual Meeting Product Sale
The AHA was pleased to receive so much positive feedback about the logo for the 126th annual meeting. If you're one of the logo's many fans, consider purchasing it on a t-shirt or poster, now at sale prices after the meeting.
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Black Shirt with Logo |
Logo Poster $5 members, $6.50 nonmembers |
Ice Blue Shirt with Logo |
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Choice Essentials
In tandem with the complimentary access AHA members now receive to Choice Reviews Online, we will be highlighting a few of these reviews here in Fortnightly News each month. Log in to member services and click the link for "Choice Reviews Online" to read the full versions of these reviews. If you've set up a profile on the Choice website, go to the "My Profile" section to access these reviews.
Roman Historiography: An Introduction to its Basic Aspects and Development, 1st English ed. (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011)
By Andreas Mehl
Translated by Hans-Friedrich Mueller
Mueller's translation of Mehl's Römische Geschichtsschreibung (2001) ...is both thorough and concise, covering virtually every known Roman historian from Q. Fabius Pictor (third century BCE) to the Christian universal histories of Eusebius, and beyond to Procopius (sixth century CE). ...This is the distillation of a lifetime's scholarship, a rich and invaluable resource...much needed in the study of ancient Greco-Roman history.
Xinjiang and China's Rise in Central Asia--A History (Routledge, 2011)
By Michael E. Clarke
Clarke (Griffith Univ., Australia) offers the latest addition to the growing literature on China's far northwestern region ...indispensible for anyone interested China's ethnic relations, state formation, and foreign policy, especially during the communist regime.
Ahmedabad: Shock City of Twentieth-Century India (Indiana, 2011)
By Howard Spodek
Spodek (Temple Univ.) is a renowned world historian and highly respected specialist in Indian urban history ...The strength of this first-rate, well-illustrated study is its thorough grounding in source material [and] an intimate knowledge of people and places...
Jobs — Most Recent
Here are just a few of the most recently posted Job Ads from the AHA's website. Sign in to the AHA web site to access the links below for more information about these and other positions.
Director – Nixon Library and Museum
The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) invites applications for the position of director, Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.Public History – University of Missouri-Kansas City
The History Department at the University of Missouri-Kansas City is seeking a tenure-track, nine-month assistant professor beginning August 2012 in public history.African American/Atlantic World – Montgomery County Community College
Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania seeks a history instructor for fall 2012, with expertise in African American history, African history, and Atlantic world history.
See the AHA Calendar for more upcoming meetings and seminars, research, awards and fellowships, 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.
Call for Papers: History of Women in the Americas
The Society for the History of Women in the Americas (SHAW, formerly known as British Historians of Women in the Americas) will hold their fifth annual conference on Wednesday 14th March 2012 at Brunel University, west London. They welcome papers on any aspect of women's and gender history in North America, South America and the Caribbean. Submit a 250 word abstract by February 14, 2012. Learn more here.Graduate Fellowships: Cuban Heritage Collection at University of Miami
The Cuban Heritage Collection Graduate Fellowships provide assistance to graduate students who wish to use the research resources available at the Cuban Heritage Collection at the University of Miami. Learn more here.
Keep up with the latest information on history and the profession on the AHA's blog, AHA Today. Recent posts include:
Citizen Archivist Dashboard from the National Archives
The Citizen Archivist Dashboard from the National Archives is a well-designed interactive site that encourages visitors to engage with National Archives records by tagging, transcribing, editing articles, uploading images, and participating in contests.Transdisciplinary Study Sheds New Light on History of the Mayan People
A new study (using science and archaeology) on the Mayan people reminds us that beyond the archives lie unexplored worlds with rich seams of evidence waiting to be mined with new tools and methods.What We’re Reading
The February 2 edition of What We’re Reading featured links to updated Report on the State of History Education, resources for Black History Month, and upcoming annual meeting coverage from C-SPAN. On January 26, we posted links to the National Museum of African American History and Culture struggling to find artifacts like slave clothing, Facebook deleting profiles of historical figures, and AAUP announcing “University Press Week.”
The AHA 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. Their most recent reports include:
National Coalition for History
Recent news from the National Coalition for History:
Humanities Advocacy Day 2012 Registration Open
Online registration for the 2012 National Humanities Alliance's Humanities Advocacy Day is now open. Events will take place Monday, March 19 – Tuesday, March 20, 2012, in Washington, DC.
Consortium of Social Science Associations
Read COSSA's most recent Washington Update for news on spending bills, Senate hearings, education and more.
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Last Updated: February 6, 2012
