From the AHA Activities column in the October 1998 Perspectives

Statement on Diversity in AHA Nominations and Appointments

 

Editor's Note: The following statement was drafted by the AHA's Professional Division and approved by the Council at its meeting on December 27, 1990. The Council directed its publication in Perspectives in the hope that it will encourage members to suggest more individuals from diverse backgrounds for both appointments and nominations. The statement is meant to accompany the requests from the Committee on Committees and the Nominating Committee that are published annually in the October Perspectives. If there are individuals that you would like to suggest for appointment or nomination, please contact Sharon K. Tune, Assistant Director, AHA, 400 A St., SE, Washington, DC 20003-3889. E-mail: stune@historians.org.

Criteria for elected and appointed office within the AHA must be consistent with the goals and purposes of the Association. The 1988 report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Future of the AHA provides that context. Established by the AHA Council in 1987, the Ad Hoc Committee looked at both the future of the profession and the AHA's role in it. The committee concluded that only the Association can function as the umbrella organization for the profession, bringing together and representing historians from all work settings and in all chronological, geographical, and topical specializations, across gender and color lines. While recognizing that the AHA has made considerable progress in recent years in opening up its leadership ranks, the committee found that much remains to be done and called for both the Nominating Committee and the Committee on Committees "to address more consciously the diversity of the profession, including not only research interests but also gender, race and ethnicity, age, size and type of institutions, and other factors pertinent to issues of representation." The Association's efforts to reach out more broadly and effectively throughout the profession must not end with membership recruitment but must extend into the leadership ranks, providing a visible statement of the organization's commitment to diversity.

In the 20 years since the issuance of the Rose Report on the Status of Women in the Historical Profession, the AHA has made significant strides toward gender integration, a goal not yet fully reached. We have been far less successful in bringing into the Association and into the leadership ranks minority historians, precollege teachers, public historians, and two-year college faculty; even faculty at four-year colleges, a significant portion of our membership, have expressed frustration at being shut out of leadership positions. The work of these individuals is not marginal but rather central to our profession, and they should have the opportunity to play a leadership role in the profession's premier organization.

The remedy for underrepresentation is not quotas. Proportional representation is no more appropriate for these constituencies than for the discipline's various research specializations—our profession is far too diverse and complex. But name recognition, field specialization, and the amount and quality of publications should not be the only criteria. Also important are the differential needs of the profession's and the Association's various constituencies and the particular responsibilities and concerns of the office or position in question. Different individuals are appropriate for different positions. The AHA is a professional membership organization with a broad agenda that encompasses more than scholarly research, and nominations and appointments must not be made solely on the basis of standards for university hiring and promotions.

Within this context, the Council and the Professional Division provide the following guidelines for the Nominating Committee and the Committee on Committees.

  • Nominations and appointments should be consistent with the diversity of AHA membership, specifically addressing:

    • Work context, including secondary schools, two-year colleges, four-year colleges, graduate institutions, public history, and independent research;

    • Gender;

    • Race and ethnicity;

    • Age;

    • Rank, including junior as well as senior historians;

    • Regional distribution;

    • Institutional affiliation, including nonaffiliated historians as well as those employed in both public and private institutions, the academy and public history;

    • Area of specialization, where pertinent to the position.

  • Issues of diversity and representation should be addressed within the context of the total composition of each committee or other body affected, not on a piecemeal or case-by-case basis.

  • All nominations and appointments should take into account the agenda of the committee or other body within which an individual would function and the individual's ability to speak to and contribute to that agenda.

  • The American Historical Association represents the diverse interests of all historians in this country. Scholars who work in fields outside U.S. and European history represent a growing presence in the organization. To better insure that the interests of these scholars are being met, the Nominating Committee of the American Historical Association will nominate for the position of president-elect of the organization historians whose research is outside the fields of either American or western European history at least once every five years.

  • Except under unusual circumstances, no individual should serve simultaneously in more than one position or be nominated or appointed for more than one term in any capacity. This does not prohibit the nomination or appointment of an individual for a position while serving in some other capacity, as long as the current term of service will end prior to the new position beginning or the individual agrees to resign from the first position before assuming the second.

In addition, the Council and the Professional Division provide the following guidelines for nominations for specific positions:

  • Given the diverse professional needs and concerns of historians, particular attention should be given to gender, color, and work context as well as scholarship in the composition of the three elected divisions.

  • Precollegiate representation on the Teaching Division has long been institutionalized, but two-year and four-year liberal arts colleges have not yet achieved comparable status. Nominations of postsecondary faculty should reflect the diversity of teaching contexts at that level.

  • Because of the responsibilities of both the Nominating Committee and the Committee on Committees in recruiting individuals for leadership positions, it is particularly critical that these two committees include individuals with special contacts within the various communities and constituencies listed above under general guidelines. Without representatives of these groups, these committees will lack the contacts necessary to make nominations and appointments consistent with the Association's commitment to diversity.

Finally, both committees are asked to keep in mind the difference between the Association's guidelines and committee lore or custom. The latter does not have the endorsement of the AHA's elected leadership and is not binding on any committee.

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Last Updated: September 7, 2007 11:22 AM