Meet New People

There are numerous ways to catch up with old friends or meet new people at the annual meeting. Newcomers are encouraged to join us at Getting the Most Out of the Annual Meeting, an orientation for first-time attendees. A variety of thematic receptions, including ones for undergraduates, graduate students, two-year faculty, K-12 teachers, HBCU faculty, students, and alumni, bloggers and twitterstorians, and public historians, provide opportunities to socialize and network. Finally, stop by the ninth annual Career Fair on Saturday afternoon, hosted by the AHA's Career Diversity for Historians initiative, where you can speak with dozens of historians working in government, education, non-profit organizations, and the private sector.

Explore Career Paths

Historians work in all kinds of professional settings, and the annual meeting offers opportunities to explore how and where they practice their craft and use their skills. Learn about job-hunting during the pandemic in the faculty and non-faculty realms in Graduate and Early Career Committee Open Forum. Stop by the Career Fair, and speak with dozens of historians working in advocacy organizations, business, and higher ed administration. While you are at the Career Fair, check out Ask an Assistant Professor to get the scoop from faculty at a range of colleges and universities about what their job is really like. Still want more? The annual meeting program features a range of panels focused on careers for historians in podcasting, documentary editing, publishing, and more.

Learn New Skills... or Hone Existing Ones

The AHA's Career Diversity for Historians initiative has identified five key skills that help historians succeed in careers both inside and beyond the professoriate. The annual meeting is a great place to gain familiarity with many of them. For example, you can develop your digital know-how at the Digital Project Showcase and Digital Drop In. Interested in communicating with a broad range of audiences? Stretch your communication skills at a lightning round or workshop, explore narrative podcasting, or find out more about the challenges and opportunities of practicing history online. 

Teaching is an essential historical skill, and the annual meeting is overflowing with workshops and panels devoted to professional development for teachers in K-12 and postsecondary environments. In conjunction with the AHA's History Gateways initiative, we are holding panels on the introductory history course, and how to redesign them to better serve students with a wide range of preparation and motivation. Current and future faculty will benefit from discussions about digital teaching resources, and panels on teaching contemporary controversies and free speech. Check out our guide to Teaching and Learning activities at the annual meeting for full details.

Reimagine Doctoral Education

The annual meeting will feature a special lightning round session focused on how history graduate programs can integrate professional development, including pedagogical training, into their curriculum. It's a must-see for faculty interested in learning more about the work history departments are doing to better prepare their PhD students for a variety of career outcomes. This session is part of the AHA's ongoing effort to work directly with faculty committed to realigning doctoral education in their departments with the more expansive vision of professional opportunities available to historians. It builds on two special projects organized by the AHA in 2020 and 2021: our spring 2021 Career Diversity Faculty Institute and our Survey of Doctoral Programs, which collected a broad array of information pertaining to the culture, curriculum, and process of doctoral education in history. The survey results, which we began releasing in spring 2022, provide history faculty with a thorough overview of the state of doctoral education in history and help them assess their own programs and inform the ways in which they train the next generation of historians.

For Undergraduate Attendees 

AHA23 offers professional development activities for undergraduates, too! Attend orientation and find out how to get the most from the conference, and stop by the reception to mingle with other undergraduate students and faculty. Describe your research to fellow historians in the undergraduate-focused Lightning Round (sign-up here) and poster session.

Session Roundup

AHA23 is the place to explore career paths for historians and diversify your skill set. Whether you are pursuing a degree in history, currently seeking employment, or are a faculty member interested in how you can better prepare your students for their careers, you'll find panels and workshops that provide insight and inspiration.

Thursday, January 5

How to Identify and Leverage the Transferable Skills of a History PhD
Thursday, January 5, 1:30-3:00 p.m.

Curricular Change and Career Diversity
Thursday, January 5, 3:30-5:00 p.m.

Friday, January 6

Historians for Mental Health: An Open Discussion
Friday, January 6, 8:30-10:00 a.m.

Roundtable: Professional Associations in a Time of Precarity
Friday, January 6, 8:30-10:00 a.m.

Graduate and Early Career Committee Open Forum
Friday, January 6, 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

Public-Facing History Today: Memory, Policy, Problem-Solving
Friday, January 6, 3:30-5:00 p.m.

Committee on LGBTQ Status in the Profession Open Forum
Friday, January 6, 3:30-5:00 p.m.

Saturday, January 7

Labor and Compensation in the Historical Profession
Saturday, January 7, 8:30-10:00 a.m.

Book History in Libraries: A Roundtable with Philadelphia-Area Librarians
Saturday, January 7, 8:30-10:00 a.m.

Historians Engaging Publics: Graphic Histories
Saturday, January 7, 8:30-10:00 a.m.

DEI Admissions in PhD Programs after the Summer of Social Justice
Saturday, January 7, 8:30-10:00 a.m.
Organized by the AHA Professional Division

Improving the Status of Non-Tenure-Track Faculty: Building on the AHA Statement
Saturday, January 7, 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Teaching Division

Career Fair
Saturday, January 7, 12:30-3:00 p.m.

What's New at the National Endowment for the Humanities for 2023: New Agency Priorities, Updated Funding Opportunities, and Special Initiatives
Saturday, January 7, 1:30-3:00 p.m.

Expanding Access for Underrepresented Students in Graduate Education
Saturday, January 7, 1:30-3:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Professional Division

How Do You Conceptualize a Second Book?
Saturday, January 7, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Professional Division

State of the Field for Busy Teachers: World History
Saturday, January 7, 3:30-5:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Teaching Division

Sunday, January 8

Writing Beyond the Academy: How to Secure a Commercial Book Deal
Sunday, January 8, 9:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Engaging Policymakers and the Public on US-Mexico Border and Migration History
Sunday, January 8, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Beyond the Campus Gates: Broadening the Reach of Historical Scholarship
Sunday, January 8, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Tag Team! Creating a Network of Support between Faculty and Professional Educators to Support Graduate Student Career Development
Sunday, January 8, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.