Equity Awards
The submission deadline has passed. Awardees are announced in the fall, and the next contest will begin in spring 2023.
The AHA Equity Awards are meant to recognize and publicize those who have achieved excellence in recruiting and retaining underrepresented racial and ethnic groups into the historical discipline.
The prize will be awarded on a two-year cycle rotation: in even-numbered years, to academic units; in odd-numbered years, to an individual. The awards can be conferred for new initiatives or for sustained efforts. The current prize amount is $1,000. See the list of past recipients.
Deserving nominees will have records that include such achievements as mentoring, program building, fundraising initiatives, pursuing civic engagement, and enhancing department and campus culture to promote a supportive environment.
Academic units such as departments of history, public history programs, and interdisciplinary programs and research institutes are eligible for the institutional award. Such units may have taken advantage of university and community resources to diversify their students and faculty or to provide professional experience through teaching, research, post doctoral, or internship programs.
The 2023 award will be for an individual. The Committee on Minority Historians will serve as the jury and will recommend awardees for the individual and institutional awards. Nominations may also be submitted through MY AHA (see instructions below).
Application Process
Log into your MY AHA account at historians.org/myaha and click “Available Application Forms” in the AHA Awards, Grants, and Jobs section. If you don't have an account, create one for free at historians.org/createaccount. If nominating someone else, select the Nominate button and search for the nominee’s existing record or create a new record. (For the institutional award, select one person to be the primary nominee.)
- Fill in the application form, which includes the nominee’s contact information and the name of academic unit (for institutional award in even-numbered years).
- Upload an Application Packet as a single PDF. Include the following documents:
- Cover letter (up to 750 words) describing the new initiative or sustained effort of the nominee and emphasizing specific outcomes
- CV (for the individual award)
- List of references with contact information (minimum of 3) who endorse the nomination. These can be students, former students, parents, colleagues, and others. There is no set proportion or formula on the “right” mix of references. Individuals organizing nominations should solicit a cross selection as appropriate to address the essential elements noted above.
Please Note: Entries must be received by May 15, 2023, to be eligible for the 2023 competition. Entries will not be returned. Recipients will be announced on the AHA website in October 2023 and recognized during a ceremony at the January 2024 AHA annual meeting in San Francisco.
For questions, please contact awards@historians.org.
2022 Equity Awards
Individual Award: Tiya A. Miles, Harvard University
Tiya Miles has done much in thinking about minoritized experiences, whether native or Black in the United States. The rigor and care with which she approaches her impressive work in public and academic history, especially the intersection of Black, Indigenous, and women’s histories, extends to the way she works with students, especially those from minoritized backgrounds, providing affirmation for their experiences and inspiring the trust they need to undertake their own important research.
Institutional Award: California State University, Los Angeles, Department of History
Through mentoring, professional training opportunities, and resource development designed to address the unique needs and experiences of Latinx, first-generation, and other students of minoritized backgrounds, the Department of History at California State University, Los Angeles, has dedicated itself to the hard work of recruiting more Latinx students into history programs and the discipline. This dedication is evident through the high percentage of Latinx students enrolled in its MA program, and especially through the success of its graduates of color.