Build Your Professional Toolkit
This year’s program includes multiple opportunities to build your professional toolkit. There are opportunities to discuss career paths and transitions, hone your writing process or learn about publishing opportunities, and delve into teaching, podcasting, and digital history.
Some professional development workshops require preregistration. Many are open to any attendee that wants to drop in. Please reach out to annualmeeting@historians.org with any questions.
Careers
Early Career Historians
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. Early career scholars, including graduate students, will be particularly interested in Career Contacts at the Annual Meeting (formerly the Career Fair). Speak with historians working in government, education, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector. While there, check out the Ask an Assistant Professor tables to get the scoop from faculty at a range of colleges and universities about what their job is really like.
Other sessions of interest include a two-part session on mentorship and advising and sessions offering an inside look at what it is like to work at community colleges and small liberal arts institutions:
Graduate and Early Career Committee Guided Conversation on Mentorship and Advising in History: Rethinking Approaches in the Post-COVID Era
Friday, January 3, 1:30–3:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Graduate and Early Career Committee
Mentorship and Advising in History: Rethinking Approaches for the Post-COVID Era
Friday, January 3, 3:30–5:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Graduate and Early Career Committee
Interested in Working at a Small Liberal Arts College? A Mentoring Session for Early Career Scholars
Saturday, January 4, 8:30–10:00 a.m.
Organized by the AHA Working Group on Small Liberal Arts Colleges
Charting a Community College Career: Challenges and Opportunities
Saturday, January 4, 10:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Career Contacts at the Annual Meeting (formerly the Career Fair)
Sunday, January 5, 12:30–3:00 p.m.
Career Development
Conversations at the annual meeting about career paths are not limited to early career historians.
The AHA Professional Division has organized a series of conversations about career transitions within the historical discipline. During these interactive conversations, attendees will discuss their own professional experiences and share advice and insights on navigating pivotal career shifts. No need to sign up in advance; stop by the following sessions to discuss navigating transitions at various stages of your career:
From Graduate School to Your First Position
The Professional Division also has organized two sessions on moving into administration:
Navigating the Transition: Historians' Journeys into Higher Education Administration
Sunday, January 5, 10:30 a.m. –12:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Professional Division
Pathways to the Deanship
Sunday, January 5, 3:30–5:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Professional Division
Teaching is an essential historical skill, and our Teaching and Learning guide is overflowing with workshops and panels devoted to professional development for teachers in K–12 and postsecondary environments. There are also multiple sessions focused on digital history, including several aimed at scholars interested in learning more about the field.
Equity
The AHA’s committees on gender equity, LGBTQ status, and racial and ethnic equity have worked together to organize a series of conversations on navigating the discipline:
Perilous Times: LGBTQIA+ Scholars Teaching in Interdisciplinary Departments
Saturday, January 4, 1:30–3:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Committee on LGBTQ Status in the Profession and the Committee on Gender Equity
Marginalized Scholars at Midcareer
Saturday, January 4, 3:30–5:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Committee on Gender Equity, the AHA Committee on LGBTQ Status in the Profession, and AHA Committee on Racial and Ethnic Equity
Listening Session: LGBTQ+ Challenges and Strategies in an Era of "Anti-Woke" Legislation
Sunday, January 5, 10:30 a.m. –12:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Committee on LGBTQ Status in the Profession and the Committee on Gender Equity
Navigating Current Issues of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion as Historians
Monday, January 6, 9:00–10:30 a.m.
Organized by the AHA Committee on Racial and Ethnic Equity
Skills
Funding and Grants
Funding History: An Inside Look at Foundation and Government Decisionmaking
Saturday, January 4, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Planning for Grant-Seeking from the National Endowment for the Humanities (and Other Funders)
Sunday, January 5, 8:30 –10:00 a.m.
Writing and Publishing
An Op-Ed Workshop will provide an opportunity to meet in small groups to learn how to pitch, write, and edit short articles for the general public. No charge; because space is limited, free advance registration is required.
A Pitch Slam will offer an opportunity to meet with editors from a variety of publications. Free advance registration is required to pitch to the editors. All meeting participants are invited to attend, and no audience member is required to participate.
Other sessions offer a chance to learn about trade list publishing, narrative history, and writing for the American Historical Review:
Engaging History: Fresh Ideas on How to Reach a Broader Public and More Varied Audiences
Friday, January 3, 3:30–5:00 p.m.
Op-Ed Workshop
Saturday, January 4, 8:30–11:30 a.m.
American Historical Review Drop-In Session
Sunday, January 5, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Research Division
The Large and the Small: Trade-List History, Biography, and Memoir, Part 1: Biography, Memoir, and Creative Nonfiction in Trade-List Writing
Sunday, January 5, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Writing Narrative History for Fun and Profit: A Roundtable on Modes of Historical Discourse for Academic and Trade Publishing
Sunday, January 5, 3:30–5:00 p.m.
The Large and the Small: Trade-List History, Biography, and Memoir, Part 2: “Big Ideas” Histories and Trade-List Writing
Sunday, January 5, 1:30–3:00 p.m.
Pitch Slam
Monday, January 6, 9:00–10:30 a.m.
Several AHA affiliated societies have also organized sessions about writing and publishing in their fields. Check out the American Catholic Historical Association’s session on writing and reading reader reports; a roundtable on academic publishing organized by Coordinating Council for Women in History; a roundtable on academic and trade publishing from the German Historical Institute Washington; and a Chinese Historians in the United States session on book reviews.
Podcasts
History Podcast Pitch Party: New Ideas for New Podcast Series
Sunday, January 5, 1:30–3:00 p.m.
Sinclair Workshop on Historical Podcasting: Panel Discussion
Monday, January 6, 9:00–10:30 a.m.
Sinclair Workshop on Historical Podcasting: Breakout Conversations
Monday, January 6, 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
Department Administration
Lunches
Attendees can discuss common issues with their peers in department leadership at the Working Luncheon for Directors of Graduate Studies and Department Chairs’ Luncheon. Tickets for both lunches can be purchased through the registration form.
Working Luncheon for Directors of Graduate Studies
Saturday, January 4, 12:00–1:30 p.m.
Department Chairs’ Luncheon
Sunday, January 5, 12:00–1:30 p.m.
Organized by the AHA’s Institutional Membership Program and the AHA Professional Division
Sessions of Interest
Our Teaching and Learning guide includes several sessions about history education and curriculum that will be useful to history departments. Other sessions of interest include:
Preconference Workshop: Building a Small Liberal Arts College History Department
Organized by the AHA Working Group on Small Liberal Arts Colleges
No charge; because space is limited free advance registration is required. Participation is limited to small liberal arts college faculty.
Friday, January 3, 9:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Pulse Check: A Roundtable on the AHA’s Guidelines for Broadening the Definition of Historical Scholarship
Saturday, January 4, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Research Division
Answering the Call of History and the Humanities at Two-Year Colleges
Sunday, January 5, 3:30–5:00 p.m.
Organized by the AHA Professional Division