The AHA annual meeting offers dozens of professional development opportunities for educators. Use this guide to navigate the full spread of teaching and learning events taking place at AHA26.

Free registration for Chicago public K–12 teachers

Current K–12 teachers and instructional staff at public schools in Chicago are eligible to receive free annual meeting registration. Email annualmeeting@historians.org from your school address to receive the discount code.

Letters of attendance

K–12 teachers who register for and attend the meeting can request a certificate of attendance to document participation in the conference. Contact annualmeeting@historians.org for details.

ISBE Professional Development Credit

The AHA is partnering with the Chicago History Museum to offer professional development credit through ISBE for Illinois educators who participate in AHA26 sessions. To earn PD credit, participants must register to attend the AHA annual meeting and complete the ISBE PD Credit form.

 

Hands-on Teaching & Learning Workshops

Attendees must sign up in advance for most workshops. You may sign up for workshops when you register for the annual meeting. Already registered for the meeting? You can edit your existing registration to include workshops. Don’t wait long, though—workshops fill quickly!

“The Reading Problem”: Tackling Reading Challenges from Hight School to Higher Ed
Thursday, January 8, 3:00–5:00 p.m.

K–16 Educators’ Workshop, Part 1
Saturday, January 10, 8:30–10:00 a.m.

K–16 Educators’ Workshop, Part 2
Saturday, January 10, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Teaching Things
Saturday, January 10, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Teaching and Learning Networking Opportunity
Saturday, January 10, 3:45–4:45 p.m.

Networking Events

All attendees are welcome—separate sign-ups are not needed for these events.

K–12 Welcome Reception
Thursday, January 8, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Undergraduate Reception
Thursday, January 8, 5:00–6:00 p.m.

Reception for Graduate Students
Thursday, January 8, 5:00–6:00 p.m.

Reception for Two-Year Faculty
Friday, January 9, 7:30–8:30 p.m.

Teaching & Learning Networking Opportunity
Saturday, January 10, 3:45–4:45 p.m.

AI Is Here, We Can Help
Sunday, January 11, 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Sessions

All attendees are welcome—separate sign-ups are not needed for these sessions.

 

Thursday, January 8, 1:30–3:00 p.m.

Teaching the City (AHA Session 1)

Shaping the Future of History Education: An Open Discussion of Teacher Preparation (AHA Session 2)

State of the Field for Busy Teachers: Africa in World History (AHA Session 3)

Teaching with Primary Sources for K–16 Educators: Introduction and Strategies (AHA Session 4)

Practicing and Designing Student-Centered Learning in Introductory History Classrooms, Part 1: World History Courses (AHA Session 5 / World History Association 2)

Teaching the Global Past: Strategies for Using Primary Sources to Integrate African, Asian, and Latin American Perspectives in the Survey Course (AHA Session 7)

Fields of Controversy: Historical Perspectives on Building and Preserving Women’s and Gender History in Hostile and Retrograde Times (Berkshire Conference of Women Historians 1 / Coordinating Council for Women in History 1)

Teaching Histories of Hope and Resiliency in Latin American History (Conference on Latin American History 3)

Engaging Public Voices in the History of Housing Discrimination in Chicago’s City and Suburbs (AHA Session 6)

Thursday, 3:30–5:00 p.m.

Practicing and Designing Student-Centered Learning in Introductory History Classrooms, Part 2: Introductory Courses (AHA Session 27 / World History Association 2)

AHA Experiential Learning and Latinx History: Teaching with the Chicago History Museum’s Aqui en Chicago Exhibit (AHA Session 30)

Rewriting the Past? AI, Interpretation, and the Future of History Education (AHA Session 33)

Teaching Local History in Chicago and Beyond (AHA Session 34)

Gender and World History: Research and Pedagogy (AHA Session 39/World History Association 3)

Teaching Asian History in a New Global Era (AHA Session 47)

Mexican Studies Section: Beyond (and From) the Nation—Revisiting Mexican History Through a Transnational Lens (Conference on Latin American History 7)

Thursday, 8:00–9:30 p.m.

“Let Facts Be Submitted to a Candid World”: Historians, their Publics, and the 250th Anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence

Friday, January 9, 8:30–10:00 a.m.

The History and Future of HBCUs (AHA Session 50)

Obsolete? Textbooks in the History Classroom (AHA Session 53)

Teaching Secondary History in the Shadow of the State: Polarization and Censorship (AHA Session 54)

A Conversation About Teaching History in the Current Environment (AHA Session 55)

Teaching Environmental Change during the Middle Ages: Virtual Reality and Analog Games in Postsecondary and Elementary Classrooms (AHA Session 65)

Friday, 9:00–10:00 a.m.

Exhibitor Meet and Greet with K-12 Teachers (AHA Session 65)

Friday, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Teaching with Limits of History: The “Field” from the “Discipline” (AHA Session 87)

Teaching History in the Anthropocene (AHA Session 86)

Historical Games in Research and Teaching 1: Play as Pedagogy for Medieval History (AHA Session 100)

Teaching Pre-Modern Women’s Health in Modern America (AHA Session 81)

The Problem of Teaching Imperial History: Lessons from Different Empires (AHA Session 80)

Aligning Illinois State Disciplinary Standards with Community Engagement to Support Inquiry-Based Social Science Learning (Session 101A)

Friday, 1:30–3:00 p.m.

Supporting First-Generation College Students (AHA Session 102)

A Doctorate with a Difference: 25 Years of Digital Humanities and the PhD in History (AHA Session 106)

Building K–16 Partnerships: K–12 Teachers Tell Us How College Faculty Can Best Help Them (AHA Session 104)

Historical Games in Research and Teaching 2: Roundtable (AHA Session 123)

They Don’t Read—Can They Listen? Using Podcasts in the History Classroom (AHA Session 108)

Teaching How to Form and Be in Community (Berkshire Conference of Women Historians 14 / Coordinating Council for Women in History 15)

Friday, 3:30–5:00 p.m.

AI in History Education (AHA Session 126)

Teaching Interdisciplinary Humanities and Loving It: My Favorite Course (AHA Session 128)

Historical Games in Research and Teaching 3: Speed-Networking with Games in the Classroom (AHA Session 149)

Transforming Humanities Education in a Time of Gun Violence (AHA Session 146)

What Historians Need to Know about Developing Curricula for Grades 6-12 (AHA Session 129)

The Making of a Teacher: Looking Back, Looking Forward (AHA Session 132)

Doing History at Small Liberal Arts Colleges in Times of Crisis (AHA Session 131)

Saturday, January 10, 8:30–10:00 a.m.

Negotiating Histories of Fascism in the Contemporary Classroom (AHA Session 160 / Society for Italian Historical Studies 3)

Hands-on History: Interactive Activities in the Small Liberal Arts History Classroom (AHA Session 153)

History Majors and Employability: Insights, Innovations, and Opportunities (AHA Session 152)

Strategies for Teaching the History of Women’s Voting Rights in K-12 and University Classrooms (Berkshire Conference of Women Historians 21/Coordinating Council for Women in History 22)

’76 Objects: The Material Culture of Revolution (AHA Session 151)

Saturday, 10:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.

Timuel Black—Activist, Historian, Teacher: An Appreciation (AHA Session 175)

Fixing the Narrative: Adding Indigenous History into the Founding (AHA Session 177)

Perspectives on Teaching Palestine (AHA Session 197)

Does History Matter in Policy Analysis? the Use of History and Historians in Public Policy Schools and Departments (AHA Session 186)

Queering and Gendering Your Syllabi in an “Anti-Woke” Era (AHA Session 179)

Teaching History Methods (AHA Session 178)

Can We Really Learn from History? Experiences from a German–American Project on Critical Memory (AHA Session 187)

Understanding and Teaching Religion in US History (Conference on Faith and History)

Saturday, 1:30–3:00 p.m.

Cultivating History: Bringing Material Culture into the Classroom (AHA Session 211)

Engaging Students in Medieval Studies (AHA Session 209/Medieval Academy of America 2)

State of the Field for Busy Teachers: Latin American History (AHA Session 200)

The Case Method in Historical Pedagogy: Enhancing Engagement and Critical Thinking, Part 1-Demonstration (AHA Session 223)

Indigenous Chicago: Community-Engaged Curriculum Development as Public History (AHA Session 221)

Saturday, 3:30–5:00 p.m.

Teaching Global Histories of Authoritarianism: The AHR’s Authoritarianism 101 Project (AHA Session 227)

Valuing History Minors, Certificates, and Microcredentials: The Future of History Education Beyond “Majorism” (AHA Session 237)

If You Love America, Teach the Truth about Its Past (AHA Session 245)

Aren’t You Afraid to Teach That? Building Solidarity for Teaching LGBTQ+ Topics in Secondary Schools (AHA Session 242/LGBTQ+ History Association 7)

The Case Method in Historical Pedagogy: Enhancing Engagement and Critical Thinking, Part 2 (AHA Session 248)

Saturday, 8:00–9:00 p.m.

Plenary: Making History Indispensable at Your Institution: Historians and General Education

Sunday, January 11, 9:00–10:30 a.m.

National History Day and the Power of Student Research (AHA Session 251)

Teaching Migration History under Authoritarianism (AHA Session 264/Historians for Peace and Democracy 18/Radical History Review 18)

State of the Field for Busy Teachers: Post-1970s US History (AHA Session 253)

Careers for History Majors (AHA Session 252)

Pioneer Lies and the Making of US History (AHA Session 257/Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 8)

Reconstruction Freedom Seekers: Race, Gender, and Emancipation Following Slavery’s Collapse in the United States (AHA Session 258/Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 9)

Sunday, 11:00 a.m.–12:30 p.m.

Engaging Students in History through CFR Education Simulations (AHA Session 279)

Mad Mothers and Troubled Children: Historicizing Today’s Mental Health Crisis through the Lens of Race and Gender (AHA Session 288)

Teaching History with Film (AHA Session 283)

What Historians Should Know about Classical Education (AHA Session 275)

Facilitating Difficult Curriculum: Engaging Students with Race and Racism in History Education (AHA Session 298)

Designing a Latino History Course (AHA Session 299)