News & Advocacy

News

The latest activity of the AHA and historians in supporting history and historical thinking.

  • Historians Call for Creation of Archive Housing Records from Opioid Lawsuits

    Sep 17, 2019 - 

    On September 12, 35 medical historians filed with a federal judge to create a $30 million permanent archive to house millions of records produced in cases of opioid litigation. The coalition cited a precedent relating to lawsuits against the tobacco industry in decades prior, and insisted the legal documents are imperative to conducting historical research on the origin, handling, and impact of the national opioid crisis. Funding for the projects, the historians proposed, would come from the defendants.

  • AHA Member Receives Highest Student Award at Loyola

    Sep 12, 2019 - 

    Hope Shannon, AHA member and Career Diversity Fellow at Loyola University Chicago, was awarded a 2019 President's Medallion. Each year, this award is bestowed in recognition of outstanding scholarship, leadership, and service to one student from each of the schools within the university. Congratulations to Hope!

  • AHA Signs onto Amicus Brief in Pitch v. United States

    Sep 12, 2019 - 

    The American Historical Associationhas signed onto an amicus brief in Pitch v. United States regarding the release of grand juryrecords froma 1946 court case about the Moore's Ford Lynching in Walton County, Georgia. Though grand jury records are usually kept under seal forever, the AHA supports the court's original position that these records can be released as a matter of exceptional historical significance, a precedent the government is working to overturn.

  • AHA Signs onto ASA Statement on Teaching Evaluations

    Sep 09, 2019 - 

    The American Historical Association signed onto the American Sociological Association's Statement on Teaching Evaluations. While acknowledging the valuable feedback that student experiences in the classroom can provide, the statement discourages the use of such assessments as a primary factor in faculty promotion, salary increase, and appointment. Studies have shown that student evaluations of teaching are easily biased, particularly towards women and minorities, and weakly related to other measures of teaching effectiveness and learning outcomes. The ASA also provides recommendations of best practices for future collection and implementation of student feedback.

  • Sanchez to Represent AHA at USC Inauguration

    Sep 04, 2019 - 

    George Sanchez, professor of American studies & ethnicity and historyat theUniversity of Southern California, will represent the AHA at the September 20, 2019,inauguration of Carol L. Foltas theuniversity's12th president.

  • AHA Issues Statement on Domestic Terrorism, Bigotry, and History

    Aug 26, 2019 - 

    The American Historical Association expects the following statement to stimulate more questions than answers.  The Association hopes these questions make their way into classrooms, libraries, museums, city council meetings, community centers, and even coffee shops, wherever people are trying to connect with each other to make historical sense of our current moment. 

  • Kruse Discusses Urban Segregation in New York Times as Part of #1619 Coverage

    Aug 16, 2019 - 

    On August 14, the New York Times published a piece by Kevin Kruse, AHA member and professor of history at Princeton University, as part of its 1619 Project to examine the legacy of slavery in America. In How Segregation Caused Your Traffic Jam, Kruse contextualizes the current debate over planned public transit extensions in Atlanta and traces decades of systemic segregation policies to existing racial inequality.

  • Smoller to Represent AHA at Presidential Inauguration at University of Rochester

    Aug 16, 2019 - 

    AHA member Laura Ackerman Smoller, professor of history and department chair at the University of Rochester, will represent the AHA at the Friday, October 4, 2019, inauguration of Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, the 11th president of the University of Rochester.

  • AHA Receives NEH Funding to Collaborate on Survey of Americans’ Attitudes about History and the Past

    Aug 14, 2019 - 

    On August 14, the National Endowment for the Humanities announced the awarding of $29 million for 215 humanities projects, including a cooperative agreement with the American Historical Association to conduct a national survey of Americans to assess perceptions of and engagement with history. The project, "History, the Past and Public Culture: An Exploratory Survey," aims to help historians better understand public audiences and broaden the relevance of historical work to public culture. The AHA is pleased to be working on this initiative with Fairleigh Dickinson University and FDU Poll and in collaboration with the American Association for State and Local History.

  • AHA Opposes Elimination of History Department at Gordon College

    Jul 29, 2019 - 

    On July 29, the American Historical Association sent a letter to Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts, in response to the college's drastic restructuring plan and the decision to subsume the history department under one single Political Science, Philosophy, and History entity. The AHA vehemently urged the administration to reconsider its decision and highlighted the detrimental effects to faculty employment, pedagogical and research standards, and student learning outcomes.

More News