News & Advocacy
News
The latest activity of the AHA and historians in supporting history and historical thinking.
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AHA Members Selected to Join the Institute for Advanced Study (February 2021)
Feb 24, 2021 -AHA members Emily Merchant (Univ. of California, Davis) and Keisha Blain (Univ. of Pittsburgh) were selected as members of the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Social Science. The School of Social Science invites approximately 25 visiting scholars from various fields each year to pursue their research and participate in collective activities.
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AHA Endorses Educating for American Democracy Initiative (February 2021)
Feb 23, 2021 -The AHA has endorsed the Educating for American Democracy initiative, a multi-institution, cross-partisan initiative to create a Roadmap for Excellence in History and Civic Education for All Learners. The roadmap is “a practical and highly implementable guide about how to integrate history and civic education to give today’s diverse K-12 students a strong sense of connection to and ownership of our constitutional democracy.”
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Former AHA Executive Director Wins SHFG Award (February 2021)
Feb 22, 2021 -Former AHA executive director Arnita Jones has been named the Society for History in the Federal Government’s 2021 Trask Award Winner. It is the society’s highest honor for “an esteemed career in service to Federal History and the Society.” In addition to being a founding member of both SHFG and the National Council on Public History, Jones was the executive director of the AHA from 1999 to 2010.
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Lawsuit by AHA and Co-Plaintiffs Successfully Halts Sale of NARA Facility in Seattle (February 2021)
Feb 19, 2021 -The efforts of the American Historical Association (AHA) and co-plaintiffs in State of Washington et. al. v. Russell Vought et. al. have successfully halted the sale of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) facility in Seattle, Washington. A federal judge in Seattle blocked the federal government's plan to expedite the sale of the facility and the removal of the records from the Pacific Northwest.
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Justice Department Strengthens Presidential Records Retention Policy in Response to AHA Lawsuit (February 2021)
Feb 19, 2021 -As one of four plaintiffs in National Security Archive et. al. v. Donald J. Trump et. al., the American Historical Association (AHA) joins our colleagues in reflecting on significant accomplishments: a formal instruction from the Justice Department articulating precise instruction to the White House for records retention, and immediate attention to these issues on the part of the Biden administration.
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AHA Statement on Virtual Scholarly Exchanges in India Receives International Press Coverage (February 2021)
Feb 18, 2021 -Several press outlets in India have covered the AHA’s statement opposing a new policy requiring advance permission to hold virtual scholarly exchanges in India. The AHA’s statement has been mentioned in the National Herald India, The Wire, and elsewhere.
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AHA Expresses Alarm at University Press of Kansas Financial Cuts (February 2021)
Feb 18, 2021 -The AHA sent a letter to the Board of Trustees of the University Press of Kansas expressing alarm about financial cuts and the press’s possible elimination. The letter notes that “few presses have done so much to burnish their home institution’s reputation, to advance the careers of promising scholars, and to make vital contributions to historical knowledge as the University Press of Kansas,” and that its demise “would be an incalculable loss for the historical discipline and for generations of American historians yet to come.”
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AHA Member Book Becomes #1 New York Times Bestseller (February 2021)
Feb 17, 2021 -Congratulations to AHA member Keisha N. Blain (Univ. of Pittsburgh), whose book Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019, co-edited with Ibram X. Kendi, reached #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.
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AHA Signs Onto MESA Statement Protesting Turkey's Attacks on Higher Ed (February 2021)
Feb 16, 2021 -The AHA has signed onto the Middle East Studies Association’s Statement in Solidarity with Protests at Boğaziçi University. Students and faculty protesting the appointment of a new rector “have faced police brutality, protesters have been described by government officials as terrorists, and those detained have been subjected to abuse, including strip searches and sexual harassment.” The statement condemned the “ongoing and intensified government assault on higher education in Turkey” and urged President Erdoğan to “restore the autonomy of universities and the protection of academic freedom—including freedom of expression, opinion, and association—in Turkey’s legal order.”
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AHA Member Wins Dan David Prize (February 2021)
Feb 16, 2021 -Congratulations to AHA member Keith Wailoo (Princeton Univ.), who is a winner of the 2021 Dan David Prize. Wailoo won the prize, endowed by the Dan David Foundation and headquartered at Tel Aviv University, for his work in the history of health and medicine.
Advocacy
The AHA is part of the National Coalition for History, a consortium of over 50 organizations that advocates on federal, state and local legislative and regulatory issues. The NCH has compiled a list of advocacy issues most relevant to the study of history, as well as a list of resources to assist historians in their advocacy work.
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