AHA in the News
The staff and leadership of the American Historical Association are frequently quoted by the media.
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AHA Executive Director Featured in TIME Article on Confederate Statue Removal (September 2021)
Sep 14, 2021 -AHA executive director James Grossman was featured in a TIME article by Janell Ross about the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Richmond, Virginia. “I think that many of us now realize that the removal of statues, while it’s an important symbolic act, is merely a symbolic act,” Grossman said. “So, what is to be done now that we have made this symbolic statement, now that we have recognized that the Confederacy did not win the Civil War? These are not heroes. These are not people to be admired, and the world that they defended is not to be admired. How do we create a different world? That's our challenge.”
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AHA and Fairleigh Dickinson University Survey Featured in Media Coverage (September 2021)
Sep 10, 2021 -The national survey recently released by the AHA and Fairleigh Dickinson University was featured in the Batesville Daily Guard, CEO Update, the Monroe Times, the Oakdale Leader, and the Waynedale News. The survey, conducted with funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, was developed to assess public perceptions of, and engagement with, the discipline of history and the past.
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Learn from History Coalition Featured in Education Week (September 2021)
Sep 10, 2021 -The Learn from History Coalition, of which the AHA is a founding member, was featured in an Education Week article by Sarah Schwartz. The “new coalition,” Schwartz wrote, “formed this week to help educators respond” to “efforts to restrict teachings about racism and oppression,” including the “divisive concepts” bills and initiatives introduced in 27 states so far.
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AHA Communications and Marketing Manager Publishes Article on Challenges to Solving the “Adjunct Problem” (August 2021)
Aug 31, 2021 -AHA communications and marketing manager Jeremy Young and co-author Robert B. Townsend (American Academy of Arts & Sciences) have published an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the exploitation of non-tenure-track faculty members. A necessary step in addressing the issue, they wrote, is “getting the specific, detailed, and accurate data” that “could empower adjunct faculty members and their allies to make headway on a problem that has dogged higher education for 50 years.”
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AHA Executive Director Featured on Washington Times Podcast on Confederate Statue Removal (August 2021)
Aug 18, 2021 -AHA executive director James Grossman appeared on History As It Happens, a Washington Times podcast hosted by Martin di Caro, to discuss the removal of statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson in Charlottesville, Virginia. “On these sorts of issues for much of American history there was a very low bar for what constituted progress,” Grossman said. “Taking down statues does not necessarily mean changing structures, changing laws, attitudes, and institutions, and one of the fears that I and many other people have is that taking down statues might be seen as enough.”
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AHR Essay Co-Published on Instagram Featured in Media Coverage (August 2021)
Aug 09, 2021 -An American Historical Review essay by William Gallois (Univ. of Exeter) has been featured in several news outlets. The History Unclassified essay, “An Illumination of a Floating World,” is the first research paper co-published in an academic journal and on Instagram, and has been featured on Noticias Ultimas, Phys.org, and the University of Exeter’s news page.
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AHA Statement on Texas Legislation Featured in New York Amsterdam News (July 2021)
Jul 29, 2021 -The AHA’s statement on the recently enacted Texas House Bill 3979 was featured in an article by Stephon Johnson in the Amsterdam News. Writing about the issues surrounding HB 3979 and its counterpart, Senate Bill 3, Johnson quoted the AHA’s opposition to the threats to historical integrity found in the so-called “divisive concepts” legislation: “As a result of this law, historical programming for the public throughout the state could be severely compromised.”
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AHA Member and Former AHA Staff Member Awarded ACLS Leading Edge Fellowships (July 2021)
Jul 09, 2021 -Congratulations to AHA member Lindsey Amaral, former AHA staff member Marketus Presswood, and the 39 other newly named American Council of Learned Societies Leading Edge Fellows. The ACLS Leading Edge Fellowship program “aims to demonstrate the potential of people with advanced degrees in the humanities and humanistic social sciences to solve problems outside the academy.”
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AHA Executive Director Featured in Article on Holocaust Education Bill (July 2021)
Jul 09, 2021 -AHA executive director James Grossman was featured in a Jewish Telegraphic Agency article by Eleanor Stern about a bill in Louisiana that would have mandated Holocaust education in public schools. The article examined the relationship between the Holocaust education bill and the so-called “divisive concepts” bills that have recently been introduced in many state legislatures, including Louisiana. “You’re saying, ‘You have to teach the history of Holocaust, but you can’t teach the history of institutionalized, deeply embedded racism in the United States,’” Grossman said. “The irony is, you cannot understand the Holocaust without understanding institutional racism.”
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AHA Staff Members Publish Article on “Divisive Concepts” Bills (July 2021)
Jul 08, 2021 -An article in The Hill by AHA executive director James Grossman and AHA communications and marketing manager Jeremy C. Young explains the origins of the “divisive concepts” bills and argues that, contrary to politicians’ claims, there is actually “broad consensus” across partisan divides about how the impact of slavery and racism is taught in our schools. Pushing these "divisive concepts" bills, Grossman and Young write, is “the legislative equivalent of push-polling—creating division where none exists, raising fears about something that isn't even happening to score political points.”
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AHA Director of Research and Publications Featured in Newsweek Article (July 2021)
Jul 08, 2021 -AHA director of research and publications Sarah Weicksel was featured in a Newsweek article by Soo Kim about whether or not there is historical evidence to support the story of Betsy Ross making the first American flag. “In the end, I think the most important story here isn't about who exactly sewed the flag,” Weicksel said, “but rather, within what context—and that is a fascinating history about female artisans, their skilled craftsmanship, and the material world of the Revolution.”
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AHA Executive Director Featured on En Conexión (July 2021)
Jul 08, 2021 -AHA executive director James Grossman appeared on En Conexión. Host Cesar Miguel Rondón interviewed Grossman about the US Constitution and the importance of its amendments in guaranteeing rights to American citizens.
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AHA Executive Director Quoted in Articles on Confederate Statue Removal (July 2021)
Jul 02, 2021 -AHA executive director James Grossman was quoted in an ARTnews article by Shanti Escalante-De Mattei and in an Art Insider article by David Guido Pietroni about the US House of Representatives’ vote to remove Confederate statues from the Capitol building. “The Confederates committed treason to maintain the supposed right for some human beings to own others,” Grossman said. “And what nation honors people who committed treason?”
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AHA Statement on LGBTQ+ History Curriculum Featured in New Republic Article (June 2021)
Jun 30, 2021 -The AHA’s Statement on LGBTQ+ History Curriculum from May 2021 was featured in a New Republic article by Gabriel Arana about recent efforts to pass legislation that prohibits or limits the teaching of LGBTQ+ history in public schools.
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AHA’s Criteria for Standards in History/Social Studies/Social Sciences Featured in South Florida Sun Sentinel Article (June 2021)
Jun 30, 2021 -The AHA’s Criteria for Standards in History/Social Studies/Social Sciences were featured in a South Florida Sun Sentinel article by Sylvia Gurinsky. Gurinsky’s essay discusses the effects of lived experience on children’s perceptions of history and quotes a portion of the Criteria for Standards that advocates teaching students to “ask questions about that past that can be applied to contemporary issues.”
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AHA-FDU Survey Featured in Media Coverage (June 2021)
Jun 28, 2021 -Later this summer, the findings of a recent national survey of “people’s understandings and uses of the past” will be released on the AHA website. The survey is a collaboration between the American Historical Association and Fairleigh Dickinson University, and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Ahead of the release of the full results, various media outlets have published articles on the survey, including History News Network; WCCO radio; the Milwaukee Independent; and two articles in Time, “The Split in How Americans Think About Our Collective Past Is Real—But There’s a Way Out of the ‘History Wars’,” and “‘Critical Race Theory Is Simply the Latest Bogeyman.’ Inside the Fight Over What Kids Learn About America’s History.”
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AHR Article Awarded Honorable Mention for SHAFR’s Bernath Scholarly Article Prize (June 2021)
Jun 23, 2021 -Congratulations to Rebecca Herman (Univ. of California, Berkeley), whose article “The Global Politics of Anti-Racism: A View from the Canal Zone,” from the April 2020 issue of the American Historical Review, earned an honorable mention from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations’ Bernath Scholarly Article Prize. The Bernath Prize is awarded annually to “the author of a distinguished article appearing in a scholarly journal or edited book, on any topic in United States foreign relations.”
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AHA Executive Director Featured in Media Discussing History Curricula in Schools (June 2021)
Jun 22, 2021 -AHA executive director James Grossman was quoted in a Washington Examiner article by Michael Lee about public perceptions of critical race theory. Teaching about the role of racism in American institutions and American culture, Grossman said, “doesn’t mean that you are teaching students to hate them. It means you are teaching students to understand them.” Grossman also appeared on the online radio show The Perkins Platform in an episode on American History Perspective: What Our Public Schools Need in June 2021.
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Joint Statement Opposing “Divisive Concepts” Legislation Featured in Media Coverage (June 2021)
Jun 22, 2021 -The joint statement recently issued by the AHA and partner organizations opposing legislative efforts to restrict education about racism in American history has been featured in the Bonners Ferry Herald, the Charlotte Observer, the Covington News, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Hammond Daily Star, the Huffington Post, Intelligencer, the International Business Times, Iowa Public Radio, KNAU Arizona Public Radio, the Long Island Herald, the Loudoun Times-Mirror, the Monroe Watchman, the Moultrie News, the National Review, New York Magazine, twice in the New York Daily News, the New York Times, three Straus News papers, Times Higher Education, and University Business.
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AHR Featured in Nation Article on Tulsa Race Massacre (June 2021)
Jun 03, 2021 -A Nation article by David M. Perry featured Karlos Hill’s essay, “Community-Engaged History: A Reflection on the 100th Anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre,” which appears in the June 2021 issue of the American Historical Review. Perry’s article, “Confronting the Myth of Objectivity,” discussed Hill’s work teaching the Tulsa Race Massacre.
Press Resources
The AHA is pleased to provide resources for journalists and media. If you are a member of the media and would like to submit a request for a referral or interview, please email AHA Communications and Marketing Manager Jeremy C. Young at press@historians.org or call (202) 743-0449.
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AHA in the News Archive
Visit our AHA in the News Archive for older media articles featuring AHA staff and leadership.