AHA in the News

The staff and leadership of the American Historical Association are frequently quoted by the media. 

  • AHA Special Projects Coordinator Testifies to Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs (November 2021)

    Nov 24, 2021 - 

    On July 15, AHA special projects coordinator Julia Brookins provided testimony to the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs about SB 3, a bill restricting the teaching of “divisive concepts” in Texas classrooms. “Senate Bill 3 is a continuation of a sloppy exercise in government overreach that will only exacerbate the harm caused by HB 3979 from this year’s regular session,” Brookins said. “I believe that learning about the less admirable aspects of the nation’s past is important to informed citizenship. As the founders themselves knew and stated, only an informed citizenry can sustain self-government.” The AHA also wrote to Texas governor Greg Abbott and the Texas legislature in August urging them to oppose the bill. Brookins’ testimony begins at 3:32:00 of the video.

  • AHR Featured in Slate Article on Historical Video Games (November 2021)

    Nov 19, 2021 - 

    The American Historical Review was featured in a Slate article by AHA member Robert Whitaker about the Oregon Trail video game and the growth of history-themed video games. “This year,” Whitaker noted, “the academic journal of record, the American Historical Review, started to include video game articles and reviews.”

  • AHA Executive Director Quoted in Washington Times Article on PEN America Report (November 2021)

    Nov 10, 2021 - 

    AHA executive director James Grossman was quoted in a Washington Times article by Sean Salai about the debate sparked by PEN America’s report on recent so-called “divisive concepts” legislation. This legislation, Grossman said, is “part of a larger campaign of radical propaganda that aims to divide the American people by spreading mistruths about what is happening in the nation’s history classrooms.”

  • AHR Featured in Lapham’s Quarterly Article on History in Video Games (November 2021)

    Nov 09, 2021 - 

    The American Historical Review was featured in a Lapham’s Quarterly article by Caroline Wazer about video games with historical settings as part of a series on “pop culture's period pieces.” In the article, Wazer discusses AHR’s reviews of several Assassin’s Creed video games from the March 2021 issue.

  • AHA Executive Director Featured in USA Today Article (November 2021)

    Nov 02, 2021 - 

    AHA executive director Jim Grossman was featured in a USA Today article by Alia Wong about the effect of recent “divisive concepts” legislation that bans the discussion of certain ideas in classrooms. “A lot of the legislation basically outlaws things that don’t actually occur,” said Grossman. The job of teachers, he added, is to “give students the information needed to wrestle with these ideas themselves. It’s to have students analyze the founding documents, for instance, and discuss questions that arise. Does it matter that the men who wrote those documents grew up in a slavery-based society? If so, why?”

  • AHA President and Executive Director Publish Op-Ed on “Divisive Concepts” Legislation (October 2021)

    Oct 21, 2021 - 

    AHA president Jacqueline Jones and executive director James Grossman published an op-ed in The Hill about “bad legislation” enacted in Texas and other states on “divisive concepts” in history education. “We cannot, and should not, expect teachers to offer ‘opposing’ views on the essence of either slavery or genocide,” they wrote, “except as a way to show how controversies emerged over such inhumane aspects of our past.”

  • AHR Article Featured in Smithsonian Magazine (October 2021)

    Oct 07, 2021 - 

    A Smithsonian Magazine article by Ted Scheinman featured Andrew Denning’s essay “Deep Play? Video Games and the Historical Imaginary,” which appeared in the American Historical Review’s March 2021 issue. In Scheinman's article, Denning (Univ. of Kansas) discussed historical accuracy in historically set video games and their potential as learning tools for teaching history.

  • 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.”

  • 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.” 

  • 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.” 

  • 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.”

  • 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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