AHA Issues Letter Expressing Concern Regarding Termination of History Professor (December 2020)

The AHA sent a letter to the chancellor and provost of the University of Mississippi expressing concern about the university’s decision not to renew the contract of Garrett Felber, assistant professor of history, and the possibility that Professor Felber’s activism relating to racism and incarceration might have affected a decision on his employment status. The letter also raised questions of procedure regarding this disciplinary action, citing the AHA’s Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct.

AHA Encourages Microsoft to Allow Editing on Footnotes in Microsoft Word (December 2020)

The AHA submitted a comment in support of a campaign to enable commenting on footnotes in Microsoft Word using the Review function. “Adding the ability to comment on footnotes,” explained AHA executive director James Grossman, “would be of tremendous benefit to historians across the world.” 

Vote here to encourage Microsoft to add this function. 

AHA Endorses Legislation Protecting Presidential Records (December 2020)

The AHA has endorsed the Promoting Accountability and Security in Transition (PAST) Act, which would clarify and enhance existing law with regards to presidential transition and presidential records.

“This vital legislation adds much-needed teeth to the Presidential Records Act,” said AHA executive director Jim Grossman. “Presidential records are the most important and widely-used source for studying how the executive branch of our federal government works, how it has changed over time, and how it might evolve to serve the needs of a new era. Many records of the current administration, however, are currently at grave risk. The Presidential Records Act lacks essential protections for preserving complete electronic records and affords Congress and the Archivist inadequate oversight over presidential transitions, when important records are most at risk. A legislative solution is imperative: the courts have made clear that they cannot act to force compliance until changes are made to the law. The AHA applauds this legislation for guaranteeing the preservation and accessibility of presidential records and furthering the transparency of our federal government—a requirement for a functioning, accountable constitutional republic and the protection of liberty.”

AHA Endorses $1 Billion Senate Bill for Civics Learning (December 2020)

The AHA has endorsed the Educating for Democracy Act of 2020, which would provide $1 billion per year for the next five fiscal years to improve the teaching of history and civics in our nation's schools. This bipartisan bill “dramatically increases federal support for civics and history,” according to the CivXNow coalition, and “would ensure an investment required to give youth in our country the civic education they need to become knowledgeable and skilled protectors of our constitutional democracy.”

AHA Joins Lawsuit to Protect Historical Records (December 2020)

The AHA has joined the National Security Archive, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington as plaintiffs in a lawsuit intended to prevent valuable historical records from being irretrievably lost.  The plaintiffs seek to ensure that the current administration complies with, and the National Archives provides oversight for, the charge of the Presidential Records Act to preserve “complete copies” of presidential records, including relevant metadata of digital materials.

AHA Issues Statement Concerning Access to French Archives (November 2020)

In solidarity with the French Association of Archivists, the AHA issued a statement urging reconsideration of a policy change by the Secrétariat général de la défense et de la sécurité nationale that renders “some well-known sources, and many others yet to be analyzed, practically inaccessible, even to professional researchers.” The AHA stressed that “reading and interpreting these sources will be critical to the production of new historical scholarship in the future,” and noted that “Article L. 213-2 of the Code du patrimoine states that, after 50 years, almost all archival documents pertaining to the French state enter the public domain and should be made available without any conditions.” The AHA previously wrote to the French government about this issue in February 2020.

AHA Urges Reconsideration of History Program Closure at Guilford College (November 2020)

The AHA recently sent a letter to the president and trustees of Guilford College, noting with alarm “the dramatic restructuring of academic units and program prioritization announced by Guilford College on November 6, 2020, including the elimination of the history program.” The college plans to terminate one tenure-track and two tenured history faculty members “without adhering to its own contractual Faculty Handbook, not to mention generally accepted ethical guidelines.” The AHA urged administrators to reconsider these changes, which are “likely to have serious and deleterious consequences for the practice of historical work and hence the quality of undergraduate education at Guilford College.”

AHA Expresses Concern over Legislative Request to Monitor Teaching of 1619 Project and Critical Race Theory (November 2020)

The AHA sent a letter to the Arkansas Division of Higher Education (ADHE) expressing “grave concern about a legislative request that has been circulated to academic units in the Arkansas university system.” The request sought to collect “data on the teaching of ‘The 1619 Project’ and ‘Critical Race Theory’ at public higher education institutions in Arkansas.” “Neither the legislature nor the ADHE,” writes the AHA, “should be monitoring what qualified scholars are assigning to their students, except as part of a bona fide review and assessment.” 

AHA Sends Letter Opposing Cuts in NHPRC Funding (November 2020)

The AHA sent a letter to the US Senate Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government requesting that the subcommittee “reconsider its vote to eliminate funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.” The AHA noted that “the NHPRC provides millions of Americans with ready digital access to materials essential to civic education and an understanding of the documentary basis of American history” and urged a funding level that will “enable the agency to sustain its work on behalf of the nation's history and heritage.”

American Historical Review Article Wins NACBS Award (November 2020)

Ellen Boucher’s American Historical Review article “Anticipating Armageddon: Nuclear Risk and the Neoliberal Sensibility in Thatcher’s Britain,” published in the October 2019 issue, won the North American Conference on British Studies’ 2020 Walter D. Love Prize for the best article by a North American scholar in the field of British history.

AHA Submits Comment on Proposed Rule Change for International Scholar Visas (October 2020)

The AHA has submitted a comment on a proposed revision to Department of Education rules governing student and visiting scholar visas. The proposal would limit the length of such visas for both undergraduate and graduate students to a maximum of four years. The revision, writes the AHA, “will likely result in a larger proportion of international students who never graduate” from undergraduate programs and “would undermine the globally dominant position that American PhD programs have earned in the past century—indeed enfeebling American PhD programs in history and rendering their graduates uncompetitive for employment against PhD graduates trained in other countries.”

AHA Issues Letter Expressing Grave Concern for Russian Historian (October 2020)

The AHA recently sent a letter to the chairman of the Supreme Court of Karelia expressing “grave concern” for Yuri Dmitriev, a Russian historian sentenced for 13 years by the Karelian Supreme Court for what the Delegation of the European Union to Russia has referred to as “unsubstantiated” charges “triggered by his human rights work and his research on political repression in the Soviet period.” The AHA wrote to “respectfully urge the Supreme Court of Karelia to order the release of Mr. Dmitriev.”

AHA Urges Retraction of Executive Order Prohibiting the Inclusion of “Divisive Concepts” in Employee Training Sessions (October 2020)

In response to the president’s recent executive order prohibiting the inclusion of “divisive concepts” in employee training sessions, the AHA has issued a statement urging the retraction of the order because it is “neither necessary nor useful.” “Rather than banning ‘divisive concepts’ from any educational venue,” the statement explains, “historians seek to draw public attention to these concepts so that they can be discussed, debated, and ultimately challenged.”

As of November 2, 31 organizations signed onto the statement.

AHA Signs on to Amicus Brief in Ahmad v. Michigan (October 2020)

Along with the Association of Research Libraries and other partners, the AHA has signed on to an amicus curiae brief in the Michigan Supreme Court case Ahmad v. University of Michigan concerning “the use of a public records request to circumvent a deed of gift” of private papers to the University of Michigan Library. The brief asserts that an early release of the papers, which would violate the deed of gift, would set a dangerous precedent resulting in individuals destroying their personal papers rather than making them available to historians and other researchers.

AHA Signs onto Comments Opposing DHS/CBP Proposals Permitting Records Destruction (September 2020)

The AHA has recently signed onto two comments posted to the National Archives and Records Administration website in response to a proposed records schedule that would classify a set of Customs and Border Patrol records as "temporary," which would allow their destruction in as quickly as four years.

As proposed, the Department of Homeland Security would be permitted to destroy "records developed to track and monitor complaints that are or will be investigated by DHS Civil Rights and Civil Liberties regarding alleged violations of civil rights and civil liberties." The proposal also includes only 25 year retention for additional records that include documents related to sexual assaults in prison. These records are comparable to the schedules identified in a lawsuit filed in March by the AHA along with the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. As is often the case with records schedule retention policies the issues are complex, even arcane. Historians have the professional authority to argue for longer retention because of the value of such records for historical research.

AHA Members Present at National Book Festival (September 2020)

The National Book Festival’s  History and Biography Stage features nine historians, including several AHA members, for their author Q&As. The festival is being held virtually this year on Saturday and Sunday, September 26 and 27, 9 a.m. ET with an additional day of children’s and teen programs on Friday, September 25 at 9 a.m. ET. According to the festival website, the 20th annual Library of Congress National Book Festival “celebrates American Ingenuity online,” and interested attendees can register or view the presentations on YouTube.

AHA Issues Statement on the Recent "White House Conference on American History” (September 2020)

The AHA has issued a statement on last week’s “White House Conference on American History” deploring the tendentious use of history and history education to stoke politically motivated culture wars.  

As of October 14, 46 organizations signed onto the statement.

AHA Sends Letter in Support of Women's History Museum (September 2020)

The AHA has sent a letter to Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) expressing support of S.959, the Smithsonian Women’s Museum Act, which would authorize the creation of a National Women’s History Museum as part of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. “The AHA is proud to support this bill,” the letter states, “and in the process affirm the central role women have played in the shaping of American history.”

AHA Members Now Receive Discount with Historic Hotels of America (September 2020)

The AHA announces a new partnership with Historic Hotels of America to give members 10-30% off the best available rate at participating hotels through the Friends of Historic Hotels discount. An official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Historic Hotels of America includes more than 300 historic hotels in the US and worldwide. Log into MyAHA to access the discount code for your next hotel reservation.

AHA Letter Registering Concern over Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice (September 2020)

The AHA recently sent a letter to the Québec Ministry of Culture in regards to the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice archive and library in Montréal. The AHA expressed “grave concern for the future preservation, maintenance, and accessibility” of the historically significant archives and collections at Saint-Sulpice, following the recent firing of the professional staff charged with overseeing these collections.

Bibliography of Historians’ Responses to COVID-19 Now Available (August 2020)

As part of its NEH CARES-funded project, “Confronting a Pandemic: Historians and COVID-19,” the American Historical Association has compiled a professionally vetted bibliography of historians’ responses to COVID-19 as a resource for the public, teachers, and scholars seeking historical perspectives on the current crisis and its local and global impacts. Educators will find the bibliography especially valuable as an index of online resources useful for remote instruction. The bibliography project is ongoing. Do you have a recent publication to include in the bibliography? Submit it here.

AHA Position Opening -- Director of Research and Publications (August 2020)

August 17, 2020 — Join our collaborative team of staff dedicated to promoting history and supporting the work of historians. The AHA is accepting applications for Director of Research and Publications. We will begin reviewing applications on September 7, 2020.

AHA Announces Remote Teaching Resources and Issues Call for Materials (August 2020)

The American Historical Association has launched Remote Teaching Resources to help our members and colleagues with the challenges of being a historian, and a history teacher, in a virtual environment. This ongoing project compiles materials and tools to aid historians in developing courses and teaching remotely in online and hybrid environments, providing a central location where instructors can access high-quality materials that meet professional standards. All resources are vetted by a team of historians at the AHA. Remote Teaching Resources is part of “Confronting a Pandemic: Historians and COVID-19,” which has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, using funding from the CARES Act. 

To use Remote Teaching Resources, simply visit the site and find the resource you need. Remote Teaching Resources includes accessibility guides, pedagogy resources, and materials specific to a range of places, eras, topics, and fields. Resources are available in a wide range of formats, including filmed lectures, podcasts, short videos, lesson plans, syllabi, assignments, primary sources with discussion questions, online museum exhibits, maps, and a wide range of digital history projects useful for instruction. To maximize the number and range of resources available prior to the fall semester, the AHA encourages historians to submit teaching materials to the project using this form. No contribution is too small. New resources will be uploaded weekly through December 31, 2020.

AHR Shifts to Quarterly Issues in 2021 (August 2020)

Beginning in March 2021, the American Historical Review will shift from publishing five times annually to a quarterly publishing schedule. Each issue will be 100 pages longer, ensuring that the total content published per year remains the same. This change will make work schedules easier for journal staff, will allow AHA members to receive the AHR on a more regular schedule, and is the first in a series of changes that will enable the publication of more advance content from the journal online.

AHA Offers Relief for Unemployed/Underemployed Members (August 2020)

To assist un/underemployed historians who have been financially affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, the AHA has established the Historians Relief Fund, which will provide $500 emergency grants to AHA members that can be used to cover a loss of income related to the crisis.

Applications are due August 31, and recipients will be selected by lottery. To apply for this funding, AHA members can log into their MY AHA page at historians.org/myaha and click “Available Awards” in the Awards, Grants, and Fellowships section. 

The AHA will continue to solicit donations to the Historians Relief Fund and plans to hold an additional lottery selection in late November, pending the availability of funds. Note to applicants: If you are not selected in the September lottery your application will be held over for the November drawing. If your employment situation changes so that you become ineligible, please let us know.

Opening Brief Submitted in ICE Lawsuit (July 2020)

On July 24, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the American Historical Association, and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations submitted a plaintiff's opening brief in support of their suit against the National Archives and Records Administration (“NARA”) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“ICE”) and signed declarations attesting to their standing to bring the lawsuit.

AHA Announces Historians Relief Fund (July 2020)

The upheavals wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic have led to significant economic hardship for many in the historical community. Numerous non-tenure-track university faculty, public historians, and historians in other professional fields find themselves losing all or substantial parts of their income. To help mitigate these circumstances, the AHA Council has established the Historians Relief Fund for unemployed and underemployed AHA members. The Historians Relief Fund will provide $500 grants for applicants selected by a lottery system, with applications opening in early August.

To maximize the number of grants we can provide, the AHA is seeking donations to support the Historians Relief Fund. Please donate at www.historians.org/donatenow and click on “Historians Relief Fund” to direct your donation to the fund. Donations must be received by September 1 to be used for this round of funding. If you have any questions about the fund, email us at donate@historians.org.

AHA Issues Statement on Department Closures and Faculty Firings (July 2020)

The AHA issued the Statement on Department Closures and Faculty Firings urging administrators to “respect the established principles and procedures of faculty governance and consult with faculty from all disciplines at their institution” before making budgetary decisions. The AHA emphasized that “history education must retain its vibrancy and institutional integrity” and that closing or decimating history departments “comes at immense cost to students and to colleges and universities themselves, and to society as a whole.”

26 scholarly societies have cosigned this statement.

AHA Condemns Tenured Faculty Layoffs at Canisius (July 2020)

The AHA sent a letter to the president and members of the board of trustees of Canisius College expressing grave concern about the college’s dramatic restructuring of academic departments, drastic reduction of the curriculum in history, and termination of three tenured faculty members. The AHA urged the college to reconsider its course of action, asserting that the college’s plan “diminishes the quality of a Canisius degree” and “identifies the college with employment practices that have no place in American higher education.”

AHA Issues Statement on Historical Research during COVID-19 (July 2020)

The AHA has issued a statement urging universities to make a series of specific accommodations for faculty and students whose research has been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “Sustaining historical research during the COVID-19 crisis,” the statement argues, “requires flexible and innovative approaches to the conduct of research itself as well as to how we gauge productivity.” Recommendations include deferral and extension of research funding awards, increased access to online databases, support for research that does not require on-site research, and incorporation of virtual scholarship in professional evaluations.

46 scholarly organizations have co-signed this statement to date.

2020 AHA Election Results Announced (July 2020)

In the 2020 balloting for officers and committee members of the American Historical Association, AHA members elected James H. Sweet (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison) as the next president-elect. See the full list of historians who will begin serving in January 2021.

Mark Philip Bradley Named Editor of American Historical Review (July 2020)

After a national search, the American Historical Association (AHA) has appointed Mark Philip Bradley as editor of the American Historical Review (AHR), beginning August 2021. Bradley is the Bernadotte E. Schmitt Distinguished Service Professor of International History and the College at the University of Chicago, where he also serves as faculty director of the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights and as deputy dean of the Social Sciences Division. Bradley replaces Alex Lichtenstein, who has served as AHR editor since 2016.

AHA Hosts Webinar on "Erasing History or Making History? Race, Racism, and the American Memorial Landscape"

On July 2, 2020, the AHA hosted David W. Blight and Annette Gordon-Reed with moderator AHA executive director James Grossman for “Erasing History or Making History? Race, Racism, and the American Memorial Landscape.” Thanks also to HISTORY® for its generous sponsorship of this event.

AHA Opposes New ICE Obstacles to Students from Foreign Countries (July 2020)

The AHA has written a letter to the “Deputy Director and Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Director” of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement strongly objecting to “modifications” declaring that foreign “students attending schools operating entirely online may not take a full online course load and remain in the United States.”

Whether driven by nativism or an agenda to pressure higher education to reopen campuses, this ruling is likely to have a devastating effect on hundreds of thousands of foreign students and the colleges and universities they attend. 

AHA and NCSS Host Webinar on Teaching the History of Racist Violence in the High School Classroom (June 2020)

On June 19, 2020, the American Historical Association (AHA) and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) hosted a panel on effectively using the AHA's Statement on the History of Racist Violence in the United States and how it can be used productively in high school history classrooms. Panelists explored the history referenced in the statement, the context of its authorship, and the opportunities the statement creates for challenging classroom conversations on historical and current events. The panelists were Reginald K. Ellis (Florida A&M Univ. and member of the AHA's Professional Division) and Tina L. Heafner (president, NCSS), with moderator Jacqueline Jones (AHA president-elect).

AHA Receives Major NEH Grant to Fund COVID-19 Initiative (June 2020)

The AHA announces "Confronting a Pandemic: Historians and COVID-19," a multi-faceted initiative to document historians' immediate responses to a historic global pandemic, create digital resources to help history teachers navigate a newly-pervasive environment of remote instruction, and support early career historians during a time of crisis. This project has been made possible by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, using funding from the CARES Act. 

AHA Member Wins Two Awards for Article (June 2020)

Congratulations to AHA member Bathsheba Demuth (Brown Univ.), whose article "The Walrus and the Bureaucrat: Energy, Ecology, and Making the State in the Russian and American Arctic, 1870-1950," published in the American Historical Review, has won two awards: the 2020 Theodore C. Blegen Award from the Forest History Society and the 2019 Article Prize from the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.

AHA Issues Statement on the History of Racist Violence in the United States (June 2020)

The AHA has issued a statement urging a reckoning with the United States' deplorable record of violence against African Americans, a record that stretches back centuries. The killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers stands within this sordid national tradition of racist violence. It is past time for Americans to confront our nation's past, using insights from history to inform our actions as we work to create a more just society. 
98 scholarly organizations have co-signed this statement to date.

AHA Joins Call for Further CARES Funding for Higher Ed (June 2020)

The AHA has joined 33 other societies in a letter to Congress requesting additional relief for higher education hit hard by challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic. The letter outlined the struggles that universities, especially HBCUs; community colleges; underfunded public institutions; and tuition-dependent nonprofit private colleges have faced in the wake of this crisis, and asked for greater investments in higher education to provide for the common good.

Prize Contest: Applying History to Clarify the COVID-19 Challenge (April 2020)

Inspired by the AHA's recent Statement Regarding Historians and the COVID-19 public health crisis, the Stanton Foundation is launching a weekly contest to identify the best new applied history article or op-ed that analyzes history to clarify the medical, political, economic and/or international impact of COVID-19 and identifies lessons or clues for policymakers. Each week's winner will receive $1,000, with an additional $2,500 prize for the best overall. Further details can be found on the Foundation's website.

AHA Issues Statement Regarding Historians and COVID-19 (April 2020)

The etiology of the novel coronavirus is at once scientific and historical. In a statement endorsed by several peer organizations, the AHA emphasizes the importance of historical thinking in understanding the current crisis and urges all institutions that employ historians to be flexible and humane in considering the needs of their employees and constituencies.  

AHA Sends Letter to University System of Georgia Opposing Proposed Changes to the General Education Curriculum (March 2020)

In a letter to Dr. Tristan Denley, executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer for the University System of Georgia and chair of the General Education Redesign Implementation Committee, the AHA opposed proposed changes to the general education curriculum. The letter from the AHA asserts that the legislative requirement for instruction in the history and government of the United States and Georgia cannot be fulfilled by taking only one course, either in history or political science, and that proper instruction in history can be fulfilled only by trained historians. 

AHA Signs onto Statement Encouraging Temporary Adjustments to Faculty Review and Reappointment Processes during COVID-19 Crisis (March 2020)

The AHA signed onto a statement from the American Sociological Association regarding faculty review and reappointment processes during the COVID-19 crisis. The statement encourages institutions of higher education to consider appropriate temporary adjustments to their review and reappointment processes for tenured and contingent faculty, including adjusting expectations for faculty scholarship, limiting the use of student evaluations of teaching, and extending tenure timelines. The AHA also urges all higher education institutions that employ contract and/or part-time faculty to compensate fully for courses already contracted for summer and fall offerings.

AHA Encourages Congress to Support NEH during COVID-19 Crisis (March 2020)

On March 19, AHA executive director Jim Grossman co-signed a letter to the chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees requesting emergency funding for the National Endowment for the Humanities that would include support for historians whose income is imperiled by current conditions in higher education and other history-focused institutions, professional development relating to classroom and other historical work, and other needs relevant to the COVID-19 crisis. 

AHA Joins Lawsuit Challenging ICE Records Disposition (March 2020)

The AHA has joined the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations in a lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) challenging NARA’s approval of ICE’s records disposition, which authorizes ICE to destroy several categories of records documenting mistreatment of immigrants detained in ICE custody.

AHA Supports Release of Grand Jury Records of Historical Significance (March 2020)

In connection with the amicus brief in Pitch v. United States, which was filed in September 2019, the AHA signed onto a letter to the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the United States Courts proposing a revision to Rule 6(e) to specify that the courts can release grand jury records based on historical significance. The proposed amendment would make clear that district courts have authority to order disclosure, in appropriate circumstances, of grand jury materials of historical significance, and it would provide a temporal limit for secrecy regarding grand jury materials that are stored as archival records at the National Archives.

AHA Expresses Concern over Deletion of Immigration Records (Feb 2020)

In a letter to the Executive Office of Immigration Review (EOIR) on February 27, 2020, the AHA expressed concern over reports that EOIR had omitted close to 1,000,000 records from its September 2019 anonymized data release. The missing records include more than 1,000 applications for relief filed by immigrants in the course of immigration court proceedings, which are not exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.

AHA Sends Letter to French President Emmanuel Macron with Concerns about Unclear Procedures for Declassification of Archives

In a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron, the AHA expressed concern that the change in policy to declassify documents at Vincennes and other repositories in France has rendered many documents inaccessible. The AHA encouraged the development of a clear, efficient, and effective procedure for declassification so that historians and other researchers can access materials of ongoing public importance.

AHA Issues Statement Condemning the Use of Historical Sites in Warfare

The AHA condemns the use of historical sites anywhere in the world as targets for destruction and as shields for protection. The use of historical sites in warfare is a violation of international law. Read the statement here.

AHA Sends Letter to Archivist about Altered Photo

The AHA sent the following letter to the Archivist of the United States objecting to the alteration of a photograph on exhibition and praising NARA staff for acknowledging this serious lapse in judgement. Read the letter here.