History Graduate Student Released from Iranian Prison

On Saturday December 7, Iranian authorities released a historian, Xiyue Wang, who had been held for three years in Evin prison in Tehran on suspicion of espionage.  A graduate student at Princeton University, Wang was in Iran for dissertation research on the foreign relations of Qajar-era (1789-1925) Iran, when he was arrested in 2016.  He, his family, his university, and the State Department deny that he engaged in espionage.  In a prisoner swap arranged by the State Department and Iran's Foreign Ministry, Mr. Wang was exchanged for an Iranian scientist, Masoud Soleimani, who was in U.S. custody after conviction on charges of violating U.S. trade sanctions against Iran.  

The AHA protested Mr. Wang's imprisonment in a letter to Iranian authorities in 2018.  The delay between Wang's initial arrest and the letter is due to our decision to defer to Princeton's judgement on what would best serve Mr. Wang's interests.  The AHA does what it can to defend the interests of historians around the country and around the world, and is pleased to congratulate Mr. Wang on his freedom.

AHA Member Contextualizes Paid Maternity Leave in New York Times Op-Ed

AHA member Mona Siegel, professor of history at California State University, Sacramento, published an op-ed in the New York Times drawing attention to female labor activists' century-old battle for paid maternity leave around the world.

AHA Member Discusses Indigenous History on NPR Podcast

Anderson Hagler, AHA member and PhD candidate at Duke University, will be featured on an episode of NPR's The Academic Minute as he analyzes how American Indians are negatively portrayed in modern cinema and historical archives. November is Native American Heritage Month.

AHA Pushes for Reauthorization of Title VI College Affordability Act

The AHA joined 30 other organizations expressing their support for reauthorization of the College Affordability Act, a federally funded Title VI-International Education program. The coalition urged the US House Committee on Education and Labor and Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Investment to continue its bipartisan support for the initiative.

AHA Comments on Proposed NLRB Rule Change

The National Labor Relations Board is considering a rule change that would diminish the right of graduate students at private universities to organize unions. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education,"ratherthan looking at the facts in any case before it, the National Labor Relations Board is aiming to create an overarching rulethat would exclude teaching and research assistants from being covered by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act." The American Historical Association opposes the proposed ruling.

AHA Awards 2019 Prizes for Publications and Professional Achievements

The American Historical Association is pleased to announce the winners of its 2019 awards and prizes competition. This year, the Association recognizes the distinguished work of 36 groups and individuals for their contributions to scholarship, public history, digital resources, and dedicated teaching and mentorship. Congratulations to our recipients. Awardees will be recognized at an awards ceremony during the AHA annual meeting in January.

AHA Defends Emeritus Professor Romila Thapar

On October 7, AHA President John McNeill sent a letter to Vice Chancellor Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi to discourage the university's review of Romila Thapar's status as emeritus professor. McNeill cited her impressive record of contributions and achievements, including being named an AHA Honorary Foreign Member.

AHA Member Discusses Impeachment Procedures on NPR

Donald Ritchie, AHA member and emeritus historian of the Senate, detailed the procedures for impeachment and trial of a president on an episode of NPR's All Things Considered.

AHA Signs onto Amicus Curiae Brief Providing Historical Context to the Decision to Rescind DACA

The AHA has joined the Korematsu Center for Law and Equality (Seattle University), the Organization of American Historians, and numerous individual historians an amicus curiae brief supporting respondents in Department of Homeland Security, et al. Petitioners v. Regents of the University of California, et al, Respondents.  The brief explains the relationship between the history of anti-Mexican and Latinx racism and the use of related racist code words in the decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

In situations involving the rights and careers of individual historians, historical practice in diverse venues, or the role of history in public culture, the AHA has the responsibility to take public stands - including participation in relevant legal proceedings. Everything has a history; in this particular case, the AHA considers it imperative for the court to be aware of the historical context of current efforts to vilify an entire racial group. 

AHA Signs onto MESA letter to US Department of Education

The AHA and other academic associations signed onto a letter from the Middle East Studies Association that registered alarm over the US Department of Education's position towards the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, an unprecedented intervention in academic curricula and the autonomy of higher education.

AHA Member Amanda Seligman Publishes Op Ed in Washington Post

Amanda Seligman, AHA member and professor of history and urban studies at the Universityof Wisconsin-Milwaukee, published an article in the Washington Post that shed light on Mothers Against Senseless Killings (MASK),a Chicago-based community activism group dedicated to occupying public spaces with positive loitering. Seligman also traces Chicago's historic roots as a city of activism and change.

Historians Call for Creation of Archive Housing Records from Opioid Lawsuits

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 Signs onto Amicus Brief in Pitch v. United States

The American Historical Association has signed onto an amicus brief in Pitch v. United States regarding the release of grand jury records 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 Member Receives Highest Student Award at Loyola

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 ASA Statement on Teaching Evaluations

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

AHA Expresses Support for the Right of Scholars to Sign the Academics for Peace Petition

In a letter to judges of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Turkey, the AHA joined 26 other scholarly associations expressing their support for the right of scholars and academics to sign the Academics for Peace Petition. The letter commended the court's recent rulings upholding protections for freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and urged the court to continue these protections as it considers the upcoming criminal cases of the Peace Petition signatories

Mihm Reviews Fellow Member’s Publication in NYT

Stephen Mihm, AHA member and associate professor of history at the University of Georgia, recently reviewed The Code: Silicon Valley and the Remaking of America by Margaret O'Mara, Howard and Frances Keller Endowed Professor of History at the University of Washington and a member of the AHA. In the piece for the New York Times, Mihm praised his colleague's persuasive work in which O'Mara chronicles the rise of Silicon Valley and the region's relationships with state and federal governments, competing corporations, taxpayers, immigrants, and other key players.

AHA Member Authors Housing Crisis Op Ed in the New York Times

In an opinion piece published by the New York Times, Lizabeth Cohen, AHA member and professor of American history at Harvard University, discusses the multifaceted housing crisis befalling low-and middle-income Americans. Cohen contrasts today's inaction with the demand for and success of federal housing intervention policies following World War II.

AHA Supports Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott Refusal to Aid in ICE Raids

On July 15, the AHA sent letters to the CEOs of Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, and Marriott International, hotel chains the Association regularly uses for its annual meetings. AHA executive director Jim Grossman applauded the companies' refusal to allow US Immigration and Customs Enforcement to utilize hotel space as temporary detention centers during the announced raids on immigrant communities.

AHA Eliminates Job Center at Annual Meeting and Sets New First-Round Interview Guidelines

The AHA will no longer sponsor employment interviews at its annual meeting.  This change encompasses both the Job Center and interviewing suites facilitated by the Association.  In making this decision, the AHA Council took into consideration the dramatic decline in conference interviewing in recent years, along with issues relating to the conference's general tone and atmosphere, technological change, and financial considerations, especially for prospective interviewees.

The AHA Council has issued new guidelines for first-round interviews that refer to all potential interview venues.  

The Career Fair will remain an important part of the conference, with its emphasis on broadening employment horizons for historians.

Job Opening at the AHA

Join our collaborative team of staff dedicated to promoting history and the work of historians. The AHA is accepting applications for a Managing Editor. We will begin reviewing applications on July 10, 2019.

Bobadilla Discusses US Immigrant Detention Camps

AHA member and 2015 Perspectives summer blog contest winner Eladio Bobadilla (Univ. of Kentucky), weighed in on the debates over terminology of the Trump administration's immigrant detention centers at the United States southern border. In a post on the Latino Rebels blog, Bobadilla examines why terming these centers "concentration camps" is a powerful and useful historical allusion.

AHA Expresses Concern about Access to the Guatemala Policía Nacional Archives

On June 13, the AHA sent a letter to Jimmy Morales Cabrera, president of the Republic of Guatemala, urging continued access to materials in the Archivo Histórico de la Policía Nacional (AHPN). The agreement concerning housing of the archive expires on June 30, 2019, and the AHA urged officials to permit the archive to remain in its current location and to continue the program of lodging digitized copies with the government of Switzerland and the University of Texas at Austin.

AHA Members Awarded 2019 ACLS Project Development Grants

AHA members Mary Harvey Doyno (California State Univ., Sacramento) and Jesse Tarbert (Loyola Univ., Md.) are recipients of 2019 ACLS Project Development Grants, which provide support and advance the research of humanities faculty at teaching-intensive colleges and universities.

Nicaraguan History Professor Released

The AHA is pleased to report that Professor Ricardo Baltodano Marcenaro, a historian of the Universidad Politécnica de Nicaragua who was imprisoned in Managua earlier this year, has been released under the auspices of Amnesty Law voted on Saturday, June 8 by the Nicaraguan National Assembly. In January 2019, the AHA sent a letter to Daniel Ortega Saavedra, president of the Republic of Nicaragua, protesting Baltodano's imprisonment.

AHA Member Pens Op-Ed on the Importance of Historians’ Work

In a Washington Post op-ed responding to historical errors made by popular journalists, Karin Wulf, executive director of the Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture and member of the AHA's Nominating Committee, emphasized "how critical the specialized toolbox of historians is to getting the past right."

Elizabeth Todd-Breland Appointed to Chicago Board of Education

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has named Elizabeth Todd-Breland, assistant professor of history at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to the Chicago Board of Education. In this role, Todd-Breland will work to establish policies, standards, and initiatives that will ensure all students of Chicago Public Schools have access to high-quality education regardless of their income, address, or background.

Six AHA Members Elected to 2019 Class of American Philosophical Society

The AHA happily congratulates six of its members who were recently elected to membership in the American Philosophical Society: David Cannadine, Annette Gordon-Reed, Martin Jay, David M. Rubenstein, Patrick Spero, and Romila Thapar. Since 1743, only 5,676 members have been elected to the APS, the oldest learned society in the United States. APS members represent the humanities, social sciences, the arts, and professions, and are leaders and in public and private affairs.

AHA Member Receives CAORC Travel Award

Anna Weerasinghe, AHA member and PhD candidate in the Department of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, has received a Multi-Country Research Fellowship and the Mary Ellen Lane Multi-Country Travel Award from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers. The fellowship supports advanced regional or trans-regional research in the humanities, social sciences, or allied natural sciences for US doctoral candidates and postdoctoral scholars, and the award is granted to the highest-ranking fellow. Weerasinghe will be utilizing the funds to complete her dissertation, Gender, Medicine, and Law in Early Modern Portuguese India.

AHA Endorses Women’s History and Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Quarter Dollar Coin Program Act

The Association endorsed bipartisan bill H.R. 1923, the Women's History and Nineteenth Amendment Centennial Quarter Dollar Coin Program Act. Beginning in 2021, the proposed program would feature prominent women to mark the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment.  Each state, territory, and the District of Columbia will nominate a woman to appear on the coins. The Association commends representatives' efforts to increase gender diversity and representation on our currency.

AHA Signs onto Letter of Support for Federal Funding of International Education and Foreign Language Programs

On May 28, the AHA joined other scholarly and professional organizations in sending a letter to Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Patty Murray (D-WA), chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies. The letter advocated increased funding for International Education and Foreign Language Studies and articulated the sought-after international skills curated by such programs as Title VI and Fulbright-Hays.

AHA Members Receive Fellowships for Doctoral Dissertation Writing

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has selected AHA members Nimrod Ben Zeev (Univ. of Pennsylvania),  Craig Johnson (Univ. of California, Berkeley), Louis Lu (Harvard Univ.), and Amy Zanoni (Rutgers Univ.) as four of its of 23 Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellows for 2019.  Each 2019 fellow will receive $25,000 to support the final year of dissertation writing for projects addressing questions of ethics and religion across various global regions.

AHA’s Special Projects Coordinator Discusses Immigration History & Policy on NBC

Julia Brookins, AHA special projects coordinator, authored an opinion piece for NBC News about the discourse surrounding current immigration policy. As a historian of US immigration, Brookins contextualizes the changing conceptions of what it means to be an American immigrant and reminds readers that #EverythingHasAHistory.

AHA Expresses Concern over Departmental Changes at University of Tulsa

On May 14, the AHA sent a letter to the University of Tulsa provost Janet Levit urging the university administration to reconsider its radical restructuring plan for the humanities. AHA executive director Jim Grossman articulated worries over both the plan's impact and the manner in which deliberations and decisions were conducted without input from key disciplines.

AHA Endorses Coalition for International Education Letter for Congressional Title VI Funding

The American Historical Association signed onto a letter from the Coalition for International Education to Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA), chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. The letter expressed support for the bipartisan re-authorization of the Higher Education Act and encouraged incorporation of Title VI funding into the bill.

AHA Sends Letter of Concern to Stanford University

On May 8, AHA executive director Jim Grossman sent a letter to Stanford University president Marc Tessier-Lavigne and provost Persis Drell to voice concern for the proposed reduction in funding for Stanford University Press, a leading and primary publisher of fundamental and influential works in the historical discipline. 

AHA Member Honored as Inaugural ACLS/Mellon Community College Faculty Fellow

The Association is pleased to recognize Antonio Ramirez, assistant professor of history and political science at Elgin Community College and AHA member, who was named a 2019 Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellow along with six other history faculty. This is the program's first year of providing support for research projects from humanities and social science faculty who teach at two-year colleges. 

AHA Signs onto Letter Protesting Cuts to Humanities Programs in Brazil

The AHA joined 12 organizations in signing onto a letter issued by the American Philosophical Association and the American Sociological Association in response to Brazilian President Jair Messias Bolsonaro's proposal to defund philosophy and sociology programs in the country. 

Update on Detained Historian Hatoon al-Fassi

Following more than 10 months of protested detention, Dr. Hatoon al-Fassi was released from prison in Saudi Arabia on May 2, 2019, and has been allowed to return home to her family. Dr. al-Fassi's release has been characterized as "temporary;" the Middle East Studies Association continues to call for her full exoneration, as well as for the release of the other women's rights advocates who remain in detention. 

AHA Urges Action over Proposed FY20 Federal Budget Cuts

On May 2, as the House Appropriations Committee prepared to examine proposed fiscal year 2020 budget slashes for the National Archives and National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Association urged its US members to contact their representatives via a pre-written electronic message or by calling House Appropriations Committee members.

AHA Members Receive Women's Studies Fellowships

The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation has selected AHA members and PhD candidates Hannah Frydman (Rutgers Univ.) and Michaela Kleber (Coll. of William and Mary) as two of its ten Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellows in Women's Studies for 2019. The competitive award supports the final year of dissertation writing for doctoral students in the humanities and social sciences whose work addresses women's and gendered issues in interdisciplinary and original ways.

History Graduate Students Receive 2019 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships

On April 24, the American Council of Learned Societies named its 2019 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellows, selected from a pool of more than 1,000 applicants. Twelve AHA members received the honor for their dissertations spanning an impressive array of subjects, time periods, and localities. As fellows, these graduate students receive a year of funding to focus on completing projects that form the foundations of their scholarly careers.

Historians Among 2019 Carnegie Fellows

Congratulations to AHA members Marcia Chatelain, William J. Connell, and John D. Garrigus, and to other historians named 2019 Andrew Carnegie Fellows. The fellowship program provides support for scholarship in the social sciences and humanities to produce publications that offer fresh perspective on pressing challenges of our time.

Historians Elected to American Academy of Sciences

On April 17, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences announced the election of its new members for 2019, including nine historians. The new class of more than 200 members recognizes the outstanding achievements of individuals in academia, the arts, business, government, and public affairs. Congratulations!

Historians Win Pulitzer Prize

The AHA is excited to congratulate two historians for receiving the prestigious Pulitzer Prize. David W. Blight, AHA member and Class of 1954 Professor of American History and director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University, won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in the category of history for his book, Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. Jeffrey C. Stewart, professor of black studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, was honored with the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in the biography category for The New Negro: The Life of Alain Locke.

Historians Receive Inaugural Mellon/ACLS Fellowships

Four historians were among the 12 recipients for the first class of 2019 Mellon/ACLS Scholars and Society Fellowships. In collaboration with The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies has inaugurated these annual fellowships to provide faculty who teach and advise PhD students opportunities to serve as ambassadors for humanities scholarship beyond the academy and deepen their support for doctoral curricular innovation on their campuses. 

AHA Members Featured in PBS Documentary Airing April 23

On April 23rd, Stanley Nelson's latest film, Boss: The Black Experience in Business, will air on PBS at 8 pm ET. In the documentary, AHA executive director Jim Grossman, as well as AHA members Tiffany Gill, Marcia Chatelain, A'Lelia Bundles, Suzanne Smith, and Quincy Mills, lend their expertise to discuss the history of black entrepreneurship and business owners.

Article Published in AHR Receives Accolades

Holly Brewer, AHA member and Burke Chair of American History and associate professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, received the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies' 2019 Srinivas Aravamudan Award for her article "Slavery, Sovereignty, and 'Inheritable Blood': Reconsidering John Locke and the Origins of American Slavery." The article, first published in the American Historical Review in 2017, also received an Honorable Mention for the 2019 James L. Clifford Award.

AHA Member to Participate in Texas Summer Institute for Secondary School Teachers

Miguel A. Martinez, AHA member and social studies teacher at Northwest Early College High School, has been accepted as a Summer Scholar through the University of Texas at El Paso's Summer Institute, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities. This two-week long program for secondary school teachers will focus on incorporating borderlands and multicultural narratives into American history and identity through the development of creative storytelling methodologies in teaching philosophies.

Update on Stevens Point Humanities Majors

The American Historical Association is gratified to learn that the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point has reversed course on a plan to trim humanities majors, including history, from its undergraduate curriculum. Last March, the AHA expressed concern over the planned eliminations and received a direct response from Provost Greg Summers. The AHA will continue to advocate for the value of studying history for student success and happiness throughout their careers and civic lives.

AHA Member Wins Dissertation Fellowship

AHA member Jillian Vaum (Univ. of Pennsylvania) is one of 11 graduate students to be honored with a 2019 Luce/ACLS Dissertation Fellowship in American Art. Her dissertation, Facing Freedom: Tracing African American Emancipation in Antebellum Portraiture, was selected by the ACLS and Henry Luce Foundation for promising research in object- and image-based US art history. Each fellow receives a stipend of $34,000 to support one year of dissertation research and writing, as well as up to $4,000 for travel and research during the 2019-20 academic year.

AHA Members among 2019 SHFG Winners

Congratulations to AHA members J. Samuel Walker and Matthew R. Pembleton for receiving awards from the Society for Historians in the Federal Government. Walker received the 2019 Individual Member Award for his recent publication, Most of 14th Street is Gone, while Pembleton's book, Containing Addiction: The Federal Bureau of Narcotics and the Origins of America's Global Drug War, won the 2019 Henry Adams Book Prize.

Historians Receive 2019 NEH Grants

On March 28, 2019, the NEH announced that it would provide $28.6 million to support 233 humanities projects nationwide. "These new NEH-supported projects will help shore up the nation's most valuable assets: its history, literature, historic sites, regional traditions, and cultural institutions," declared NEH Chairman Jon Parrish Peede. Seventeen of these recipients are AHA members, and the Association extends a warm congratulations to all of these grant recipients. A full list of grantees is available.

ACLS Awards 2019 Fellowships to AHA Members

The American Council of Learned Societies announced its list of fellows for 2019. Out of the 81 awardees, 24 fellows are members of the Association. The awards, ranging from $40,000 to $70,000, will support scholars for six to twelve months of full-time research and writing. For the full list of fellows, visit the ACLS website. Congratulations to our members!

Scientia Interviews AHA Executive Director

In an exclusive interview with Scientia, AHA executive director Jim Grossman discusses the work of the Association and the organization's broader goal to serve more than just those in the history discipline. Grossman highlights the relevance of historical thinking in everyday public life and the valuable insight gained from examining our surroundings with a critical and curious lens.

AHA Job Openings

Join our collaborative team of staff dedicated to promoting history and the work of historians. The AHA is accepting applications for an Editorial Assistant. We will begin reviewing applications on April 3, 2019.

AHA Member Publishes Opinion Piece in New York Times

Tiya Miles, professor of history at Harvard University, Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, and AHA member, discusses the intersection of the African American historical narrative, gun ownership, and politics in an op-ed in the New York Times.

AHA Signs onto ACLS Letter Protesting Alaskan Budget Cuts

On March 4, the American Historical Association joined 32 other professional societies in sending a letter to Gov. Mike Dunleavy and several other congressional representatives of the state of Alaska to express deep concern over the proposed $134 million reduction in state funding for the University of Alaska. The consortium of organizations highlighted the multifaceted consequences for Alaskan constituents and urged state leadership to reconsider.

AHA Urges Historians and Californians to Take Action

On February 28, AHA leadership alerted members and other historians in California to a new plan at California State University, the nation's largest university, to cut core requirements for U.S. history and civics courses. The Association urges our community to contact Governor Newsom and other state legislators and implore them to reject this proposal put forth by the CSU General Education Task Force.

AHA Member Honored as Regents' Professor

On February 7, Donald L. Fixico (Mvskoke/Seminole/Shawnee/Sac & Fox), Distinguished Foundation Professor of History at Arizona State University and AHA member, was honored and promoted to the rank of Regents' Professor. This prestigious distinction is held by less than 3 percent of all faculty at Arizona State University. 

AHA Members Weigh in on Parental Rights

On February 8, AHA members Dorothy Sue Cobble (Rutgers Univ.) and Mona Siegel (California State Univ., Sacramento) published an editorial in the Washington Post linking the recent push for paid parental leave in America to labor feminists' battle to secure the rights of women workers at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919.

AHA Member Receives Digital and Public History Fellowship

Andrew Gomez, assistant professor of history at the University of Puget Sound and AHA member, earned a 2019-20 Whiting Public Engagement Grant to continue his multifaceted digital, oral, and public history project Race in the City of Destiny. The program funds and encourages humanities faculty who embrace public engagement in the profession.

Former AHA President Awarded Prestigious Prize

Kenneth Pomeranz, University Professor of Modern Chinese History at the University of Chicago, AHA life member, and former AHA president, was awarded a 2019 Dan David Prize from Tel Aviv University for his work on macro history and East Asia. The tremendous honor recognizes interdisciplinary achievements of outstanding scientific, technological, or socio-cultural significance. Pomeranz shares the "Past Time Dimension" award with UCLA historian Sanjay Subrahmanyam.

AHA Member Receives Dr. John Hope Franklin Award

Diverse Issues in Higher Education awarded the 2019 Dr. John Hope Franklin Award to Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and African American Studies at Harvard University and AHA life member. The award, which recognizes contributions to higher education, will be presented on March 11, 2019, during the 101st centennial meeting of the American Council on Education (ACE) in Philadelphia.

AHA Maintains Support for the Separation of Hungarian Politics and Academic Inquiry

On February 11, the AHA sent a letter to the leadership of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences to reaffirm its support for the autonomy of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. The AHA cautioned against reforms that would subject academy funding to approval from ministerial authorities. The separation of the Academy's research institutes and publications from politics is a crucial cornerstone of the institution's international integrity and the credibility of its historical scholarship.

Letter Protesting Michigan Mayor’s Termination of Journal Editor’s Contract

On February 11, AHA executive director Jim Grossman sent a letter to Mayor John O'Reilly of Dearborn, Michigan, protesting the dismissal of Bill McGraw, editor of the city's historical commission's journal, for publishing an article about Henry Ford's anti-Semitism. 

AHA Member Wins Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize

David Blight, Class of 1954 Professor of American History at Yale University, AHA member, and former AHA councilor, was awarded the 2019 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize for his book Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. This annual award honors a work that enhances the general public’s understanding of the Civil War era, and the prize committee praised Blight for “the most comprehensive and multi-dimensional biography of Frederick Douglass ever written.”

AHA Member Comments on Conservative Right and Academia

On January 31, Kimberly Phillips-Fein, associate professor of history at the Gallatin School of Individualized Study at New York University and AHA member, published an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education examining the evolution of conservative criticism and distrust of the university system. 

AHA Expresses Concerns about Potential Impact of Plan S on the Humanities

The AHA fully supports broad access to the resources required to create new knowledge and share it as widely as possible. However, concerns about the principles set out in Plan S have led the AHA to write a letter to Coalition S members regarding the potential for harm to humanities scholarship.

Rosenfeld Discusses Democracy, Fact-Checking, and Fake News

The New Yorker published an interview with Sophie Rosenfeld, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania and AHA vice president, Research, who discusses the relationship between American democracy and the idea of truth in the era of social media and "fake news." Rosenfeld examines the way in which notions of truth have been contested in American history and emphasizes the continued importance of asking what is true and "How do you know what's true?"

AHA Calls on Nicaraguan President to Release History Professor

On January 24, the Association sent a letter to Daniel Ortega Saavedra, president of the Republic of Nicaragua, articulating concern about the imprisonment of Professor Ricardo Baltodano Marcenaro of the Universidad Politécnica de Nicaragua and the charges leveled against him. The AHA cited the UN High Commission for Human Rights’ inquiry into the case and urged Baltodano’s immediate release.

Lehfeldt Discusses Importance of Storytelling in History Teaching

Liz Lehfeldt, Mandel Professor in Humanities at Cleveland State University and former AHA vice president, Teaching, responded to the declining number of history majors with her thoughts in a January 9 Inside Higher Ed article, "Why Study History?" Lehfeldt asks, "What story does our pedagogy tell about the significance of history and why students should care?"