AHA Staff Member Quoted in USA Today Article (December 2021)

AHA communications and marketing manager Jeremy C. Young was quoted in a USA Today article by Dennis Wagner about how 2021 failed to live up to expectations for a better year after 2020. Historically speaking, Young explained, because nearly all catastrophes have long-term residual effects, “you’re not going to be able to turn that page quickly or cleanly. Nothing’s going to live up to lofty expectations.” The article is also available on Yahoo! News.

AHA Sends Letter Opposing Oklahoma Bill That Would Limit Teaching of Race and Slavery in America (December 2021)

The AHA has sent a letter to members of the Oklahoma state legislature strongly opposing House Bill 2988, which would restrict the teaching of “certain concepts pertaining to America and slavery.” This “irresponsible legislation,” the AHA writes, would be “harmful to the youth of Oklahoma, leaving students ignorant of basic facts of American history and poorly prepared for the critical thinking and interpretive skills required for career and civic accomplishment.”

AHA Sends Letter Opposing Nonrenewal of History Department Faculty at Youngstown State University (December 2021)

The AHA has sent a letter to administrators at Youngstown State University strongly discouraging the university from “proceeding with the reported nonrenewal of two faculty members in the history program.” These nonrenewals, in addition to planned retirements, “would severely diminish the department’s ability to maintain appropriate pedagogical and research standards, and counteracts the university’s own recent assessment of the department’s health.”

AHA Executive Director Quoted in Article on Renaming of DC Public Schools (December 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in a Washington Times article by Sean Salai on DC Public Schools’ plans to rename Brent Elementary School, which is named after Robert Brent, the first mayor of Washington, DC. The school is being renamed as part of DCPS’s goal to remove the names of slaveholders and segregationists from its buildings. “People lead complicated lives, and Brent’s life included many important and worthy accomplishments,” Grossman said. “At the same time, when we put someone’s name on a public building, we are making a statement to our children, to visitors and others about our community’s values and what makes someone worthy of public honor.”

AHA Executive Director Featured in Article on “Divisive Concepts” Legislation (December 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was featured in an article by Janelle Stecklein published in several local CNHI papers. The article focused on Oklahoma House Bill 2988, which “prohibits teaching slavery in Oklahoma public schools and universities in a way that might lead one to think America is worse than other nations in history or that one race is a unique victim or oppressor.” “It’s very hard for a teacher to teach about slavery without emphasizing that in the United States (or) in the areas that would become the United States, it was generally white people who enslaved Black people,” said Grossman. “That’s a fact, not an interpretation. And if you don’t tell students that fact, they will be ignorant of American history.”

AHA Executive Director Quoted in Editorial against “Divisive Concepts” Bills (December 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in an editorial published by the Enid News & Eagle editorial board opposing Oklahoma House Bill 2988, which would limit education about slavery in the state’s public schools and universities. “It’s not the business of the state legislature to prohibit teachers from assigning certain materials any more that it’s the business of the state legislature to prohibit libraries from putting materials in the library,” Grossman said. The editorial was also published in the Norman Transcript.

AHA Member Publishes Article on Wartime Incarceration of Deaf Japanese Americans (December 2021)

AHA member Selena Moon has published her first article with the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The article, “Wartime Incarceration of Deaf Japanese Americans,” which drew upon NLM resources including Deaf scholar Newby Ely's “The Wartime Incarceration of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Nikkei in U.S. Camps, 1942-1946,” discussed disabled Japanese Americans and disability education in the incarceration camps. 

Lumina Foundation Publishes Article on “Divisive Concepts” Bills (December 2021)

Terri Taylor of Lumina Foundation, a generous supporter of the AHA annual meeting and of the AHA’s response to divisive concepts legislation, published an article in Inside Higher Ed about higher education’s response to the new wave of divisive concepts bills. “[T]he higher education community must not rely solely on individual faculty and staff members pushing back in a thousand individual meetings with legal counsel,” Taylor wrote. “We should support a broad movement that embraces our strong history of constitutionally granted freedoms and seeks to unearth and remedy long-standing discrimination and inequity.” Taylor’s article included a mention of the AHA’s recent survey, which found that “over three-fourths of respondents agreed it was acceptable to make learners uncomfortable by teaching about the harm some people have done to others.” 

AHA Signs On to Letter Urging US House Leadership to Reauthorize Title VI International Education Programs (December 2021)

The AHA has signed onto a letter by the Coalition for International Education “express[ing] our strong support” for the reauthorization of Title VI international education programs. “Whether it’s global health, environment, food production, cyber security, law enforcement, immigration and more, meeting our challenges increasingly relies on foreign language abilities, regional knowledge, cultural understanding, and experience abroad,” the letter states. “As the most comprehensive and multifaceted federal program in international education, we believe HEA-Title VI is the federal government’s foundational vehicle to address this 21st century human resource issue.”

Historians’ Amicus Curiae Brief Discussed in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Oral Arguments (December 2021)

An amicus curiae brief for consideration in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health, which features the AHA and the Organization of American Historians as signatories, was discussed during oral arguments before the US Supreme Court on December 1, 2021. The brief, based on decades of study and research by professional historians, aimed to provide an accurate historical perspective on the right to abortion. Discussion of the brief begins on page 75 of the transcript and continues for several pages.

AHA Member and UArizona Department of History Head Create Educational Material for Age of Empires (December 2021)

AHA member Paul Milliman (Univ. of Arizona) and University of Arizona Department of History head Alison Futrell have developed special educational content for the popular video game franchise Age of Empires. Beginning in early 2022, Age of Empires IV players will be able to engage with this content, which could earn students accepted to University of Arizona up to one academic credit. Milliman is also “putting together a course targeted specifically for people coming to the university through playing the game, who are not currently students.”

Hiring: AHA Meetings and Virtual Events Assistant (December 2021)

Join our collaborative team of staff dedicated to promoting history and the work of historians! The AHA is accepting applications for a meetings and virtual events assistant. We will begin reviewing applications on January 15, 2022.

AHA Member Named Director of Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (December 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Benjamin Talton, who has been named director of Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center (MSRC). The MSRC is “one of the world’s premier centers for the study of the global Black experience” with a “proud legacy of preserving the history of people of African descent for this and future generations.”

AHA Member Awarded 2021 Cundill History Prize (December 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Marjoleine Kars (Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County), who has been awarded the 2021 Cundill History Prize for her book Blood on the River: a Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast (New Press). Administered by McGill University, the Cundill History Prize honors “the abiding passion for history of its founder, F. Peter Cundill, by encouraging informed public debate through the wider dissemination of history writing to new audiences around the world.” It is awarded annually to “the book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality and broad appeal.”

AHA Calls on Polish State to Uphold Rights of Historians (December 2021)

The AHA has sent a letter to Polish president Andrzej Duda expressing “dismay and continued concern about events taking place in Poland related to the study of history and especially regarding historical research on World War II and the Holocaust.” The AHA originally wrote to President Duda in 2016 regarding the treatment of Polish historians, issued a statement in 2018, and wrote again in February 2021; this most recent letter comes as “scholars continue to be harassed, threatened with dismissal, or forced to resign.” The AHA calls upon Polish leaders “to protect the rights of historians and other scholars to conduct impartial research into history and to advance the search for historical accuracy in a still controversial, and often painful, past.”

Hiring: Teaching Resource Developers (December 2021)

Join our collaborative team of staff dedicated to promoting history and supporting the work of historians! The AHA is accepting applications for Teaching Resource Developers to work on the Association’s “Teaching Things: Material Culture in the History Classroom” initiative, a twelve-month project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. We will begin reviewing applications on December 27, 2021.

AHA and Learn from History Coalition Featured in The Atlantic (November 2021)

The AHA and the Learn from History Coalition, of which the AHA is a founding member, were featured in an article by AHA member David W. Blight (Yale Univ.) about how “our divisive politics regarding how to teach children about slavery, race, and other difficult subjects in school has broken [the] trust” that teachers need to teach well. The AHA, Blight writes, has “signed on to a coalition of more than 25 such groups called Learn from History, which seeks to combat deliberate misinformation about the current state of history education.”

AHA Special Projects Coordinator Testifies to Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs (November 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.

AHA Member Named 2021 Frederick Douglass Book Prize Winner (November 2021)

Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition announced that the 2021 Frederick Douglass Book Prize will be shared between AHA member Marjoleine Kars (Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County) for her book Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast (New Press) and fellow historian Vincent Brown (Harvard Univ.) for his book Tacky’s Revolt: The Story of an Atlantic Slave War (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press). The Frederick Douglass Book Prize is awarded annually to “the best book written in English on slavery, resistance, and/or abolition published in the preceding year.”

AHA Member to Appear in 2021 Jeopardy! Professors Tournament (November 2021)

AHA member Ashleigh Lawrence-Sanders (Univ. of Colorado Boulder) and fellow historian Ed Hashima (American River Coll.) will appear in the 2021 Jeopardy! Professors Tournament. The tournament, featuring Lawrence-Sanders, Hashima, and 13 other professors, will air from December 6 through December 17, 2021.

AHR Featured in Slate Article on Historical Video Games (November 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 Member Named 10th Director of the Institute for Advanced Study (November 2021)

AHA member David Nirenberg (Univ. of Chicago) has been named the 10th director of the Institute for Advanced Studies(IAS). “David’s administrative accomplishments, like the Institute itself, transcend cultural and disciplinary boundaries, providing new frameworks of knowledge to understand society and to realize the power of collective curiosity,” said IAS board vice chair Nancy Peretsman. “David offers the leadership qualities to ensure that IAS remains a significant center for basic research as it approaches its centennial.”

AHA Member Wins 2021 National Book Award (November 2021)

AHA member Tiya Miles (Harvard Univ.) has been awarded the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction for her book All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake (Penguin Random House). The National Book Awards are awarded annually by the National Book Foundation, whose mission is “to celebrate the best literature in America, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in American culture.”

AHA Releases Statement on Censorship and Prosecution by Chinese Authorities (November 2021)

In a newly released statement, the AHA is “alarmed by news reports that Chinese authorities have escalated the censorship and prosecution of Chinese citizens who deviate from the Communist Party line of hero worship.” “Such efforts strike at the very heart of historical scholarship, which depends on open-ended inquiry and a free exchange of ideas, wherever that inquiry leads, and whether or not those ideas cast aspersions on historical actors,” the AHA states. “The AHA stands firmly against national laws and policies that in effect criminalize the historical enterprise.”  To date, 20 organizations have signed onto this statement.

National Archives and Records Administration Responds to Reopening Questions Raised in AHA Letter

In August, the AHA wrote to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on behalf of historical researchers seeking clarity about reopening plans. NARA has now provided responses to the questions posed in the AHA's letter, as well as a communication to researchers. We are glad to publish NARA's responses as a window into NARA’s reopening process and future plans, and we will continue to work with our colleagues at NARA to increase communication between archivists and researchers.

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

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 Signs On to Letter Urging DoE to Prioritize International and Foreign Language Education and Research (November 2021)

The AHA has signed onto a letter by the Coalition for International Education “urg[ing] the Department of Education to prioritize and strengthen its international and foreign language education and research role under HEA-Title VI and Fulbright-Hays 102(b)(6).” “Our challenges increasingly rely on foreign language abilities, regional knowledge, cultural understanding, and experience abroad,” the letter states. “Key foreign language, regional studies, international business, research and education abroad infrastructures and capacity must be replenished.”

AHA Member Publishes Article on Kentucky’s First Woman Lawyer (November 2021)

AHA member Anya Jabour (Univ. of Montana) published “‘A Kentucky Portia’: The Legal Career and Legislative Legacy of Sophonisba Breckinridge, Kentucky’s First Woman Lawyer” in Ohio Valley History’s Fall 2021 issue. Jabour’s article discusses Breckinridge’s “lengthy struggle to achieve her legal ambitions, her brief and troubled legal career, and her lasting legislative legacy,” including how her pursuits were “profoundly shaped” by gender.

AHA Sends Letter Objecting to University of Florida Preventing Faculty Members’ Expert Witness Testimony (November 2021)

The AHA has sent a letter to President W. Kent Fuchs of the University of Florida stating that it “objects strenuously to [the] decision preventing University of Florida faculty members from testifying in a voting-rights case.” The university’s decision “is contrary to the principle that the state university is a resource upon which public institutions such as the courts can (and should) draw for expertise,” the AHA writes. “A public university is not a political agent of the state in which it is situated; it is a site of learning and scholarly inquiry in service to the residents of that state.”

AHA Executive Director Featured in USA Today Article (November 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)

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.”

AHA Communications and Marketing Manager Featured in HowStuffWorks Article (October 2021)

AHA communications and marketing manager Jeremy C. Young was featured in a HowStuffWorks article about US states that have declared themselves independent nations at times throughout the nation’s history. The question of a state’s independence “largely depends on how one defines a country,” said Young — “does it require a formal government, international recognition by other countries, or just a group of people saying they are a country?”

AHA Institutional Member Launches Website to Further Public Knowledge of Federal History (October 2021)

The Public Education Project of the Society for History in the Federal Government, an AHA affiliate and institutional member, has launched a new website with the goal of “further[ing] public knowledge of federal history, reframed to emphasize the stories of the hundreds of federal agencies that have carried out government policies since 1789.” The website will serve “both the general public and members of the professional history community by maintaining a portal to the history webpages of almost 250 federal agencies, searchable by functional categories and keywords, and by providing contact information for federal agency history offices.”

Hiring: Editor, Perspectives on History (October 2021)

Join our collaborative team of staff dedicated to promoting history and supporting the work of historians. The AHA is accepting applications for Editor, Perspectives on History. We will begin reviewing applications on November 1, 2021.

AHR Article Featured in Smithsonian Magazine (October 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 Member Named Co-Winner of the 2021 ASA Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize (October 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Jacqueline-Bethel Tchouta Mougoué (Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison), who was named the co-winner of the 2021 African Studies Association’s Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize for her book Gender, Separatist Politics, and Embodied Nationalism in Cameroon (Univ. of Michigan Press, 2019). The Aidoo-Snyder Book Prize is awarded annually by the Women’s Caucus of the ASA for an outstanding book that prioritizes African women’s experiences. 

AHA Member Named Co-Chair of America250 Foundation’s History Education Advisory Council (October 2021)

Congratulations to AHA Council member Reginald Ellis (Florida A&M Univ.), who was named co-chair of the America250 Foundation’s History Education Advisory Council. The Advisory Council “will work to deepen our shared understanding of the nation’s past and broaden our understanding of each other as Americans” as part of America250’s commemoration of the 250th anniversary of American independence.

AHA Announces Grant Program to Support Small History Organizations (October 2021)

The AHA announces a major new initiative to offer $2.5 million in grants to dozens of small history-related organizations adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities' American Rescue Plan: Humanities Grantmaking Program, the AHA’s Grants to Sustain and Advance the Work of Historical Organizations provides financial support from $10,000 to $75,000 for short-term projects that explore new ideas or build on experiments initiated during the pandemic. Membership associations, site- or location-based institutions, and history and humanities departments at historically Black and tribally controlled colleges and universities with annual budgets of less than $750,000 are eligible to apply between October 15 and December 14, 2021. Recipients will be announced by March 1, 2022. Successful applicants may begin projects as early as April 1, 2022. More information on application requirements is available at historians.org/sharp-grants, or contact project director Dana Schaffer, the deputy director of the AHA with any questions.

AHA Announces Initiative to Support Teaching History with Material Culture (October 2021)

The AHA announces a new initiative to help educators make effective use of material culture in their in-person or remote classrooms. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ American Rescue Plan: Humanities Organizations program, “Teaching Things: Material Culture in the History Classroom” will create publications that prepare and enable educators to use historical artifacts in their classrooms. A booklet for teachers will serve as a guide to teaching history with material culture alongside other primary sources. Two digital Teaching Toolkits (one for secondary educators and one for college instructors) will include detailed lesson plans, object analyses, discussion questions, assignments, assessment guides, and activities. A digital Object Library will include objects for classroom use and additional materials for teachers to craft lesson plans that fit their curriculum. “Teaching Things” is directed by Sarah Weicksel, director of research and publications, and will run through September 30, 2022.

AHA Member Named 2022 New America Fellow (September 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Keisha N. Blain (Univ. of Pittsburgh) and fellow historian Ellen Wu (Indiana Univ.) for being named 2022 New America Fellows. The New America Fellows Program “invests in thinkers—journalists, scholars, filmmakers, and public policy analysts—who generate big, bold ideas that have an impact and spark new conversations about the most pressing issues of our day.”

AHA Member Awarded 2021 Historic Hotels of America Historian of the Year Award (September 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Ty Seidule (Hamilton Coll.), who was named the recipient of the 2021 Historic Hotels of America Historian of the Year Award. Seidule “challenges us to reexamine what we should commemorate versus what we should remember,” said HHA executive vice president Lawrence Horwitz. “Importantly, as an historian and author, he raises critical questions about the correlation between commemoration and personal values.” The HHA Historian of the Year Award is awarded to an individual “for making a unique contribution in the research and presentation of history, and whose work has encouraged a wide, if not provocative, discussion and greater understanding of the history of our nation.”

AHA Member Awarded 2021 George Washington Prize (September 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member and former president Mary Beth Norton (Cornell Univ.), who has been awarded the 2021 George Washington Prize for her book 1774: The Long Year of Revolution. Co-sponsored by George Washington’s Mount Vernon, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, and Washington College, the George Washington Prize “recognizes the past year’s best works on the nation’s founding era, especially those that have the potential to advance a broad public understanding of early American history.”

Historians Named to 2021 Class of MacArthur Fellows (September 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Monica Muñoz Martinez (Univ. of Texas, Austin) and fellow historians Ibram X. Kendi (Boston Univ.) and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (Princeton Univ.) for being named 2021 MacArthur Fellows. The MacArthur Foundation awarded 25 fellowships in 2021 to “talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction.”

AHA Executive Director Featured on KMBC News (September 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was interviewed on Kansas City’s KMBC News about the AHA’s letter to Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, recommending that he reconsider his decision to remove the exhibition Making History: Kansas City and the Rise of Gay Rights from the Missouri State Museum.

AHA Signs Amicus Curiae Brief in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (September 2021)

The AHA, along with the Organization of American Historians, has become a signatory to an amicus curiae brief in the Supreme Court case Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. This brief, based on decades of study and research by professional historians, aims to provide an accurate historical perspective as the Court considers the state of Mississippi’s challenge to a woman’s right to abortion, a right that was affirmed by the Court in Roe v. Wade.

AHA Member Recognized by Chicago History Museum (September 2021)

AHA member Michael H. Ebner (Lake Forest Coll.) has received the Chicago History Museum’s Scammon Award recognizing his 30 years as a member of its board of trustees. Ebner served on three presidential search committees, chaired multiple trustee committees, and is co-founder of the museum’s Urban History Seminar, established in 1984. 

AHA Releases Statement on Threats to Academic Conferences (September 2021)

The AHA has released a statement condemning the harassment and intimidation of participants, organizers, and university sponsors of the virtual conference “Dismantling Global Hindutva: Multidisciplinary Perspectives.” “Conferences, both in person and across digital platforms, are critical to the exchange of ideas among historians and our colleagues in other disciplines,” the AHA wrote. “Disruptions to a conference represent an assault on the principle of academic freedom, and the AHA stands unequivocally with participants in this conference and its sponsors in their right to exchange ideas without fear of threats and intimidation.” To date, 40 organizations have signed onto this statement.

AHA Executive Director Featured in TIME Article on Confederate Statue Removal (September 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 Sends Letter to Missouri Governor Urging Reinstatement of LGBTQ+ History Exhibition (September 2021)

The AHA has sent a letter to Missouri governor Mike Parson recommending “most emphatically” that he reconsider his “decision to remove the exhibition Making History: Kansas City and the Rise of Gay Rights from the Missouri State Museum.” “By excluding this high-quality, professionally researched and produced historical exhibition from the State Museum,” the AHA wrote, “you articulate a vision of the state that we hope you do not intend: that LGBTQ+ Americans are not worthy of recognition or inclusion in the state of Missouri.”

AHA and Fairleigh Dickinson University Survey Featured in Media Coverage (September 2021)

The national survey recently released by the AHA and Fairleigh Dickinson University was featured by the Center for the Future of Museums, and in the Batesville Daily Guard, CEO Update, the Monroe Times, the Oakdale Leader, the Sentinel, Slate, USA Today, 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.

Learn from History Coalition Featured in Education Week (September 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.

AHA Member Publishes Book on Nationalism and Belonging in Prague (September 2021)

AHA member Chad Bryant (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) published his book, Prague: Belonging in the Modern City with Harvard University Press in May 2021. Through the lens of Czechia’s history of nationalism and “tensions between exclusionary nationalism and on-the-ground diversity,” Prague “tells the stories of five marginalized individuals who, over the last two centuries, forged their own notions of belonging in one of Europe’s great cities.”

AHA Member Appointed Interim Director of NYPL’s Cullman Center (September 2021)

AHA member Martha Hodes (New York Univ.) has been appointed to a two-year term as interim director of the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library, beginning September 2021. The Cullman Center is an “international fellowship program open to people whose work will benefit directly from access to the collections at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building—including academics, independent scholars, and creative writers.” Hodes was a Cullman Center Fellow in 2018–19. 

AHA Joins Learn from History Coalition (September 2021)

The AHA is a founding member of the Learn from History Coalition. Organized by Stand for Children, Learn from History is a coalition of parents, educators, and other concerned Americans who are working together to combat “divisive concepts” bills and to ensure that all children can learn accurate, thorough, and fact-based history in our schools. 

AHA and Fairleigh Dickinson University Release Survey on Public Perceptions of History (August 2021)

With funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the AHA partnered with Fairleigh Dickinson University to develop and implement a national survey to assess public perceptions of, and engagement with, the discipline of history and the past. The 40-question survey explores the public’s definition of the term “history,” where audiences access history, which sources of history are perceived to be reliable, their historical learning experiences, attitudes toward historical revision, correlations between civic engagement and an interest in history, and the perceived value of history. Complete raw survey data are available for download for those wanting to explore these topics in more depth.

AHA Communications and Marketing Manager Publishes Article on Challenges to Solving the “Adjunct Problem” (August 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 Appointed to Commission by North Carolina Governor (August 2021)

AHA member Arwin Smallwood (North Carolina A&T Univ.) has been appointed by North Carolina governor Roy Cooper to the Tryon Palace Commission. Members of the commission “manage the Latham Trust for Tryon Palace and . . . function as a board of trustees in the development of policies regarding collections management, public programs, and preservation.” Tryon Palace, the first permanent capitol of the Colony of North Carolina, today functions as a historic site and center for North Carolina history.

AHA Sends Letter Opposing Proposed Legislation on History Education in Texas (August 2021)

The AHA sent a letter to Texas governor Greg Abbott and the members of the state legislature opposing SB 3 and HB 28, introduced during the Texas legislature’s special session. “This proposed legislation threatens the integrity of history education in Texas,” the AHA wrote. The AHA “urges the Texas legislature to reject these bills, both of which seek to indoctrinate students rather than help them learn the inquiry-based skills that will prepare them for their future civic and professional lives.” It cited a previous AHA letter to Governor Abbott and the Texas Senate in May, an AHA statement in July, and a joint statement in June addressing similar legislative efforts that “risk infringing on the right of faculty to teach and of students to learn.” 

AHA Treasurer Publishes Op-Ed in Wall Street Journal (August 2021)

AHA treasurer William Wechsler, along with co-author Josh Lipsky, published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal addressing the Taliban’s “push for money and legitimacy” via a potential large inheritance of cash from the International Monetary Fund. Although “the US and the IMP signaled the Taliban won’t have access to the funds,” Wechsler and Lipsky wrote, “the first real test of whether the Taliban will be accepted by the international community will happen in the IMF boardroom.”

AHA Signs On to Letter Urging Aid for Afghanistan’s Scholars, Students, Practitioners, Civil Society Leaders, and Activists (August 2021)

The AHA has signed on to a letter from the Scholars at Risk Network to US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, requesting “immediate action” from the US Department of State “to save Afghanistan’s scholars, students, practitioners, civil society leaders and activists, especially women and ethnic and religious minorities.” “The eroding situation in Afghanistan poses a threat not only to the lives of our colleagues still in Afghanistan, but to the future of that country, and to the future security and honor of the United States,” the letter states. “If we move quickly, we can go a long way towards mitigating the worst of the threats and demonstrate continuing commitment to the future of Afghanistan and its people.” 

AHA Member Named 2021 Intelligence and Courage Award Winner (August 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Heather Cox Richardson (Boston Coll.), who has been named the winner of the Frances Perkins Center’s 2021 Intelligence and Courage Award. This award is given annually to an honoree whose work in the areas of social justice and economic security embodies Frances Perkins’s pledge to “meet problems with intelligence and courage.”

Nineteen AHA Members Named NEH Grant Recipients (August 2021)

Congratulations to the National Endowment for the Humanities’ August 2021 grant recipients, including 19 AHA members. The NEH recently announced $28.4 million in grants that will fund a broad range of humanities projects nationwide and “support vital research, education, preservation, digital, and public programs.”

AHA Member Named Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library (August 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Karin Wulf, who has been named the Beatrice and Julio Mario Santo Domingo Director and Librarian of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. Wulf “will be responsible for overseeing all programmatic and administrative activities of the Library as well as providing strategic direction for all of the Library’s priorities” and will “seek to enhance and grow the Library’s collection as a leading international center for advanced research in history and the humanities.”

AHR Essay Co-Published on Instagram Featured in Media Coverage (August 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.

AHA Sends Letter to NARA Regarding Planned Research Room Capacity (August 2021)

The AHA has written a letter seeking clarity on the National Archives and Records Administration’s planned reopening following pandemic closures and to offer the AHA’s “help in communicating with the community of history researchers.” The AHA recognizes “the difficulties of operating facilities around the country during a pandemic” and encourages NARA to maximize equitable access to its collections while continuing to make the health and safety of NARA staff its highest priority.

AHA Member Featured in Washington Post Podcast (August 2021)

AHA member Gabriela Soto Laveaga (Harvard Univ.) appeared on the Washington Post’s Spanish-language podcast, El Washington Post, to discuss the relationship between American and Mexican history. She also published an op-ed in the Post and was interviewed on NPR about the importance of learning Mexican history alongside American history.

AHA Issues Letter Objecting to Social Studies Curriculum Legislation in Ohio (July 2021)

The AHA has issued a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine and the members of the Ohio state legislature registering “strong objection to Ohio HB 322 and HB 327, acts relating to the social studies curriculum in public schools.” These bills, wrote the AHA, are “a tangle of contradictory mandates” about how history can be taught and “part of a misguided, nationally coordinated attempt to put the government in classrooms at every level from kindergarten through high school—and in the case of HB 327, through higher education—to intimidate teachers, and to indoctrinate students rather than helping them learn the inquiry-based skills that will prepare them for their future civic and professional lives.”

Hiring: AHA Meetings and Virtual Events Assistant (July 2021)

Join our collaborative team of staff dedicated to promoting history and the work of historians! The AHA is accepting applications for a meetings and virtual events assistant. We will begin reviewing applications on August 23, 2021.

AHA Statement on Texas Legislation Featured in New York Amsterdam News (July 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.”

AHA Issues Letter Regarding COVID-19 Vaccination Rates in Louisiana (July 2021)

The AHA has issued a letter to Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards and other leaders in the state expressing “alarm that vaccination rates in the state of Louisiana remain well below the national average.” “We know that city and state officials are eager to see business travel resume and travel industry jobs and revenue rebound,” the AHA wrote, “and we trust that you will mount a vigorous public health effort to increase vaccination rates and prevent a renewed surge of COVID cases, which would necessitate the reimposition of restrictions on conferences and business travel.” The AHA wants to ensure that its annual meeting, to be held in New Orleans in January 2022, is “as safe as possible for all to attend.”

New Honorarium for Perspectives on History Authors (July 2021)

Starting with the September 2021 issue of Perspectives on History, authors of articles published in the print magazine will be paid an honorarium of $100 per article. (This honorarium will not be offered to writers who submit In Memoriam essays or letters to the editor or who are published online in Perspectives Daily.)

AHA Member Awarded Nevins Prize by Society of American Historians (July 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Brianna Nofil (Coll. of William & Mary), who was awarded the 2021 Allan Nevins Prize by the Society of American Historians for her dissertation, “Detention Power: Jails, Camps, and the Origins of Immigrant Incarceration, 1900-2002.” The Nevins Prize is awarded annually to a doctoral dissertation on an American subject.

AHA Members Elected as Fellows to the British Academy (July 2021)

AHA members David A. Bell (Princeton Univ.), Susanna K. Elm (Univ. of California, Berkeley), and Annette Gordon-Reed (Harvard Univ.) were among 84 new fellows elected to the British Academy “in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the SHAPE subjects—the social sciences, humanities and the arts.” The British Academy is the United Kingdom’s national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

AHA Member Awarded Richards Prize for Article on Post-Civil War Incarceration of Black Children (July 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Catherine Jones (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz), who has been awarded the 2021 George and Ann Richards Prize for the best article published in the Journal of the Civil War Era. Jones’s article, “The Trials of Mary Booth and the Post-Civil War Incarceration of African American Children,” appeared in the September 2020 issue.

AHA Member Publishes Book on the Jesuit Mission to China (July 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Litian Swen (City Univ. of New York), who recently published his first book, Jesuit Mission and Submission: Qing Rulership and the Fate of Christianity in China, 1644-1735 (Brill, 2021). In his book, Swen “explains how the Jesuits entered the Manchu world after the Manchus conquered Beijing in 1644” and “redefines the rise and fall of the Christian mission in the early Qing court through key events.”

AHA Member Publishes Book on American Internment during World War II (July 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member John E. Schmitz (Northern Virginia Community Coll., Annandale), who recently published his first book, Enemies Among Us: The Relocation, Internment, and Repatriation of German, Italian, and Japanese Americans during the Second World War (Univ. of Nebraska Press). In his book, Schmitz “examines the causes, conditions, and consequences of America’s selective relocation and internment of its own citizens and enemy aliens, as well as the effects of internment on those who experienced it.”

AHA Members Featured in Forbes “50 Over 50” (July 2021)

AHA Members Heather Cox Richardson (Boston Coll.) and A’Lelia Bundles (Madam Walker Family Archives) were featured in Forbes’ “50 Over 50” project. Richardson and Bundles were highlighted in the “Impact” chapter of the project, which comprises women over 50 who are “changing their communities and the world in ways big and small through social entrepreneurship, law, advocacy and education.”

AHA Member Interviewed on CNN (July 2021)

AHA member Aaron O’Connell (Univ. of Texas, Austin) was interviewed by Paula Newton on CNN Newsroom. In the interview, O’Connell discussed US interests in Afghanistan.

AHA Member Receives 2021 HistoryMakers Fellowship (July 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Adrienne Petty (Coll. of William and Mary), who was awarded a 2021 Faculty Innovations in Pedagogy and Teaching Fellowship, presented by The HistoryMakers, the nation’s largest African American video oral history archive. This fellowship is “designed to foster classroom innovation and teaching and to diversify curricula while furthering student learning and research skills during the upcoming academic year.”

AHA Executive Director Featured in Article on Holocaust Education Bill (July 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 Member and Former AHA Staff Member Awarded ACLS Leading Edge Fellowships (July 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 Issues Statement on Threats to Historical Integrity in Texas (July 2021)

In a statement on the recently-enacted Texas House Bill 3979, the American Historical Association “views with alarm several provisions” in the so-called “divisive concepts” legislation, including those affecting state institutions that present history to the public.  “By hindering the professional development of public historians and restricting funding,” the AHA’s statement says, “this law would prevent state-owned agencies and facilities from presenting accurate views of Texas history, and would hobble fundraising efforts crucial to the vibrant state-sponsored public-history sector.” The legislation “clearly violates” the AHA’s Standards for Museum Exhibits Dealing with Historical Subjects and “will adversely affect not only K–12 students, but all Texans and visitors who want to learn more about the state's complicated past.” 28 organizations have signed onto this statement to date.

AHA Staff Members Publish Article on “Divisive Concepts” Bills (July 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.”

AHA Director of Research and Publications Featured in Newsweek Article (July 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.”

AHA Executive Director Featured on En Conexión (July 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.

AHA Announces Policy Regarding Author Name Changes (July 2021)

The American Historical Association has codified its policy regarding author name changes in AHA publications. On request of the author, the AHA will update author names in the digital version of publications, including articles in the American Historical Review and Perspectives on History and content written for the AHA website. Print publications will be updated in the event that the publication in question is reprinted.

AHA Member Named Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University (July 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Ned Blackhawk (Yale Univ.), who has been named the Randolph W. Townsend Jr. Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University. Blackhawk has written about American Indian historiography for the AHA, including the booklet American Indians and the Study of U.S. History.

AHA Executive Director Quoted in Articles on Confederate Statue Removal (July 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?”

AHA Signs onto Letter for Increased Funding of International Education and Foreign Language Studies (July 2021)

The American Historical Association has signed onto a letter from the Coalition for International Education to Senators Patty Murray and Roy Blunt supporting increased funding for the US Department of Education’s international and foreign language education programs. The letter strongly recommends funding for International Education and Foreign Language Studies, including for HEA-Title VI and Fulbright-Hays 102(b)(6) programs, that would restore them to their FY 2010 levels, adjusted for inflation.

AHR Announces New Additions to Board of Editors (July 2021)

The American Historical Review has announced the following additions to the Board of Editors, for three–year terms beginning July 1: Hannah Barker (Arizona State Univ.), Shelly Chan (Univ. of California, Santa Cruz), Kalani Craig (Indiana Univ.), Cymone Fourshey (Bucknell Univ.), Atina Grossmann (Cooper Union), Eric Tagliacozzo (Cornell Univ.), Josh Reid (Univ. of Washington), and Wendy Warren (Princeton Univ.). The Board of Editors reviews manuscripts and serves as an advisory council on all matters relating to the journal.

AHA Member Publishes Book on History, Film, and Video Games (July 2021)

In June 2021, AHA member Alyssa Goldstein Sepinwall (California State Univ., San Marcos) published her third book, Slave Revolt on Screen: The Haitian Revolution in Film and Video Games, with the University Press of Mississippi. Slave Revolt on Screen analyzes how films and video games from around the world have depicted slave revolt, focusing on the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804). 

AHA Statement on LGBTQ+ History Curriculum Featured in New Republic Article (June 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.

AHA’s Criteria for Standards in History/Social Studies/Social Sciences Featured in South Florida Sun Sentinel Article (June 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.”

AHA Member Featured in Washington Post Article (June 2021)

AHA member Adam Goodheart (Washington Coll.) was featured in a Washington Post article by Michael E. Ruane. The article explains how Goodheart and others organized to keep 18th–century historical documents local and make them accessible to researchers.

AHA-FDU Survey Featured in Media Coverage (June 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.”

Elementary School Named in Honor of AHA Member (June 2021)

The Conroe Independent School District in Texas has approved naming a new elementary school in honor of AHA member Annette Gordon-Reed. Gordon-Reed is the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University, and is a graduate of Conroe High School. Gordon-Reed Elementary is scheduled to open in August 2022.

AHR Article Awarded Honorable Mention for SHAFR’s Bernath Scholarly Article Prize (June 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.”

AHA Executive Director Featured in Media Discussing History Curricula in Schools (June 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. 

Joint Statement Opposing “Divisive Concepts” Legislation Featured in Media Coverage (June 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.

Joint Statement on Legislative Efforts to Restrict Education about Racism in American History (June 2021)

The American Association of University Professors, the American Historical Association, the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and PEN America have authored a joint statement stating their “firm opposition” to legislation, introduced in at least 20 states, that would restrict the discussion of “divisive concepts” in public education institutions. It is not possible to address divisions that exist, however, without an honest reckoning with their histories. “The clear goal of these efforts is to suppress teaching and learning about the role of racism in the history of the United States,” the letter explains. Education proceeds from exploration, facts, and civil debate. “These legislative efforts,” on the other hand, “seek to substitute political mandates for the considered judgment of professional educators, hindering students’ ability to learn and engage in critical thinking across differences and disagreements. . . . Americans of all ages deserve nothing less than a free and open exchange about history and the forces that shape our world today.” In total, 155 organizations have signed onto the statement.

AHA Members Honored by 2021 Pulitzer Prizes (June 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Marcia Chatelain, who won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for History for Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. In addition, AHA member Amy B. Stanley was named a finalist in the Biography category for Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World. The full list of winners and finalists, including more historians, is available on the Pulitzer Prizes website.

AHA Member Awarded Robert F. Kennedy Book Award (June 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Claudio Saunt, who has been awarded the 2021 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for his book Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory. The Robert F. Kennedy Book Award is given annually to a book that “most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy's purposes-his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity.”

AHR Featured in Nation Article on Tulsa Race Massacre (June 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.

AHA Member Publishes Book on Ulysses Grant (June 2021)

In February 2021, AHA member and presidential historian Louis L. Picone published his third book, Grant’s Tomb: The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant and the Making of an American Pantheon, with Arcade Publishing. Grant’s Tomb tells the story of the last year of Ulysses S. Grant’s life and the national response to his death, including the competition over his final resting place and the memorial that would be built there.

AHA Member Publishes Book on History of Pirates (June 2021)

In February 2020, AHA member Jamie L. H. Goodall’s first book, Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay: From the Colonial Era to the Oyster Wars, was published with The History Press. Pirates of the Chesapeake Bay shares the story of piracy “from the harbor of Baltimore to the shores of Cape Charles,” featuring well-known historical pirates and local figures.

Hiring: AHA Research and Publications Assistant (June 2021)

Join our collaborative team of staff dedicated to promoting history and the work of historians. The AHA is accepting applications for a research and publications assistant. We will begin reviewing applications on June 15, 2021.

AHA Member and Perspectives Article Featured on Slate (June 2021)

AHA member Dina Kalman Spoerl (Naper Settlement) was featured in a Slate article, “‘This Blue Is the One She Wore Last,’” on May 30, 2021. The Slate article shares photos and excerpts from the scrapbook introduced in Spoerl’s April 2021 “Clothing Scrapbook” contribution to Perspectives on History’s “Everything Has a History” series.

AHA Member and Perspectives Article Featured on Slate (June 2021)

AHA member Dina Kalman Spoerl (Naper Settlement) was featured in a Slate article, “‘This Blue Is the One She Wore Last,’” on May 30, 2021. The Slate article shares photos and excerpts from the scrapbook introduced in Spoerl’s April 2021 “Clothing Scrapbook” contribution to Perspectives on History’s “Everything Has a History” series.

AHA Executive Director Quoted in Article on Roadmap to Educating for American Democracy (May 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in a Hechinger Report article published at NBC News, “Can Critical Race Theory and Patriotism Coexist in Classrooms?” about divisions in how to approach history and civics curricula. “If people are fighting about history, that shows that it’s important,” Grossman said. “It’s what historians want them to do.”

AHA Releases Statement on LGBTQ+ History Curriculum (May 2021)

In response to recent legislative efforts and existing anti-LGBTQ+ laws in several states, the AHA has released a statement opposing “efforts to restrict the teaching of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer history in elementary, middle, and high schools.” “The failure to teach LGBTQ+ history,” the statement argues, “distorts the historical record, harms LGBTQ+ students specifically, and prevents all students from receiving a complete education.” The AHA supports “expanding access to LGBTQ+-inclusive history curricula and greater protections for history teachers who include LGBTQ+ history in their classrooms.”

AHA Member Awarded Faculty of the Year Award (May 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Hardeep Dhillon, who, along with Zachary Nowak, has been awarded the 2021 Faculty of the Year Award by the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. The award is granted to faculty members who have gone above and beyond their responsibilities to make Harvard a more inclusive place.

National Coalition for History Issues Statement Opposing “Divisive Concepts” Legislation (May 2021)

The National Coalition for History (NCH) has released a statement opposing the passage of so-called “divisive concepts” legislation currently under consideration in numerous state legislatures. NCH “deplores the intent of these bills to foment confusion and have a chilling effect on teachers,” the statement said. “We denounce such bills as thinly veiled attempts to place limits on a curriculum which fosters a comprehensive and critical look at our history from a variety of perspectives.” The NCH provides leadership in history-related advocacy. The AHA is a member of the Coalition, and AHA representatives serve on its executive committee.

AHA Letter on Texas Education Bill Featured in Houston Chronicle (May 2021)

The AHA’s recent letter objecting to Texas House Bill 3979, legislation regarding the social studies curriculum in Texas public schools, was featured in a Houston Chronicle article about historians’ opposition to the bill.

AHA Issues Letter Objecting to Texas Bill (May 2021)

The AHA has written a letter to Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick and the members of the Texas Senate registering strong objection to Texas House Bill 3979, urging them to “reject this misguided, harmful, and unnecessary piece of legislation.” The letter describes how the bill would likely endanger Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment programs in Texas public schools. “The actual purpose” of the bill, the AHA writes, “is about whitewashing American history, keeping to the margins (or excluding altogether) such central issues as slavery; forced removals of Native Americans; inequalities based on race, gender, or other characteristics; and other aspects of our past likely to inspire the vigorous discussion that characterizes a good history class. . . . To deny Texas students the opportunity to discuss these issues openly and freely is to deny them their rightful place as citizens of the United States, and of the world.”

AHR Featured on National Public Radio (May 2021)

An NPR article by Suzanne Perez 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 Perez’s article, Denning discussed historically themed video games such as Call of Duty: World War II, their potential applications in teaching history, and ways the public might use them to connect with history. 

AHA Endorses Letter for Increased Funding of International Education and Foreign Language Studies (May 2021)

The American Historical Association signed onto a letter from the Coalition for International Education to Representatives Rosa DeLauro and Tom Cole supporting increased funding for the US Department of Education’s international and foreign language education programs. The letter strongly endorses a bipartisan letter from 116 House members recommending increased funding for International Education and Foreign Language Studies, including for HEA-Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs at their FY 2010 levels as adjusted by inflation. 

Inside Higher Ed Publishes Article by Former AHA President and Current Executive Director (May 2021)

Former AHA president Mary Beth Norton (Cornell Univ.) and AHA executive director Jim Grossman have published an opinion piece in Inside Higher Ed, “Everything Has a History — but Only for the Elite?” TThe op-ed examines the recent decision by Aston University (UK) to dissolve its history department in the context of a broader attack on humanities teaching. “Especially at nonelite universities, governing boards and administrators have mistakenly assumed that history and other humanities subjects do not prepare students for jobs,” Norton and Grossman write. “History, like other humanities disciplines, might not prepare students for particular jobs. But it prepares them for a life of careers. Students who learn to think historically will be lifelong learners. In the 21st–century economy, that is rather practical indeed.” 

AHA Members Named Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellows (May 2021)

Congratulations to the graduate students who have been named Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellows, including AHA members Gili Kliger (Harvard Univ.), Sherri Sheu (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, and councilor, at large, AHA Council), and Kristine Wright (Princeton Univ.). The Newcombe Fellowship, awarded by the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, is the nation's largest and most prestigious award for PhD candidates in the humanities and social sciences addressing questions of ethical and religious values.

AHA Member Wins Book Prizes (May 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Thavolia Glymph (Duke Univ.), who has won the 2021 John Nau Prize for the best book in the American Civil War Era for her book The Women’s Fight: The Civil War Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nation. The Women’s Fight also won the Tom Watson Brown Book Award from the Society of Civil War Historians and the Watson-Brown Foundation. She will be presented the award during the Southern Historical Association's November annual meeting. Glymph is a past member of the AHA Nominating Committee. 

AHA Member Awarded Whiting Public Engagement Seed Grant (May 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Tasha Rijke-Epstein (Vanderbilt Univ.), who has won a 2021-22 Whiting Public Engagement Seed Grant for her project “Archiving Waste: Community Histories of Race and Environmental Justice in Nashville.” 

AHA Signs onto MESA Statement on Florida Bill (May 2021)

The AHA has signed on to a Middle East Studies Association statement opposing a Florida bill (HB233), approved by both houses and awaiting the governor’s signature, that would allow “students to record in classrooms without the consent of their professors.” The bill would also mandate “the State Board of Education and the Board of Governors to conduct an assessment of the ‘intellectual freedom and viewpoint diversity’ at every institution in the Florida College System.” The statement notes that the proposed law “constitutes a legislative intrusion that will have a chilling effect on the free exchange of opinions it claims to enhance” and would limit “students’ abilities to express their views freely in an open environment.” 

AHA Members among SAH Awardees and Fellows (May 2021)

Congratulations to AHA members Lonnie Bunch (Smithsonian Institution), who was awarded the Society of American Historians’ (SAH) Tony Horwitz Prize “honoring distinguished work in American history of wide appeal and enduring public significance”; Christopher Tomlins (Univ. of California, Berkeley), for winning the Francis Parkman Prize “honoring literary merit in the writing of history” for In the Matter of Nat Turner: A Speculative History; and Brianna Nofil (Coll. of William and Mary), who won the Allan Nevins Dissertation Prize for "Detention Power: Jails, Camps, and the Origins of Immigrant Incarceration, 1900-2002." And congratulations to the five AHA members newly elected as fellows of the SAH: Daina Ramey Berry (Univ. of Texas, Austin), Crystal N. Feimster (Yale Univ.), Madeline Y. Hsu (Univ. of Texas, Austin), Claire Bond Potter (New School), and Claudio Saunt (Univ. of Georgia). 

AHA Members Named Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellows (May 2021)

Congratulations to AHA members Ariela Gross (Univ. of Southern California) and Tiya Miles (Harvard Univ.), who were announced as Harvard Radcliffe Institute Fellows for 2021-22. 

AHA Members Named 2021 Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders (May 2021)

Congratulations to AHA members Mike Amezcua (Georgetown Univ.) and Gema Karina Santamaria Balmaceda (Loyola Univ., Chicago), who have been named 2021 Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders. The awards support junior faculty, and 11 scholars were selected for the 2021 cycle.

AHA Member Accepted into Academic Leadership Institute (May 2021)

Reginald K. Ellis, councilor on the AHA’s Professional Division, has been accepted into the Academic Leadership Institute, a partnership between the University of Michigan and The New School. Ellis is an associate professor of history and the assistant dean in the School of Graduate Studies and Research at Florida A&M University.

AHA Signs Letter Opposing DHS Records Schedules (May 2021)

The AHA signed on to a letter drafted by Open the Government to Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas requesting the withdrawal and reevaluation of the Department of Homeland Security records schedules authorizing the destruction of records of abuse, neglect, and misconduct.  On March 12, 2021, a federal judge invalidated one of these records schedules, ruling that NARA failed to evaluate the long-term interests in the ICE records expressed by members of Congress, advocacy organizations, historians, and others. DHS and NARA are now considering their next steps, both in this case and with respect to other DHS records destruction schedules.

AHA Endorses Letter for Congressional Title VI Enhancements (April 2021)

The American Historical Association signed onto a letter from the Coalition for International Education to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). The letter expressed support for the bipartisan re-authorization of the Higher Education Act and the inclusion of enhancements to Title VI in the bill.

AHA-FDU Survey Featured in Time (April 2021)

In Time, AHA member Pete Burkholder and AHA deputy director Dana Schaffer report on the findings of a recent national survey “of people’s understandings and uses of the past.” The survey is a collaboration between the American Historical Association and Fairleigh Dickinson University, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the full results will be released later this summer. While “the survey data suggest the divisions are real when it comes to how we think about our collective past,” Burkholder and Schaffer write, “our findings offer a possible path out of the history wars by changing the focus from what sets of facts are taught to how they are taught.” The survey was also featured in a Time article by Olivia B. Waxman in June 2021, “‘Critical Race Theory Is Simply the Latest Bogeyman.’ Inside the Fight Over What Kids Learn About America's History.” 

AHA Member Appointed Newberry Library Vice President (April 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Laura McEnaney, who has been appointed the Newberry Library's vice president for research and academic programs. McEnaney is the AHA’s vice president, Teaching Division. She is will be joining the Newberry from Whittier College in California, where she is professor of history. 

AHA Member Appointed Director of NEH’s Division of Preservation and Access (April 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Briann G. Greenfield, who has been appointed the director of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Division of Preservation and Access. Greenfield joins the NEH from the Harriet Beecher Stowe Center in Hartford, CT, where she served as executive director. 

AHA Members Named 2021 Andrew Carnegie Fellows (April 2021)

Congratulations to AHA members Beth L. Bailey (Univ. of Kansas) and Francoise N. Hamlin (Brown Univ.), who have been named to the 2021 class of Andrew Carnegie Fellows. The program “provides philanthropic support for scholarship in the humanities and social sciences that addresses important and enduring issues confronting our society.” 

AHA Member Named Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellow (April 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Brandon Morgan (Central New Mexico Community Coll.), who has been named a Mellon/ACLS Community College Faculty Fellow for 2021. The program “offers faculty teaching at two-year colleges support for research, pedagogy, and community engagement projects in the humanities and interpretive social sciences,” and 28 scholars were awarded fellowships in the 2021 cycle. 

AHA Signs Joint Letter Registering Alarm about Georgia Voting Restrictions (April 2021)

The AHA and nine other scholarly societies have sent a letter to convention bureaus in Georgia to “register our alarm and disappointment about the passage of SB 202” and its voting restrictions. “The grave concerns we share about this legislation,” the letter reads, “force us to reconsider whether we can in good conscience bring our meetings to your state. . . . As it stands, it will be difficult for us and our members to consider coming to Georgia in the future should the law remain in place.” 

AHA-FDU Public Engagement with History Survey Featured on History News Network (April 2021)

At History News Network, AHA member Peter Burkholder reported on some interesting trends revealed in a national survey recently conducted by the AHA and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the survey explored public engagement with history and showed that Americans prefer to “get information about the past” through video more than any other source.  The full results of the survey will be published later this summer on the AHA website. Burkholder also spoke about the survey in an interview with WCCO radio (Minneapolis) in May 2021. 

AHA President Quoted in New York Times (April 2021)

AHA president Jacqueline Jones (Univ. of Texas, Austin) was quoted in a New York Times article, “A New Benefit Raises an Old Question: Which Mothers Should Work?” about the expansion of the child tax credit. 

AHA Members Named 2021 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellows (April 2021)

Congratulations to the 11 AHA members who were awarded 2021 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowships, which support the final year of dissertation research and writing: Bobby Cervantes (Univ. of Kansas), Robert Christensen (Georgetown Univ.), Augusta Dell’Omo (Univ. of Texas, Austin), Ashley Dennis (Northwestern Univ.), Abdulbasit Kassim (Rice Univ.), Lucia Luna-Victoria Indacochea (Univ. of California, Davis), Andrea Rosengarten (Northwestern Univ.), Briana Royster (New York Univ.), Zoya Sameen (Univ. of Chicago), Madina Thiam (Univ. of California, Los Angeles), and Kelsey Utne (Cornell Univ.). 

AHA Executive Director Quoted in Article on the Great Migration (April 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in a Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal article by Danny McArthur on the history of the Great Migration and racial violence in the South. “The country is reshaped,” Grossman said. “When 7 million people move from one region to two other regions, the West and the North, every aspect of national life is affected.” 

AHA Managing Editor Featured in Podcast (April 2021)

AHA managing editor Laura Ansley spoke with AHA member Christina Gessler on the New Books Network podcast The Academic Life for the episode “An Inside Look at the American Historical Association: An Interview with Laura Ansley.” According to the episode description, “In this episode you’ll hear about: Laura’s reasons for leaving academia, the path to her job at the American Historical Association, what the AHA is, how the insurrection on the US Capital on January 6th made historians ’relevant,’ and how historians continue to teach both inside and outside academia.” 

AHA Members Elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (April 2021)

Congratulations to the five AHA members were recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences: Carol Anderson (Emory Univ.), Katherine E. Fleming (New York Univ.), Valerie Hansen (Yale Univ.), Keith A. Wailoo (Princeton Univ.), and former AHA Teaching Division vice president Patricia Nelson Limerick (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder). According to the academy, “The 2021 election provides an opportunity to recognize extraordinary people who help solve the world's most urgent challenges, create meaning through art, and contribute to the common good from every field, discipline, and profession.” 

AHA Member to Receive Honorary Degree from Duke University (April 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, who will receive an honorary degree from Duke University during its May 2 commencement ceremony. Higginbotham is the Victor S. Thomas Professor of History and of African and African American Studies at Harvard University, and currently serves as the national president of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. 

AHA Signs onto Amicus Curiae Brief on Records Release (April 2021)

The American Historical Association has signed onto an amicus curiae brief in Lepore v. United States regarding the release of the records of two 1971 Boston, Massachusetts, grand juries that investigated the Pentagon Papers leak. Although grand jury records are usually kept under seal in perpetuity, 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. Relevant to this case is the AHA’s comment on Rule 6(a), available here.

AHA Members Receive NEH Grants for Humanities Projects (April 2021)

Congratulations to the 13 AHA members who have been named as recipients of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ newest round of grants to support the preservation of historical collections, humanities exhibitions and documentaries, scholarly research, and curriculum projects. The NEH has announced that it awarded $24 million in grants for 225 humanities projects nationwide.

AHA Members Named 2021 ACLS Fellows (April 2021)

Congratulations to AHA members Utathya Chattopadhyaya (Univ. of California, Santa Barbara) and Rachel Nolan (Boston Univ.), who have been named 2021 ACLS Fellows. The ACLS Fellows program recognizes outstanding early career scholars in the humanities and social sciences; 60 fellowships were awarded for the 2021 cycle. 

AHA Member Featured on Dallas News Program (April 2021)

AHA member S. Deborah Kang discussed historical and contemporary immigration policy on To The Point on CBS 11 Dallas. Kang is the Anne Stark and Chester Watson Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Dallas.

AHA Member Named Dean at Oakland University (April 2021)

AHA member Elaine K. Carey has been named dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Oakland University. Carey currently serves as founding dean of the College of Humanities, Education, and Social Science at Purdue University Northwest, and will begin her new role on June 30, 2021. Carey previously served as vice president of the AHA’s Teaching Division. 

AHA Members Named 2021 Guggenheim Fellows (April 2021)

Congratulations to the eight AHA members who have been named Guggenheim Fellows for 2021: Simon Doubleday (Hofstra Univ.), Emily Greble (Vanderbilt Univ.), Michael Gubser (James Madison Univ.), Cindy Hahamovitch (Univ. of Georgia), Amalia Kessler (Stanford Univ.), Bianca Premo (Florida International Univ.), Todd Shepard (Johns Hopkins Univ.), and Heather Ann Thompson (Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor). The fellowships are awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and 184 fellows were selected for the 2021 cycle. 

San Francisco School Board Halts School Renaming Plan (April 2021)

In April 2021, San Francisco’s school board halted plans to change the names of 44 public schools. In February 2021, AHA had expressed alarm regarding the San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee’s process in proposing the school name changes in a statement on Schools, History, and the Challenges of Commemoration. 

Success of Lawsuit to Prevent Sale of National Archives Building in Seattle (April 2021)

The efforts of the AHA and co-plaintiffs in State of Washington et. al. v. Russell Vought et al. have been successful. On April 8, 2021, the Office of Management and Budget withdrew its approval of the sale of the National Archives building in Seattle, stating that “the process that led to the decision to approve the sale of the Federal Archives and Records Center” was contrary to the Biden administration’s tribal-consultation policy. Any future attempt to sell the building must “be preceded by meaningful and robust tribal consultation” and “must proceed through the appropriate administrative process, based on a new factual record, and must comply with the attendant substantive and procedural safeguards of that process.”

AHR Article Featured in Smithsonian Magazine (April 2021)

Monica H. Green's article “The Four Black Deaths,” which appeared in the American Historical Review’s December 2020 issue, was featured in a Smithsonian Magazine article by by David M. Perry. Perry described the significance of the “landmark” article and spoke with Green about her interdisciplinary research process. 

AHA Member Appointed NCCU Provost, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (April 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member David H. Jackson Jr., who has been appointed provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at North Carolina Central University (NCCU). Jackson currently serves as associate provost for graduate education and dean of the School of Graduate Studies, Research, and Continuing Education at Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University, and will begin his new post at NCCU on July 1, 2021. Jackson received the AHA’s 2013 Equity Award, which recognizes and publicizes individuals and institutions that have achieved excellence in recruiting and retaining underrepresented racial and ethnic groups into the historical professions. 

AHA Issues Letter Regarding Proposed Termination of Tenured Faculty Members at Salem State University (April 2021)

The AHA has written a letter to the president and provost of Salem State University strongly discouraging them from proceeding with the reportedly proposed termination of four tenured members in the history department. “This drastic reduction in faculty would severely diminish the department’s ability to maintain the impressive pedagogical and research standards that the department sets for itself and apparently maintains, along with its striking level of engagement with local communities,” the AHA wrote. The letter noted the Salem State history department’s participation in AHA Tuning, the data at Salem State showing history ranked #1 of 30 majors in the “fill rate” of its courses, and the fact that “Salem is a site of considerable historical importance,” making the role of historical work at Salem State “in many ways a special case.”

AHA Statement on Violence against Asians and Asian Americans Featured in Media Coverage (March 2021)

The AHA’s recent Statement on Violence against Asians and Asian Americans has received coverage in several media outlets, including Hyperallergic; the Moultrie News, which reprinted the statement in full; and The Michigan Daily. 

AHA Executive Director Quoted in the New York Times (March 2021)

AHA executive director James Grossman was quoted in a New York Times article by Concepción de León on the life and legacy of Black artist Augusta Savage. “Public art,” Grossman noted, “should align with a community’s values.” 

AHA Member Wins National Book Critics Circle Award (March 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Amy Stanley (Northwestern Univ.), who received the 2020 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography for her book Stranger in the Shogun’s City: A Japanese Woman and Her World. 

Moroccan Historian Released from Prison (March 2021)

Maâti Monjib, historian at the University of Mohammed V in Rabat, has been granted provisional release from prison. In a letter protesting Monjib’s imprisonment, the AHA noted he had been sentenced to one year in prison for charges that appeared to be “baseless, levied more in the interest of a political agenda than honest law enforcement.” 

AHA Member Wins Mark Lynton History Prize (March 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member William G. Thomas III (Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln), who received the Mark Lynton History Prize from the J. Anthony Lukas Project for his book A Question of Freedom: The Families Who Challenged Slavery from the Nation's Founding to the Civil War. 

AHA Members Meet with President Biden (March 2021)

AHA members Joanne Freeman (Yale Univ.) and Annette Gordon-Reed (Harvard Univ.) were among a group of historians who met with President Joe Biden on March 2 in the East Room at the White House. According to Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei at Axios, the president and the historians “talked a lot about the elasticity of presidential power, and the limits of going bigger and faster than the public might anticipate or stomach.” 

AHA Members Win Bancroft Prizes (March 2021)

Congratulations to AHA members Andy Horowitz (Tulane Univ.) and Claudio Saunt (Univ. of Georgia), who have been awarded the 2021 Bancroft Prizes in American History and Diplomacy, awarded by Columbia University Libraries. Horowitz received the award for his book Katrina: A History, 1915-2015, and Saunt for his book Unworthy Republic: The Dispossession of Native Americans and the Road to Indian Territory. 

Perspectives on History Article Reprinted in Hill Rag (March 2021)

AHA Issues Statement on the History of Violence against Asians and Asian Americans (March 2021)

The AHA has issued a statement deploring the recent incidents of violence and harassment aimed at Asians and Asian Americans. “This hostility against particular groups because of their ethnic origins—expressed via cultural stereotypes, scapegoating, physical aggression, and bloodshed—has deep roots in our nation’s past,” the AHA writes. “The murder in Atlanta of eight people on March 16, including six women of Asian descent, suggests that we have not transcended this history.” From 2019 to 2020, the number of hate crimes committed in the United States against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders increased by 150 percent. “The racialized misogyny explicit in the Atlanta killings is the product of generations-long stereotyping and cultural denigration against Asian American women in particular.”

45 organizations have signed onto the statement to date.

AHA’s Lawsuit Challenging ICE Records Disposition Covered by News Organizations (March 2021)

The AHA’s participation as plaintiffs in a successful lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has received coverage from the American Independent, Business Insider, and The Hill. The lawsuit challenged NARA’s approval of ICE’s records disposition, which would have authorized ICE to destroy several categories of records documenting mistreatment of immigrants detained in ICE custody.

AHA Director of Research and Publications Featured in KKTV11 News Segment (March 2021)

AHA director of research and publications Sarah Weicksel was featured in a KKTV11 news segment on the effort to restore the name of Devils Tower, a national monument in Wyoming and “sacred, hallowed ground” to at least 15 tribal nations, to Bear’s Lodge.

AHA Expresses Support for the New Orleans City Council Street Renaming Commission (March 2021)

In a letter to the City Council of New Orleans, the AHA expressed enthusiastic support for the work of the New Orleans City Council Street Renaming Commission and its final report, “a remarkable document of collaborative historical research.” The letter praised the process undertaken by the Renaming Commission and its consultation with historians, including many AHA members. The letter urged “all localities undertaking this kind of process to recognize that it is indeed possible to listen to a broad spectrum of voices, and not just the loudest, angriest, or most powerful.”

AHA Protests Imprisonment of Moroccan Historian (March 2021)

The AHA recently sent a letter to King Mohamed VI and Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani of Morocco protesting the imprisonment of Maâti Monjib, historian at the University of Mohammed V in Rabat. Monjib was sentenced to a year in prison for charges that appear to be “baseless, levied more in the interest of a political agenda than honest law enforcement,” and is on a hunger strike. The letter urges “the release of Dr. Monjib and the respect of his civil and legal rights,” and asks for “immediate attention to this matter to ensure Dr. Monjib’s health and well-being.” 

AHA Member Erika Lee to Testify before Congress (March 2021)

On March 18 at 10 a.m. ET, AHA member Erika Lee will testify before the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties at a hearing on Discrimination and Violence against Asian Americans. Lee is Regents Professor of History and Asian American Studies and director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota.

AHA Letter to John Carroll University Leaders Featured in Ideastream (March 2021)

Ideastream reported on the recent decision by John Carroll University’s Board of Directors to add a “budgetary hardship” amendment to the university’s Faculty Handbook, a de facto elimination of tenure. The article cited the AHA’s letter to JCU leaders urging them to reconsider the decision. 

Success of Lawsuit Challenging ICE Records Disposition (March 2021)

The American Historical Association joins co-plaintiffs Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations in sharing the success of our lawsuit against the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The lawsuit challenged NARA’s approval of ICE’s records disposition, which would have authorized ICE to destroy several categories of records documenting mistreatment of immigrants detained in ICE custody. On March 12, 2021, Judge Amit Mehta granted summary judgment on the challenged aspects of ICE’s records destruction plan. The court also made clear that during its records evaluation process, NARA must pay close attention to the records' long-term research value and must meaningfully consider public comments raising concerns. 

AHA Member Featured in Washington Post Live Event (March 2021)

AHA member Erika Lee was featured in a Washington Post Live event, “Race in America: History Matters with Erika Lee & Helen Zia.” The two interviewees spoke with national reporter Michelle Ye Hee Lee about how anti-Asian racism has taken different forms over the course of American history. 

AHA Member Featured on NPR Show 1A (March 2021)

AHA member Katrina Phillips (Macalester Coll.) was a featured guest on the NPR program 1A regarding Rep. Deb Haaland’s nomination for secretary of the Department of the Interior. She discussed what the appointment means for the department and its relationship with Native Americans.

AHA Member Named as AAPSS Fellow (March 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Carol Anderson (Emory Univ.), who was named the American Academy of Political and Social Science’s 2021 W. E. B. DuBois Fellow.

AHA Expresses Concern over John Carroll University Policy Permitting Elimination of Tenure (March 2021)

The AHA has issued a letter to leaders of John Carroll University expressing “grave concern about the recent approval by [the] Board of Directors of a ‘budgetary hardship’ amendment to the university’s Faculty Handbook,” noting that “both faculty governance and the integrity of tenure seem to be hanging by a thread.” The AHA urged the board “to reconsider the threat to tenure protections” that the amendment represents.

ACLS Letter to Iowa Lawmakers Featured in The Gazette (March 2021)

The Gazette reported on a letter the American Council of Learned Societies sent to Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and state legislative leaders on March 4. The letter, which was signed by the AHA and more than 30 other scholarly societies and associations, strongly encouraged lawmakers to oppose House File 496 and Senate File 41, “which would remove the status of tenure for professors and discontinue the practice at Iowa’s three public universities.” 

AHA Executive Director Featured in Inside Higher Ed Article (March 2021)

AHA executive director James Grossman was quoted in an Inside Higher Ed article on “Recruitment Strategies for the Humanities” by Colleen Flaherty. “There’s no reason for professors not to help undergraduate students realize that a history major prepares a student for multiple career paths,” Grossman said. “The AHA and its members pay considerable attention to not only the value of a history major, and of history courses to students in other majors, but also how we can best communicate that value to students.” The article also linked to the AHA’s Department Advocacy Toolkit, which offers data, stories, and strategies to articulate the value of studying and majoring in history.

Hiring: AHA Communications and Operations Assistant (March 2021)

Join our collaborative team of staff dedicated to promoting history and the work of historians. The AHA is accepting applications for a Communications and Operations Assistant. We will begin reviewing applications on March 22, 2021.

AHA Signs onto ACLS Letter Urging Iowa Legislature to Vote against Bill Eliminating Tenure (March 2021)

The AHA signed onto a letter sent by the American Council of Learned Societies to members of the Iowa legislature and Gov. Kim Reynolds. The letter strongly encouraged lawmakers to oppose House File 496 and Senate File 41, “which would remove the status of tenure for professors and discontinue the practice at Iowa’s three public universities.”

AHA Issues Letter of Support for Institute of Political History in Hungary (February 2021)

The AHA sent a letter to János Áder, president of the Republic of Hungary, expressing “deep concern about recent government actions against the Institute of Political History,” including “unfounded attacks on our colleagues,” “eviction from its new premises,” and “defunding.” The AHA “urges the Hungarian government to reconsider the misguided steps that have already been taken to the detriment of the institute and to safeguard its premises, support its activities, and vouchsafe its independence now and in the future.”

AHA Members Selected to Join the Institute for Advanced Study (February 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.

AHA Endorses Educating for American Democracy Initiative (February 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.”

Former AHA Executive Director Wins SHFG Award (February 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.

Lawsuit by AHA and Co-Plaintiffs Successfully Halts Sale of NARA Facility in Seattle (February 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.

Justice Department Strengthens Presidential Records Retention Policy in Response to AHA Lawsuit (February 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.

AHA Expresses Alarm at University Press of Kansas Financial Cuts (February 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.”

AHA Statement on Virtual Scholarly Exchanges in India Receives International Press Coverage (February 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.

AHA Member Book Becomes #1 New York Times Bestseller (February 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.

AHA Signs Onto MESA Statement Protesting Turkey's Attacks on Higher Ed (February 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.”

AHA Member Wins Dan David Prize (February 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. 

AHA Member Awarded Digital History Grant (February 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Brandon Jett (Florida South-Western State Coll.), who was recently awarded a grant from the American Society for Legal History for his digital history project “Lynching in LaBelle.” The digital history project will include primary and secondary sources with information related to the 1926 lynching of Henry Patterson, biographies of those involved in the trial, official documents from the investigation, court records, and other artifacts that Jett and three students in his African American history course have collected.

AHA Issues Letter Expressing Concern for Polish Historians (February 2021)

The AHA sent letters to Polish leaders Andrzej Duda, Mateusz Morawiecki, Jarosław Kaczyński, and Jarosław Gowin expressing concern about recent legal proceedings against Barbara Engelking and Jan Grabowski, two historians convicted of libel regarding their co-edited book, Night Without End. In the letter, AHA emphasized that “a legal procedure is not the place to mediate historical debates” and urged Polish leaders to “uphold the rights of historians to investigate the past without legal harassment and with no fear of reprisals for making public their historical- and evidence-based findings.” In August 2021, a Polish appeals court dismissed the claims against Engelking and Grabowski.

AHA Expresses Alarm at San Francisco School Renaming Process (February 2021)

The AHA issued a statement expressing alarm regarding the San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee’s process in proposing changing the names of 44 public schools. The committee “showed little interest in consulting professional historians, relying instead on Wikipedia articles and cursory glances at other online sources.” The AHA is “not advising the people of San Francisco on the substance of their decisions,” the statement clarified. Instead, the AHA urged the San Francisco School Board to “begin this process anew, inviting broader public participation, enlisting the expertise of professional historians, and encouraging a robust debate about the way historical figures and events should or should not be memorialized via school naming practices.”

AHA Signs Onto ASEEES Statement Calling for Immediate End to Libel Trial of Polish Historians (February 2021)

The AHA has signed onto the Association for Slavic, East European, & Eurasian Studies statement calling for an end to the trial of historians Jan Grabowski (Univ. of Ottawa) and Barbara Engelking (Polish Center for Holocaust Research), who are charged with libel for their 2018 co-edited book, Night without End: The Fate of Jews in Selected Counties of Occupied Poland. The trial “strikes at the very core of academic and intellectual freedom,” and the statement calls for a “clear and unambiguous repudiation of the legal and political strategy that allowed such a trial to go forward in the first place.”

AHA Executive Director Featured in Voice of America (February 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman provided historical context in a Voice of America article on the second impeachment of former US president Donald Trump. “This has never happened before, this questioning of the legitimacy of an election by people whose own party leadership and elected officials have said was fair and clean,” said Grossman. “And when you pair that with an insurrection, a mob attacking the Capitol, clearly we have a large number of Americans who are alienated from the political institutions that constitute our democracy.”

AHA Executive Director Featured in The 19th News (February 2021)

The 19th News interviewed AHA executive director Jim Grossman in an article regarding attempts by lawmakers to limit the teaching of race and slavery. “You cannot heal divisions by pretending they don’t exist,” said Grossman. “The way to address divisions is to understand the history of those divisions.” The interview was also quoted in an article by John Nichols for The Nation.

AHA Opposes New Policy on Virtual Scholarly Exchanges in India (February 2021)

The AHA issued a statement registering concern about a new policy issued by India’s Ministry of Higher Education/Department of Higher Education that “requires Indian scholars and administrators to obtain prior approval from the Ministry of External Affairs if they want to convene online or virtual international conferences, seminars, or trainings.” The AHA states that this policy islikely to “affect a wide range of scholarly exchanges that are critical to the free international expression of ideas” and “strongly maintains that government agencies should not intervene in the content of scholarly exchange.” 26 organizations have signed onto the statement.

AHA Executive Director Featured in Associated Press Article (February 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in an Associated Press article on political attempts to limit how race and slavery are taught. “The idea of simply saying you’re not going to use certain materials because you don’t like what they’re going to say without input from professionals makes no sense,” said Grossman.

Perspectives on History Editor Featured in Inside Higher Ed (February 2021)

Perspectives on History editor Ashley E. Bowen's March "Townhouse Notes" column was republished in Inside Higher Ed. “It is not history’s primary job to provide comfort in times of crisis or solace in times of anxiety,” writes Bowen. “Historians offer context and nuance in times when those things are in short supply, often asking us to check our assumptions and refine our critiques.”

AHA Posts to Federal Register Regarding Proposed NARA Digitization Policies (February 2021)

The AHA sent comments to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on the proposed rule “Federal Records Management: Digitizing Permanent Records and Reviewing Records Schedules.” The AHA “strongly support[s]”  the requirement that “every five years, agencies review records schedules which are ten or more years old.” The AHA also recommends that NARA “require the involvement of subject matter experts in each review process undertaken with an agency” and “regularly draw on the expertise of staff members throughout the agency who have appropriate subject backgrounds and training.” The AHA also judges NARA “to have exceeded the requirements of federal law by stating that records will be accepted ONLY in digital form,” which could “delay, interrupt, or delay indefinitely the transfer of records.” 

AHA Member Publishes Book (February 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Larry E. Rivers (Florida A&M Univ.), who recently published the book Father James Page: An Enslaved Preacher’s Climb to Freedom. 

AHA Executive Director Comments on San Francisco Schools Renaming Plan (February 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in a Mission Local article by Joe Eskenazi on a proposal to rename 44 San Francisco schools, after the renaming committee did not request comments from any historians. “Yes, there should have been historians involved,” said Grossman. “Whenever decisions are made, there should be people who can provide context and facts. We've learned this with COVID.” 

AHA Member Wins Book Prize (February 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Serena Zabin (Carleton Coll.), whose book The Boston Massacre: A Family History won the 2020 Book of the Year Award from the Journal of the American Revolution.

AHA Urges California Legislature to Amend AB1887 for Scholars (January 2021)

The AHA sent a letter requesting that the California State Legislature amend the list of exceptions to AB1887, a law that bans state-funded travel to specified states with anti-LGBTQ laws. While the AHA “support[s] the principles underlying AB1887,” it is concerned that the boycott “restricts the work of graduate students and early career scholars, preventing them from completing research that would actually showcase the significance of LGBTQ life, among other pressing subjects, in targeted states.”  The AHA urged the legislature to “permit state-funded travel for research and educational initiatives related to the discipline of history, broadly conceived, including LGBTQ culture, health, law, and politics.”

AHA Signs onto ACLS Statement Urging Kansas Board of Regents to Uphold Employment Protections for Faculty (January 2021)

The AHA has signed onto a statement by the American Council of Learned Societies urging the Kansas Board of Regents to withdraw its endorsement of a proposed policy that would “ease the path to suspending, dismissing, or terminating employees, including tenured faculty members, without undertaking the processes of formally declaring a financial emergency.” The AHA also sent a letter to the University of Kansas regarding this issue.

AHA Issues Letter Urging University of Kansas to Preserve Employment Protections for Faculty (January 2021)

The AHA issued a letter urging the University of Kansas to reject a Kansas Board of Regents policy that would “temporarily allow public institutions of higher education to terminate or suspend employees, including tenured faculty, without declaring a financial emergency.” “As historians,” the AHA wrote, “we are especially aware of what can happen when principles of academic freedom in higher education lose the essential protection of tenure.” The university should “reject this extraordinary departure that would enable the university to enact drastic and arbitrary personnel actions while bypassing the process of formally declaring financial emergency.”

AHA Issues Letter of Concern Regarding History Program and Faculty Cuts at University of Evansville (January 2021)

The AHA issued a letter expressing grave concern regarding the proposed removal of the history major and termination of two tenured history professors at the University of Evansville. Calling the process leading to the proposed cuts “an especially striking embarrassment for an institution whose stated values emphasize ‘a culture of trust,’” the AHA urged the university to “consider the educational and community impacts of this short-sighted plan for realignment, which will serve to weaken the preparation of your students for the global citizenship imperative to economic and civic accomplishment, as well as the lifelong learning essential to professional success.”

AHA Statement Condemning “1776 Report” Featured in Media Coverage (January 2021)

The AHA’s statement condemning the Report of the Advisory 1776 Commission has been featured in The Guardian, the Las Vegas Sun, the Moultrie News, Politico, Revolt.tv, the Christian Post, Commons Dreams, Detroit Free Press, Statehouse Report, The Philadelphia Tribune, and Daily Beast.

AHA Executive Director Featured in Hechinger Report (January 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was interviewed in a Hechinger Report article on whether the US educational system is responsible for the rise in political extremism. “You can’t blame the teachers and starve the teachers at the same time,” said Grossman. “We’ve starved our public schools, so you can’t say it’s the fault of the public schools unless you say it’s the fault of the American public for refusing to pay the taxes required to support an effective educational system.”

AHA Member Discusses Teaching History in US Schools on NPR (January 2021)

AHA member Hasan Kwame Jeffries (Ohio State Univ.) appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered to discuss how American schoolchildren learn about US history. In 2020, Jeffries won the AHA’s James Harvey Robinson Prize for his book Understanding and Teaching the Civil Rights Movement.

AHA Staff Member Featured in AccuWeather Article (January 2021)

AHA communications and marketing manager Jeremy C. Young was recently featured in an AccuWeather article on inclement weather during historical US presidential inaugurations. Young explained that one of the reasons behind switching the date of the inauguration from March to January was weather related: “It supposedly snows less often on Jan. 20 than on March 4 in Washington, DC.”

AHA President and Executive Director Discuss 1776 Report (January 2021)

AHA president Jacqueline Jones (Univ. of Texas at Austin) and AHA executive director Jim Grossman wrote an editorial in the New York Daily News discussing the report of the 1776 commission, which Grossman and Jones describe as “political propaganda masquerading as history.”

AHA Member Interviewed on Public Radio East (January 2021)

AHA member Robert DeLossa (Lowell High School) appeared on Public Radio East, where he explained how he teaches students about the inauguration. DeLossa also discussed the AHA’s statement on the report of the Advisory 1776 Commission, as well as comments by the National Council for the Social Studies, of which he is also a member. 

Former AHA President Discusses Book on NPR (January 2021)

Former AHA president Tyler Stovall (Fordham Univ.) appeared on NPR to discuss his recently published book White Freedom: The Racial History of an Idea. 

AHA Condemns Report of Advisory 1776 Commission (January 2021)

The AHA has issued a statement condemning the report from “The President’s Advisory 1776 Commission.” “Written hastily in one month after two desultory and tendentious ‘hearings,’” the AHA writes, “without any consultation with professional historians of the United States, the report fails to engage a rich and vibrant body of scholarship that has evolved over the last seven decades.”

47 organizations have signed onto the statement.

AHA Executive Director Comments on White House 1776 Report (January 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in the 74, Colorado Springs Independent, Independent, Inside Higher Ed, New York Times, NBC News, Politico, Stuff, Washington Post, and KITV4 ABC commenting on the report issued by the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission. “It’s a hack job. It’s not a work of history,” Grossman told the Post. “It’s a work of contentious politics designed to stoke culture wars.”

AHA Member Wins Susan Socolow-Lyman Johnson Prize (January 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member S. Elizabeth Penry (Fordham Univ.), whose book The People Are King: The Making of an Indigenous Andean Politics won the Conference on Latin American History’s Susan Socolow-Lyman Johnson Prize. Penry’s book previously won the Flora Tristán Prize awarded by the Peru Section of the Latin American Studies Association.

AHA Members Comment on Presidential Legacy in Washington Post (January 2021)

AHA members Joseph Crespino (Emory Univ.) and Ruth Ben-Ghiat (New York Univ.) were featured in a Washington Post article on the Trump presidency and its potential legacy. 

AHA Members Comment on Trump’s Legacy (January 2021)

AHA members Kathryn Cramer Brownell (Purdue Univ.), Jeffrey Engel (Southern Methodist Univ.), and Timothy Naftali (New York Univ.) were featured in a CNN article on the last year of the Trump presidency and the lasting impact it will have on Trump’s legacy. 

AHA Member Wins Eric Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics (January 2021)

Congratulations to Bathsheba Demuth (Brown Univ.), whose book Floating Coast: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait recently won the inaugural Eric Zencey Prize in Ecological Economics from the Gund Institute for Environment at the University of Vermont, in partnership with the US Society of Ecological Economics.

AHA Member Publishes First Book (January 2021)

Congratulations to Kimberly D. Hill (Univ. of Texas, Dallas), who published her first book, A Higher Mission: The Careers of Alonzo and Althea Brown Edmiston in Central Africa (Univ. Press of Kentucky). A Higher Mission examines the ministries of two African American Presbyterian missionaries by focusing on what they learned from their African neighbors and how they applied their historically Black higher education.

AHA Member Featured in CNN and C-SPAN (January 2021)

AHA member Thomas Balcerski (Eastern Connecticut State Univ.) has become a frequent contributor in the national conversation on presidential politics this election season. His work includes articles in CNN’s opinion section and an appearance on C-SPAN’s Lectures in History series. 

AHA Resource Covered in Inside Higher Ed and New York Times (January 2021)

The AHA’s Twitter thread that compiled resources for educators seeking to contextualize the events of January 6 received coverage in both the New York Times and Inside Higher Ed. This list of resources is also available as a web page.

Ransacking Democracy (January 2021)

The AHA issued a statement condemning “the actions of those who, on January 6, stormed the United States Capitol, the seat of the nation’s legislature, the heart of its democratic form of governance.” The AHA deplores the “inflammatory rhetoric of all the political leaders who have refused to accept the legitimacy of the results of the 2020 election and thereby incited the mob.”

63 organizations have signed onto the statement.

AHA Executive Director Featured in Inside Higher Ed (January 2021)

AHA executive director Jim Grossman was featured in an article in Inside Higher Ed that discussed the January 6, 2021, crisis in the US Capitol. Grossman added historical context to the day’s events, saying, “Everything has a history, and what is happening at the US Capitol is part of a historical process that needs to be understood.” Grossman also noted that the rioters are “people whose historical sensibilities have been nurtured by popular culture and cynical politicians willing to manipulate bigotry for self-interested purposes.”

AHA Launches “The Assault on the Capitol in Historical Perspective: Resources for Educators” (January 2021)

In response to the events of January 6, 2021, the AHA has compiled a list of resources for educators. We know teaching these events—which are not a “moment,” but the product of a long history—presents a familiar, yet unusually urgent, challenge: how can students use historical knowledge and thinking to understand current crises? This page offers some resources that might help.

AHA Expresses Solidarity with Mexican Historians (January 2021)

The AHA has issued a statement expressing solidarity with “professional historians affected by the extreme and arguably punitive fiscal retrenchment affecting Mexico’s system of higher education.” The AHA “reminds decision makers that the habits of mind and knowledge that derive from the study of history have never been more important and deserving of adequate funding than at the present moment.”

AHA Member Wins Fairfax County History Commission's Mayo Stuntz Prize (January 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Todi Carnes (George Mason Univ.), who won the Fairfax County History Commission’s Mayo Stuntz Prize for her video Huntley Cultural Landscape. The video interprets the cultural landscape of Historic Huntley, a federal-period historic site owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority. 

AHA Member Featured in Washington Post (January 2021)

2009 AHA Honorary Foreign Member Romila Thapar was featured in a Washington Post article that highlighted her historical scholarship—“part of the authoritative canon” in India—while discussing some of the political controversies surrounding it. In 2019, the AHA issued a statement discouraging Jawaharlal Nehru University’s review of Romila Thapar’s status as emeritus professor, citing her “extraordinary record of scholarly achievement.”

AHA Joins Coalition to Save National Archives Facility in Seattle (January 2021)

The AHA has joined the Washington state attorney general’s office; the state of Oregon; 29 tribes, tribal entities, and Indigenous communities from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska; and 8 community organizations, historic preservation organizations, and museums in filing a lawsuit “to halt the federal government’s unlawful and procedurally deficient sale of the National Archives at Seattle facility.” The government plans to transfer the Seattle facility’s records, most of which have not been digitized, to archive centers in Kansas City, Missouri, and Riverside, California—rendering public access to the records difficult if not impossible for millions of users.

AHA Staff Featured in Wall Street Journal (January 2021)

AHA director of academic and professional affairs Emily Swafford was featured in a Wall Street Journal article regarding PhD admissions for the fall 2021 cycle. “Historians don’t really say ‘unprecedented,’ because everything has a precedent. But this sort of large-scale pausing is very strange,” said Swafford.

AHA Member Named Chair of Humanities Tennessee (January 2021)

Congratulations to AHA member Daryl Carter (East Tennessee State Univ.), who was elected to chair the board of directors of Humanities Tennessee after serving on the board since 2014.