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The latest activity of the AHA and historians in supporting history and historical thinking.

  • AHA Congressional Briefing on History of US-China Relations (September 2023)

    Sep 21, 2023 - 

    The American Historical Association (AHA) will host a Congressional Briefing on the history of relations between the United States and China. The briefing will take place on September 29 at 9 AM ET in Rayburn House Office Building Room 2044. Moderator Tobie Meyer-Fong (Johns Hopkins Univ.) and panelists Kenneth Pomeranz (Univ. of Chicago), Shellen Xiao Wu (Lehigh Univ.), and Tim Weston (Univ. of Colorado, Boulder) will provide historical context essential to policy formation and analysis on US-China relations. A breakfast spread and coffee will be served.

  • AHA Council Member Discusses Teaching US History with Ken Burns for TIME (September 2023)

    Sep 14, 2023 - 

    AHA Council member Katharina Matro (Walter Johnson High School) joined documentarian Ken Burns in a conversation for TIME about teaching “complete history” in K–12 schools at a time when concerns about and legislation banning or limiting “divisive concepts” still dominate classrooms in many US states. “History is about learning how people make decisions in difficult or less difficult circumstances and then deciding . . . how would I have acted, what would I have done?” Matro said. “I think we can ask that question in all kinds of circumstances, and it gives us tools for making decisions ourselves and interrogating ourselves and holding ourselves accountable. And that's what I would want students and children to take away from history education.”

  • AHA Signs On to ACLS Statement Opposing Major Cuts to West Virginia University Programs (September 2023)

    Sep 14, 2023 - 

    The AHA has signed on to a statement from the American Council of Learned Societies opposing proposed major cuts to West Virginia University (WVU) undergraduate and graduate programs across multiple departments. “By proposing [these] cuts . . . the university is denying its students and the people of West Virginia access to the wide range of knowledge necessary to fulfill that mission,” the ACLS wrote. “The path WVU is treading is unprecedented for a public flagship and dangerous for American higher education and society.”

  • AHA Signs On to CIE Letter Urging HEA-Title VI Funding for FY 2024 (September 2023)

    Sep 14, 2023 - 

    The AHA has signed on to a letter from the Coalition for International Education to leaders in the US House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations expressing “concern over reported deep reductions to the US Department of Education’s International Education and Foreign Language Studies account in the Labor, HHS, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill approved by the Subcommittee before the recess.” The letter urges the committee to fund HEA-Title VI and Fulbright-Hays programs to at least the same amount that that was provided in FY 2023. “The economic well-being and national security of the United States depend substantially on its citizens’ ability to communicate and compete by knowing the languages and cultures of other countries,” the CIE writes. “[T]his funding is crucial for our nation’s prosperity and safety.”

  • AHA Congressional Briefing Aired on C-SPAN (September 2023)

    Sep 08, 2023 - 

    The AHA’s July 28 Congressional Briefing on immigration on the southern US border was aired on C-SPAN and is available for streaming. During the briefing, Geraldo Cadava (Northwestern Univ.), Nara Milanich (Barnard Coll., Columbia Univ.), and Mae Ngai (Columbia Univ.) presented historical perspectives on the southwestern border as the main site of controversy over immigration to the US. 

  • AHA Releases Statement on Florida’s African American History Standards (August 2023)

    Aug 21, 2023 - 

    The AHA has released a statement on the Florida Department of Education’s new African American history standards, based on executive director Jim Grossman’s op-ed that was recently published in the Miami Herald. “What is the purpose of denying young people as comprehensive a history as possible?” the statement reads. “[T]he remedy for discomfort is not to marginalize the lasting effects of legal, economic, social, and cultural institutions that condoned the buying and selling of other humans for nearly 250 years. Our work as historians is chock-full of stories that can inspire students and readers without obscuring essential concepts. All facts and narratives require context; in the United States, slavery and racism are contexts that cannot be dismissed as ‘mere deviations.’”

  • AHA Members Awarded NEH Grants (August 2023)

    Aug 18, 2023 - 

    Congratulations to the 25 AHA members who were awarded NEH grants as part of the $41.3 million for humanities projects across the country announced by the NEH on August 15. “These 280 new grant awards underscore the wide range of exemplary, fascinating, and impactful humanities work that scholars, practitioners, and institutions are conducting in all corners of the country,” said NEH chair Shelly C. Lowe.

  • AHA Executive Director Publishes Miami Herald Op-Ed on New Florida Education Standards (August 2023)

    Aug 15, 2023 - 

    AHA executive director Jim Grossman has published an op-ed in the Miami Herald on the Florida Department of Education’s new African American history standards, which “miss the crucial point when it comes to American slavery: The institution was grounded in property rights, and that property was human.” Grossman wrote, “In high school, the curriculum mentions‘contributions’ 23 times (55 in the full K-12 document) without one mention of ‘white supremacy’ and only a single reference to ‘lynching.’ Students will learn about the exploits of patriotic Black soldiers without learning why none of these warriors were awarded the Medal of Honor during World War I or II. . . . [T]he remedy for discomfort is not to ignore or marginalize the lasting effects of legal, economic, social, and cultural institutions that condoned buying and selling other humans for nearly 250 years.”

  • AHA Executive Director Quoted in NBC News Article on Hillsdale College (August 2023)

    Aug 03, 2023 - 

    AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in an NBC News article by Tyler Kingkade about Hillsdale College’s growing influence as a resource for conservatives overhauling K–12 education policy. “What they’ve done is they’ve simply left stuff out in an attempt to shape a vision of patriotism,” Grossman said of Hillsdale’s “1776 Curriculum.” “What they also are trying to do is replace an approach to teaching that teaches students how to think with an approach that teaches the students what to think.”

  • AHA Executive Director Quoted in Christian Post Article on Backlash to Hillsdale Curriculum (August 2023)

    Aug 03, 2023 - 

    AHA executive director Jim Grossman was quoted in a Christian Post article by Samantha Kamman about the backlash to Hillsdale College’s conservative “1776 Curriculum” for K–12 schools. The article also cited the AHA’s April 2023 letter to the South Dakota Board of Education expressing concerns about the state’s social studies standards, which failed to meet the AHA’s Criteria for Standards in History/Social Studies/Social Sciences after being reworked in a partisan political environment by a a retired Hillsdale professor.

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