The AHA is monitoring conversations in the media regarding the incoming administration’s appointments to positions directly related to the work of the AHA and historians in general. As I have indicated elsewhere, the AHA maintains a tight advocacy focus: we speak out when issues relate directly to our mission, the practice (and abuse) of history, and the work of historians. Since 2020, the AHA has engaged in 190 separate instances of advocacy on behalf of the historical discipline, through letters, statements, legal briefs, testimonies, and other means.
We acknowledge the privilege of all administrations to appoint people whose ideas and policies accord with elected leadership. But we will speak out if proposed appointees to positions directly related to our mission lack the requisite professional competence or integrity expected of public officials. And we will continue to speak out when we perceive threats to funding, access, academic freedom, and the integrity of history instruction, while keeping our members informed about how they can most effectively support the interests of historians.
~Jim Grossman, AHA executive director