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AHA in the News

Former AHA president Mary Beth Norton (Cornell Univ.) and AHA executive director Jim Grossmanhave published an opinion piece in Inside Higher Ed, “Everything Has a History — but Only for the Elite?” The 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.”