Actions by the AHA Council, June 2025 to January 2026

Through email communications from June 10, 2025, through December 22, 2025; at teleconferences held on October 8 and 16, November 24, and December 10, 2025; and at meetings on January 8 and 11, 2026, the Council of the American Historical Association took the following actions:

• Endorsed the Organization of American Historians’ Statement in Response to Secretary Order 3431 and Censorship of History in the National Park Service, opposing the secretary of the interior’s order to the National Park Service to revise educational materials, exhibits, and programs to avoid “ideological bias.” The order “represents a clear and troubling intrusion into the integrity of historical presentation within the National Park Service.”
• Appointed Katrina Jagodinsky (Univ. of Nebraska–Lincoln) and Jesse Kauffman (Eastern Michigan Univ.) to the 2027 Annual Meeting Program Committee.
• Approved Ashley Rogers (Whitney Plantation Museum) and Sharlene Sinegal-DeCuir (Xavier Univ. of Louisiana) as co-chairs of the Local Arrangements Committee for the 2027 annual meeting.
• Approved the Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence in History Education.
• Signed on to the American Council of Learned Societies’ Statement Regarding the White House Review of Smithsonian Institution Museums.
• Sent a letter to Governor Kim Reynolds in support of the State Historical Society of Iowa Research Center in Iowa City, slated for closure in December 2025 because of state budget cuts. The AHA alerted Iowa members to this issue.
• Sent a letter to Texas State University president Kelly Damphousse opposing the termination of historian Thomas Alter’s employment without due process after Alter made political comments in his capacity as a private citizen at a nonuniversity event.
• Signed on to a letter from the Coalition for International Education to Secretary Linda McMahon calling for the Department of Education to continue to fund Title VI and Fulbright–Hays programs offering grants for international educational exchange.
• Submitted public comments to the Federal Register regarding the proposed visa restrictions for international students and scholars.
• Sent a letter to Rutgers University president William F. Tate IV and chancellor Francine Conway expressing concern about threats made against Professor Mark Bray that extended to his partner, Professor Yesenia Barragan, both faculty members in the university’s Department of History.
• Approved filing an amicus curiae brief for the Harvard v. Department of Homeland Security lawsuit that is challenging the government’s revocation of the university’s Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification.
• Adopted a policy on Expectations and Guidance for Conducting Business of the AHA Council.
• Approved updates to the AHA Communications Policy.
• Adopted the AHA Advocacy: Call to Action to members highlighting the Association’s advocacy efforts in the past year.
• Established the Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Freedom.
• Established the Ad Hoc Committee to Aid Palestinian Historians.
• Approved updates to the AHA Council Conflict of Interest Policy.
• Revised AHA Bylaw 5 pursuant to Article V to outline a core process for the removal or suspension of a Council member, and adopted corresponding procedures for addressing Council member violations of AHA policies.
• Expanded the Ad Hoc Committee to Aid Palestinian Historians to up to nine members, as needed, to allow for flexibility in ensuring relevant expertise.
• Decided not to place two proposed resolutions on the 2026 business meeting agenda and issued the Response to Proposed Resolutions: Taking Action to Support Historians.
• Approved the minutes of the June 7 and 8, October 8 and 16, and November 24, 2025, Council meetings.
• Updated AHA Bylaws 12 and 15 with the following changes, to take effect at the adjournment of the 2026 business meeting:
  • Changed deadline to submit resolutions for consideration at the business meeting from October 1 to September 1 to provide sufficient time for review before the regularly scheduled fall Council meeting.
  • Clarified format of signatures required for submitting resolutions to ease logistics of confirming membership status.
  • Clarified criteria required for resolutions, specifying that they must adhere to the Constitution’s Article II: Purpose, rather than the Guiding Principles on Taking a Public Stance.
  • Specified formatting requirements for resolutions submitted for consideration at the business meeting, prohibiting motions or resolutions with extensive preambles and/or seeking multiple actions, as recommended in Robert’s Rules of Order.
  • Adjusted when and where resolutions are announced, to provide flexibility for Council review of resolutions and sufficient time for members to make travel arrangements to attend the business meeting, if desired.
  • Clarified Nominating Committee policies, which were approved by Council in 2016 but had not been referenced in the bylaws.
  • Clarified that all candidates for election must acknowledge and abide by Council policies and expectations.
• Approved the minutes of the December 10, 2025, Council meeting and the interim meeting minutes from June 10 to December 22, 2025.
• Approved the 2026 committee appointments, including a slate of candidates to be appointed to the Working Group on Small Liberal Arts Colleges.
• Renewed the Ad Hoc Committee on Artificial Intelligence in History Education for three years.
• Approved updates to the policy on AHA Oversight of the American Historical Review.
• Approved the nomination for the 2027 James M. Banner, Jr., Lecture (to be announced in fall 2026).
• Approved the nomination for the 2026 Honorary Foreign Member (to be announced in fall 2026).
• Reappointed Mark Bradley as editor of the American Historical Review for a five-year term to begin August 2026.
• Approved rules of debate for the 2026 business meeting.
• Vetoed the “Resolution in Solidarity with Gaza” and the “Resolution Opposing Attacks on Core Principles of Education,” which were passed by members at the 2026 business meeting.
• Expanded the Ad Hoc Committee to Support Academic Freedom to up to nine members, as needed, to allow for flexibility in ensuring relevant expertise.
• Updated the charge of the Committee on International Historical Activities and expanded the committee to up to seven members to better reflect and serve the Association’s international activities and needs.