This fall, the AHA has taken a variety of steps to support the work of historians and defend academic freedom.
We responded to a federal proposal to privilege academics who align with the administration’s misguided view of “patriotic education” at the expense of those who maintain a nuanced, unvarnished approach to history. The AHA submitted a comment to the Federal Register on the Department of Education’s patriotic education priorities and sent an action alert calling on members to do the same. The AHA also sent a letter to the president and chancellor of Rutgers University in support of a history professor and his partner (also a professor at the university) following threats made against them. In Texas, we called on our members to make their voices heard as the Texas State Board of Education revises the state standards for social studies. Finally, the AHA announced the establishment of two ad hoc committees supporting historians in distress, one on academic freedom and one on aiding Palestinian historians.
On November 6, we issued an Advocacy Call to Action, reminding members of the AHA’s extensive work in support of history and its importance and urging them to join their voices with ours to amplify our work and to join our new Community Action and Resource Exchange network. We continue to update our tracker compiling federal actions affecting history; resources to support foreign scholars, federal historians, and historians under threat; and our compilation of amicus briefs, member op-eds, and other media offering historical context for today’s events.
AHA Sends Letter to Rutgers University Addressing Threats Made to History Faculty Members
On October 13, the AHA sent a letter to Rutgers University president William F. Tate IV and chancellor Francine Conway expressing deep concern about recent threats made against Professor Mark Bray that extended to his partner, Professor Yesenia Barragan, both faculty members in the university’s department of history. “The threats against Professor Bray and calls for his firing have no place in an intellectual community governed by mutual respect and constructive criticism. They are part of an escalating effort among some politically motivated groups to suppress the speech, teaching, and scholarship of faculty whose work does not conform to their movement’s ideologies,” the AHA wrote. “We commend Rutgers’ decision to afford Professor Bray and Professor Barragan the ability to relocate and to offer their courses remotely in light of physical threats. We hope you can affirm that such harassment and threats to community safety have no place at Rutgers, as you continue to offer them support and to defend academic freedom.”
AHA Submits Public Comment on Patriotic Education Priorities
On October 14, the AHA sent an action alert, developed in collaboration with the National Council for the Social Studies and the Organization of American Historians, urging members to oppose the Department of Education’s plans to prioritize patriotic education in its discretionary grant programs by submitting comments to the Federal Register.
On October 17, the AHA submitted a comment of our own calling on the Department of Education to “avoid a narrow definition of patriotic education that excludes content, ideas, and perspectives necessary for a full and accurate understanding of the past.” “The founding generation of the United States did not have a shared understanding of their history, their symbols, or their heroes; nor have subsequent generations,” the comment reads. “US patriotism is diverse and multifaceted and it is capacious enough to include even those who are critical and skeptical about patriotism.”
AHA Establishes Two Ad Hoc Committees Supporting Historians
On November 6, the AHA announced the establishment of two ad hoc committees to support historians.
In light of continuing threats to the historical discipline, academic freedom, and freedom of speech, the AHA established the Ad Hoc Committee on Academic Freedom to help the AHA use its authority to convene historians from many institutional backgrounds and other scholars and practitioners with relevant expertise to aid the Association in its work with affiliated societies and other scholarly associations to advocate collectively for academic freedom.
As part of the AHA’s mission to defend, sustain, and enhance the work of historians in the United States and abroad, the AHA established the Ad Hoc Committee to Aid Palestinian Historians to provide guidance for the Association’s efforts to aid Palestinian historians. AHA members have powerfully expressed their desire for concrete action to support the needs of Palestinian historians and students in the wake of the destruction of universities, schools, archives, libraries, and museums in Gaza.
AHA Sends Action Alert on the Texas Social Studies TEKS Revision
On November 14, the AHA sent an action alert to members in Texas regarding the ongoing process to revise the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards for social studies. We encouraged Texans to submit testimony to the State Board of Education and to contact their elected officials to share concerns about attempts to politicize the social studies TEKS. We also encouraged qualified Texans to apply to serve on a work group to help draft new social studies learning standards.
A field guide to the ongoing TEKS revisions has been published on the AHA website. The guide contains information about the TEKS standards, how the revision process works, what has happened in this process so far, and how Texans can get involved in trying to shape the revisions to ensure they are grounded in honest history and designed to support educators in preparing students for success.
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