On January 5, 2023, the AHA Council approved the Guidelines for Broadening the Definition of Historical Scholarship. In most history departments, “scholarship” has traditionally and primarily encompassed books, journal articles and book chapters, and papers presented at conferences. The weight and significance of each of these vary considerably by institution. The most valued coin of the realm remains not just the book—especially for early and midcareer scholars—but a particular kind of book known only in academia and scholarly publishing as a “monograph.” Yet many other categories of books don’t count: textbooks, official histories, anthologies, translations and critical editions, reference books, and more. These have not been deemed to be “creating new knowledge.”
Within this frame, and even at its edges, current practices vary. Different institutions not only have different expectations of quantity but vary according to intellectual priorities and definitional flexibilities. Although it is largely a myth that commercial versus university press matters (so long as there has been peer review), accessibility too often matters too little, and writing for a broader audience can even be viewed as a negative. Scholarship that doesn’t frame a narrative in the context of historiography or theoretical/methodological significance is often permissible only as a second book at best. It is risky, for example, for a tenure or promotion file to rest on synthesis or on experimental scholarship (whether print or digital), such as Theodore Rosengarten’s classic All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw. We are told, “Wait until later”: synthesis awaits seniority; demonstrated expertise before experimentation.
These narrow channels leave too little room for the great range of work that historians do as scholars. Limiting the diversity of scholarly genres limits the diversity of potential scholars. Historical work that lies outside the frame often includes activities most likely to influence public policy or enhance the presence of historians in public culture.
The AHA Council has decided that it is time to map a broader terrain of scholarship, with more flexible boundaries. There are many ways to be a historian, many ways to do historical work.
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