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President Obama’s College Affordability Plan
Last week, President Obama offered a proposal to help make higher education more affordable, specifically addressing the increases in tuition…
Can We Cut Our Way to Quality?
As American colleges and universities open another academic year, President Obama has given a major address on higher education. The…
A Narrow Proposal at a Time of Crisis
President Barack Obama, in his speech at the State University of New York at Buffalo on August 22, promised to…
Doing Something—But What?
President Obama’s approach to college affordability is not new. In fact, it seems to come from a 1988 episode of…
From Crisis to Crisis: Costs Only Part of the Problem
I listened intently to President Obama’s speech in Buffalo last week. The president’s assessment of the state of higher education…
What Obama Should Have Said: An Alternate Text
At the University of Michigan, the nearly unremitting decline in the share of the state appropriation in the university’s general…
Real Value in Higher Education
Bravo, President Barack Obama. Thank you for changing the conversation about the priorities for higher education in the United States.…
Quality of Education: High Schools, MOOCs, and Mentors
On August 22, 2013, President Barack Obama outlined many of the problems that plague higher education, particularly increasing tuition rates…
Historians’ Perspectives on Web Ethics
How is the web, particularly social media properties like Twitter, changing the way scholars communicate and form connections with each…
Dialogue Is Crucial
Additional responses to the roundtable can be found here. If a scholar gives a poorly received talk, should it be…
You Get the Behavior You Settle For
Additional responses to the roundtable can be found here. Anyone who has taught a class, trained a dog, or raised…
Cultivating Civility
Additional responses to the roundtable can be found here. At The Way of Improvement Leads Home I am constantly dealing…
Special Challenges of Online Scholarship
Additional responses to the roundtable can be found here. Although civility and ethical behavior online are issues as old as…
US v. Windsor: Historians Discuss the Defense of Marriage Act
Just over one year ago, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, and Perspectives on…
What the Supreme Court Did Not Say in Its Windsor Decision
The Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Windsor is rightfully hailed as an important milestone in the fight for equality. The…
The Changing Meanings of Marriage: Windsor in Historic Context
Most Americans saw the US Supreme Court’s decision in Windsor, which overturned the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), solely in terms…
History’s Relevance: The DOMA Opinion and the Historians’ Amicus Brief
Justice Anthony Kennedy came through. As many people hoped, he gathered a majority of the court to strike down the…
Reflections on “It’s a Small World After All”
This is part of an online forum on a survey of historians’ research interests by Luke Clossey and Nicholas Guyatt. A…
Peripheral Vision: The Authors’ Response
This is part of an online forum on a survey of historians’ research interests by . A description of the…
Supporting an Expanded View
This is part of an online forum on a survey of historians’ research interests by Luke Clossey and Nicholas Guyatt. A…
Widths Within and Without
This is part of an online forum on a survey of historians’ research interests by Luke Clossey and Nicholas Guyatt.…
Not “Them,” but “Us”
This is part of an online forum on a survey of historians’ research interests by Luke Clossey and Nicholas Guyatt. A…
Historical Thinking Needs Global Engagement
This is part of an online forum on a survey of historians’ research interests by Luke Clossey and Nicholas Guyatt.…
Historians’ Perspectives on Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
As a community of historians, the AHA believes that public discourse on any topic benefits from historical context and historical…
A Relic of the Past? The Supreme Court and Affirmative Action
In 1950, the US Supreme Court ruled in Sweatt v. Painter that the University of Texas Law School had violated the clause…
Fisher v. UT Austin: Affirmative Action under a Microscope—and on Life Support
On July 24, 2013, the very day that testimony began in the George Zimmerman trial in Sanford, Florida, the United…
Diversity: Integration’s Poor Step-Child
Here’s a quick quiz, culled from this week’s front pages: name an American politician who supports “diversity” in American higher…
AHA Roundtables on SCOTUS Decisions in Special Summer Online Issue of Perspectives on History
As we have often tried to demonstrate, we at the AHA believe that public discourse on any topic benefits from…
AHA Member Spotlight: Sheila McManus
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Historians Among the List of 2013 National Archives Research Fellows
The National Archives recently announced the winners of the 2013 Regional Fellowship Program. Six fellows were chosen to conduct research…
Why National History Day Matters More than Ever
Not many 16-year-olds spend their off-school time sitting in a dusty archive, weeding through original railroad records. Nor do they…
A Historian’s Guide to the Smithsonian Folklife Festival
For longtime Washingtonians, the Smithsonian’s Folklife Festival is a beloved tradition, one that demonstrates what’s best about our public support…
Earned Citizenship
Currently, people become U.S. citizens in three main ways: they are born in the states or territories, they derive their citizenship from their American…
Action Items by the AHA Council
Through email conversation, from February 20-May 15, 2013, the Council of the made the following decisions: Approved an AHA amicus…
An Evening at the American Academy’s Launch of the Heart of the Matter
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences released its report on the humanities last Wednesday night at a highly visible…
AHA Member Spotlight: Daniel Bessner
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
National Archives Launches Founders Online Research Tool
The National Archives announced on Friday the launch of Founders Online, a free research tool that allows researchers to electronically…
New Schedule for the Award Ceremony and Presidential Address at the Annual Meeting
The AHA will experiment with a new schedule for the award ceremony and the presidential address at the 2014 Annual…
What’s in the June AHR?
The June issue of the American Historical Reviewis now online, and will soon appear in member’s mailboxes. Below is an…
AHA Member Spotlight: Chuck Wooldridge
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Grant/Award of the Week: Immigrant and Ethnic History Dissertation Award
Deadline: November 15, 2013 The Immigration and Ethnic History Society announces its first annual award for an outstanding dissertation in…
The Web Wants to Know: Questions for Historians on Social Media and Wikipedia
In what may become a regular feature on this blog, we hope to collect and link to some of the…
AHA Member Spotlight: Molly A. Warsh
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
The AHA Supports Russian Scholars
During its June 2 meeting, the AHA Council drafted the following statement in support of the Association for Slavic, East…
Summer Tips for Visiting Archives
Few things can compare with the rich and rewarding hours spent in the archives, gingerly thumbing through documents and reading…
Introducing AHA Today: 3.0
Today we are excited to introduce a new version of AHA Today. We’ve simplified the design to make it easier…
AHA Member Spotlight: James Wolfinger
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
New York Times Covers AHA Statement Advocating Options for PhD Students
This morning the New York Times introduced to a wide audience the recent AHA statement recommending that PhD recipients be…
Why Put at Risk the Publishing Options of Our Most Vulnerable Colleagues?
William Cronon is Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of…
AHA Member Spotlight: Julio Cesar Pino
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Q&A on the AHA’s Statement on Embargoing of History Dissertations
The AHA’s Statement on Policies Regarding the Embargoing of Completed History PhD Dissertations has generated wide discussion, controversy, articles in…
Flipping Pedagogy
The language of pedagogy is changing. University administrators, politicians, scholars, and teachers embrace this new lexicon of MOOCs, hybrids, and…
AHA Hires a Director of Scholarly Communication and Digital Initiatives
The American Historical Association is pleased to announce the appointment of Seth Denbo as its first director of scholarly communication…
American Historical Association Statement on Policies Regarding the Embargoing of Completed History PhD Dissertations
In their June 2013 meeting, the AHA Council drafted a statement on policies regarding best practices for embargoing completed history…
Historians among the List of ACLS Public Fellow Winners
The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) recently announced the 2013 ACLS Public Fellows, a program which places recent humanities PhDs…
AHA Releases Statement
The issues the following statement regarding the recently released email correspondence of former Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and his staff…
AHA Member Spotlight: Bennett S. Stark
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Third Annual Summer Reception Wrap-Up
On Tuesday July 9, the American Historical Association hosted its third annual summer reception at our Capitol Hill headquarters, with…
AHA 2013 Grant Winners
Each year, the American Historical Association awards several research grants with the aim of advancing the study and exploration of…
AHA Roundtable: Is the Wider World in Historians’ “Peripheral Vision”?
Are historians still largely interested in their own nations, cultures, and societies, at the expense of the wider world? Data…
Fall Job Ads Now Online
For those looking to get an early start on the job search for the 2014–15 academic year, many ads that…
Watch Historians Edward Ayers and Natalie Zemon Davis Receive National Humanities Medal
For those who may have missed the 2012 National Medals of Arts and Humanities ceremony, the White House Blog has just…
Web 2.0 Coming to a Repository Near You
Social media produced by federal agencies could be arriving at an archive or federal repository near you, reveals a recent…
Do Babies Matter in the Historical Profession?
In 2010, the AHA’s Committee on Women Historians conducted a survey on academic career paths in history, contacting all associate…
The VAF at “Land’s End”: The Conference as Practice
It’s par for the course for conference attendees to arrive with a story of difficulty—flights missed, hotel reservations lost, WiFi…
AHA Member Spotlight: Robert W. Foster
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Historians among the List of 2012 National Humanities Medals
President Barack Obama, on behalf of the National Endowment for the Humanities, will present the 2012 National Humanities Medals to…
Third Annual AHA Summer Reception is Today!
The AHA cordially invites visiting researchers and friends of the Association to attend the third Annual AHA Summer Reception at…
Digital History Abounds: A Roundup of Recent NEH Grant Projects
With the recent proliferation of the digital humanities (DH) in and outside the academy, we thought it might be useful…
Controversy Continues at the New York Public Library
The New York Public Library houses one of the great research collections in the world – especially, though certainly not exclusively,…
AHA Council Spotlight: Elaine Carey
To accompany our ongoing AHA Member Spotlight we have introduced an AHA Council Spotlight series featuring short interviews with our…
AHA Roundtable: Historians Discuss the Defense of Marriage Act Ruling
Just over one year ago, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling on the Affordable Care Act, and Perspectives on…
Nothing Is Certain: The Case for Keeping an Open Mind in Admissions
I heartily recommend Leonard Cassuto’s recent article in the Chronicle on graduate school completion rates. If we admit to our…
New NEH Google Hangout Series
The National Endowment for the Humanities(NEH) is launching a new Google Hangout Series that explores the connections between STEM and…
AHA Member Spotlight: Martha S. Jones
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Historians from Outer Space
Tourist season is winding down, but you’re in town and you decide to see what’s left of the big shows…
AHA Roundtable on President Obama’s College Affordability Plan
Last week, President Obama offered a proposal to help make higher education more affordable, specifically addressing the increases in tuition…
The Tenure Clock and the Biological Clock?
In 2010, the AHA’s Committee on Women Historians conducted a survey on academic career paths in history, contacting all associate…
AHA Member Spotlight: Allan W. Austin
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Building Digital Humanities Projects for Everyone
Earlier this summer, we profiled a few recipients of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ (NEH) Digital Humanities Start-Up Grants…
History Hashtags: Exploring a Visual Network of Twitterstorians
As most of the history community returns to work from summer vacation and research trips, it seems like an apt…
AHA Member Spotlight: Marty Blatt
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
AHA Member Spotlight: Benjamin Nathans
AHA members are involved in all fields of history, with wide-ranging specializations, interests, and areas of employment. To recognize our…
Natalie Zemon Davis, the FBI, and the Work of Historians
A few years ago I suggested at a conference on working-class history that it was time to put aside the…
What I Do: Historians Talk about Their Work
So, you’re in graduate school, you’ve chosen history, but you realize the academy is not for you. You’d like to…
49% Cut to NEH Budget Still on the Table: Contact Your Representatives
We know that the AHA and our counterparts in other disciplines might seem like the proverbial “boy who cried wolf”…