By Nike Nivar, Allen Mikaelian, Robert B. Townsend, and Pillarisetti Sudhir

Today’s roundup of interesting articles and links from around the web includes a video interview of AHA president William Cronon on C-SPAN, Jay Martin discussing “Tenure, Promotion, and the Publicly Engaged Academic Historian,” why museums need to be “yarnbombed,” and more.

In the News

• Professor William Cronon Explains Environmental History at OAH in Milwaukee
  The AHA’s president discusses his specialty with C-SPAN in this short video. 
• College Dropouts Have Debt but No Degree
  The Washington Post contributes to the ongoing conversation about student loan debt by reminding us that nearly 30 percent of borrowers dropped out of their schools. 
• Facing Facts: Taking Stock of the Completion Agenda’s Benefits, and Limits
  Inside Higher Ed reports on the “completion agenda” aimed at higher education, and its critics. According to the president of Valencia College in Florida, “Putting learning before completion has been good for us.”

Discussion Points

• Workload and the Engaged Historian
  Jay Martin at History@Work discusses “Tenure, Promotion, and the Publicly Engaged Academic Historian,” a report by the OAH, NCPL, and AHA, and “would like to engage the readers of [History@Work] in an effort to quantify workload for the Engaged Historian.”
• Reading Politics and the Politics of Reading
  Recent fallout from a controversial cartoon in an Indian political science textbook stirs debate about the role of democratic institutions in academic life. The discussion continues here.

A Look Back

• Scholars Look at Civil War Anew during Anniversary
  “Nearly 150 years after the last fusillade of the Civil War, historians, authors and museum curators are still finding new topics to explore as the nation commemorates the sesquicentennial of America’s bloodiest conflict,” according to an Associated Press report.
• Historians: La. had Emancipation Role
  Mary Foster explores Louisiana’s role in emancipation. She writes, “In May 1862, the fall of New Orleans to Union forces triggered a dash for freedom as thousands of slaves sought refuge with the occupying army.”

Miscellaneous

• This Amazing America
  From the Prelinger Archives, history as cringe-inducing romantic comedy. In this movie a patronizing professor travels the U.S. by bus with a sexist stereotype in this cinematic oddity.
• Yarnbombing Museums: Blow the Doors Down
  The Center for the Future of Museums explains why your museum needs to be “yarnbombed.” 

This post first appeared on AHA Today.