Conducted via AHA Communities Site from January 10–May 15, 2014 and at the Council Meeting on June 2-3, 2014

Through email conversation, from January 10-May 15, 2014, the Council of the American Historical Association made the following decisions:

• Endorsed the December 20, 2013, American Academy of University Professors statement opposing the Kansas Board of Regents Social Media Policy under which faculty and other employees may be suspended, dismissed or terminated from employment for “improper use of social media.”

• Approved a letter to David Ernesto Morales Cruz, the El Salvadorian prosecutor responsible for human rights, condemning the destruction of archives and theft of the computers of the Asociación Pro-Búsqueda on November 14, 2013.

• Approved the appointment of Maria Montoya (New York Univ.) and Douglas M. Haynes (Univ. of California, Irvine) as chair and co-chair of the 2016 Program Committee, respectively.

• Approved a memorandum of understanding for a cooperative initiative with the Social Science Press of China (SSPC), which would provide an annual meeting of editors of historical journals, translations of AHA and SSCP journals, and an annual international seminar for junior scholars.  The terms of the memorandum are contingent upon the AHA securing funding from sources other than the AHA’s own resources.

At the mid-year meeting of the Council of the American Historical Association, held June 7-8, 2014, in Washington, DC, the Council made the following decisions:

• Approved the January 2014 Meeting Minutes

• Approved the January-May 2014 Interim Meeting Minutes

• Appointed the 2016 Program Committee Members: Shannon Bontrager, Georgia Highlands College; David Chang, University of Minnesota; Wendy Eagan, Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, Maryland; Walter Hawthorne, Michigan State University; Kyle Longley, Arizona State University; Steven Miles, St. Louis University; Reinaldo Román, University of Georgia; Natalie Rothman, University of Toronto; Tara Travis, National Park Service; and Andrew Zimmerman, George Washington University

• Appointed the following American Historical Review Editorial Board Members: Randolph Roth, Ohio State University; Sandra Greene, Cornell University; Cynthia Radding, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

• Approved an application for affiliate status from the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in History.

• Approved changes to the Marraro Prize, eliminating the residency requirement for eligibility.

• Selected the 2014 Awards for Scholarly Distinction (names will be publicized in the November issue of Perspectives on History)

• Approved the AHA’s operating and capital budgets for the 2014-15 fiscal year.

• Approved a joint nomination with the American Anthropological Association for the American Council of Learned Societies 2016 Haskins Prize Lecture (nominee to be publicized if the scholar is selected).

• Approved revisions to the John E. O’Connor Film Award description, including:
  • Offering the prize in two categories, dramatic feature and documentary.
  • Requiring that nominated films have at least one additional endorsement from AHA members, including members of the prize committee.
  • Providing a screening of the winning films at the annual meeting film festival, if permissions can be obtained.

• Approved a revision to item 4.2.B. of the Annual Meeting Guidelines to read: “Participants may appear on no more than two sessions at the annual meeting. These two appearances must be in two different roles. Roles include, but are not limited to: presenting a paper in a formal session, participating in a roundtable, presenting at an experimental session, presenting a poster, and chairing and/or commenting on a session. Participation in a plenary session stands outside this limitation.”

• Approved a letter to Jonathan Jarvis, Director of the National Park Service, in response to the decision to relocate the National Archives for Black Women’s History collection from the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historical Site to the National Park Service’s Museum Resource Center in Landover, MD.  The letter urges that the collection should be housed on the historic site as envisioned in the authorizing legislation and encourages the site’s renovation to a standard adequate to the preservation of the records and to utilization of the collection by researchers.

• Approved addition to the AHA’s Guidelines for the Hiring Process stating that “The AHA considers it unacceptable to record or videotape any employment interview activity that takes place in conjunction with the AHA’s Annual Meeting.”

This post first appeared on AHA Today.