Letters of Introduction: A Valuable Tool when Conducting Overseas Research - June 23, 2009
By Matthew Keough
It is sometimes difficult to gain access to institutions while doing research abroad. This is why the American Historical Association (AHA) writes Letters of Introduction to assist researchers in gaining access to foreign research facilities, special collections, and government archives.
Article By: Matthew Keough
In Memoriam: Philip D. Curtin, 1922–2009 - June 05, 2009
By Pillarisetti Sudhir
The eminent historian of Africa and AHA president, Philip D. Curtin, died yesterday (June 4, 2009) at the age of 87.
A Survey of Public History Professionals - October 06, 2008
By Robert B. Townsend
The AHA is currently participating in a Survey of Public History Professionals (SPHP), with seven other historical organizations to learn a bit more about the demographics, training, employment conditions, and expectations of public history practitioners.
Article By: Robert B. Townsend
Training, Discernment, and Oral History Review - September 29, 2008
By Robert B. Townsend
In a letter sent today to the federal Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP), the American Historical Association asks for care in the implementation of new and more rigorous training and education programs for Institutional Review Boards (IRBs).
Article By: Robert B. Townsend
The American Historical Association’s Ranking of Presidents - August 30, 2008
By Robert B. Townsend
A journalist contacted me yesterday asking me for “the AHA’s historical ranking of presidents.” The answer is quite simple—there isn’t one…
Committee Considers Revisions to Oral History Guidelines - August 26, 2008
By Robert B. Townsend
A committee of the Oral History Association was recently tasked with revising their oral history Evaluation Guidelines…
Advisory Response from the Professional Division - August 26, 2008
By Robert B. Townsend
In response to a history department chair feeling pressure from his administration to count grant funding the same as an article in a peer reviewed journal, vice president David Weber, after consultation with the full Division, offered the following advisory response…
Trained to Review Oral History? - August 13, 2008
By Robert B. Townsend
The federal Office of Human Research Protections (OHRP) recently invited comments on education and training programs for institutional review boards (IRBs), which poses a difficult question for members of our discipline—would a more consistent and effective training program make matters better or worse for oral history?
Links, Spaces, and Changing Habits of Historical Research - June 16, 2008
By Robert B. Townsend
A significant underlying problem in the recent controversy over the European Reading Room is the declining numbers of researchers in the Library of Congress reading rooms. Staff at the library could not provide me with specific numbers, but they did confirm my anecdotal impression (as someone who has used the library regularly over the past 23 years) that there has been a sharp decline in the number of people using their resources on site. So if researchers are not at the library, where are they?
Worrisome News in the Life Cycle of History PhDs - May 14, 2008
By Robert B. Townsend
As the school year draws to a close, the new Perspectives on History features two articles on the life cycle of history PhDs that are not very cheering…
Doing Public History U.K. Style - February 05, 2008
By Debbie Ann Doyle
Doing Public History, a new web site and electronic journal, attempts to “promote public debate about the nature and role of history in Britain.” The site notes the relative lack of public discourse about the past in the U.K. when compared to the United States and Australia, where national debates about the role of the past are common. It calls for a sustained discussion about the relationship between the academic historian and the public.
The Feds and IRBs: Your Opportunity to Weigh in - November 06, 2007
By Robert B. Townsend
The federal government is inviting comments on policies that lead to the intrusion of institutional review boards (IRBs) into oral history research. This provides a rare opportunity for members of our profession to register their objections.
Finding the Right Word: New AHA Policies for Adding and Deleting Membership Categories - August 23, 2007
By Robert B. Townsend
As the dustup last fall about the deletion of “psychohistory” from our membership taxonomy indicated, inclusion on the AHA’s list of membership categories can be highly political—serving in many eyes as a mark of standing in the discipline.
Unfortunately, this sets up two competing problems. The taxonomy needs to be open to the emergence of new areas in the discipline, but it also needs to be functional in a variety of contexts—for members trying to identify themselves, historians trying to find a specialist for a meeting panel, or members of staff trying to offer a coherent profile of the membership.
Public History Defined? - June 05, 2007
By Debbie Ann Doyle
At its annual meeting in Santa Fe, which took place April 12 to 15, the Board of Directors of the National Council on Public History announced that it had crafted a definition of public history as: “a movement, methodology, and approach that promotes the collaborative study and practice of history; its practitioners embrace a mission to make their special insights accessible and useful to the public.”
History Teachers Association in Europe Asks for Better Leave Policy - May 14, 2007
By Pillarisetti Sudhir
In a statement issued on Wednesday, May 9, 2007, the board of EUROCLIO, the European Standing Conference of History Teachers’ Associations, called upon national authorities and school principals in Europe to provide a better leave policy to enable history teachers to travel abroad to receive professional training and participate in conferences.
Off the Record… - May 07, 2007
By David Darlington
We at the AHA spend a lot of time wondering about what happens after a job ad appears in Perspectives and the applicants and potential employers finally come together either at the Job Register or on campus. The Academic Careers Wiki gives a unique view of the whole process.
Guidelines for Job Offers in History - March 21, 2007
By Elisabeth Grant
In case you missed it, the recent March issue of Perspectives contains an important statement on Guidelines for Job Offers in History, created by the Professional Division and approved by the Council at the 2007 Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
History Salary Growth Lags Behind other Disciplines - March 15, 2007
By David Darlington
The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) recently released the latest salary figures for faculty members. Overall, college and university professors saw their median salaries rise 3.8% in the 2006-07 academic year, compared to 3.4% last year and 3.2% in the year prior. Median salaries rose higher for public institution faculty (3.9%) than they did for faculty at private institutions (3.7%).
AHA Council Decides on Public Policies and Professional Issues - January 12, 2007
By Robert Townsend
In addition to the resolutions adopted at the annual business meeting, the governing Council of the American Historical Association adopted a number of other policy and professional resolutions at its meeting this past weekend in Atlanta, Georgia.
A Wake Up Call for the Humanities - December 21, 2006
By Robert Townsend
Even though some of the specifics differ from our discipline, the new Modern Language Association report on scholarship for tenure and promotion offers a wake up call about the health of the humanities in higher education.
What Is a History Major Worth? - December 01, 2006
By Robert Townsend
The answer, it turns out, may be a bit more than you think. Money.com recently reported that the history majors from the class of 2006 earned an average of $33,071 (a 4.2 increase over the year before). That was more than 5 percent above the average for students who majored in the fields of English, sociology, and psychology…
Future Past - November 05, 2006
By Robert Townsend
As part of the preparations for our Working Group on the Future of the AHA, the staff scanned and posted a number of previous committee efforts along the same lines.
Thinking Ahead - October 30, 2006
By Robert Townsend
The Working Group on the Future of the AHA will be meeting at the end of this week, so this would be a good time to offer your thoughts on where you think the AHA (and by extension, the profession) is headed. Bill Chafe’s article in this month’s Perspectives goes into more detail about how the committee will work, and what they hope to accomplish.
Draft Ethics for Public History - October 20, 2006
By Robert Townsend
Members of the National Council of Public History, and anyone interested in the development of public history, will be interested in a new draft Code of Ethics and Professional Standards.