AHA

[history_PhD]

I was wondering if anyone attending the AHA Conference in Boston. I saw a post someone (StrangeLight?) posted regarding friends who attended and interviewed. A few of my professors were there, and I briefly chatted with them about the proceedings.

On a slightly unrelated topic, are any of you members of the AHA? I know I will join once I am in grad school, but I was curious to see if there were any undergraduate members. Also out of curiosity, do departments ever pay the membership fee, or is incumbent upon the student to pay his or her own way? I think this would best be answered via a poll.

Edited January 13, 2011 by history_PhD

[natsteel]

I would've joined by now, but haven't mostly because of funds. I do subscribe to 2 journals, but I will be joining a number of organizations next fall including the AHA, OAH, Society for Historians of the Early American Republic, Society of Early Americanists, and American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.

Lack of funds also made a trip to Boston impossible and I even missed it when it was here in NYC. My mentor told me to just go without paying the fee, but I don't have that kind of nerve.

[Emerson]

I've subscribed for the last two years and have loved it. They have loads of useful tools online that make membership worth it.

I really wish I could have attended AHA this year, but funds kept me away--as well as the fact that my wife and I are expecting our second-born any day now.

[rsldonk]

AHA, I did my first year, not my second year of grad school. Most of these memberships have a student rate, it's usually around $35 or so. While I did join AHA for one year, I have remained a member of WHA (Western History Association) because the host institution for their journal was where I did my MA and I had an editing internship there for a semester and I've gone to their annual conference twice. I am a member of the Western Social Science Association and presented a paper at their conference last year and have been accepted this year. Since most of what I did at the MA level was dealing with Czech history, I joined AAASS (American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies), but since I'm pretty much going to be shifting to straight Western US, I will probably be dropping that.

By way of explanation, Utah State, where I did my MA has a really interesting archive of Czech historical documents and stuff, but no Eastern Europeanist (they had one the year before I got there but he left and has not been permanently replaced as yet due to a hiring freeze). They are very strong in Western US history, being the host institution of the Western Historical Quarterly, so most of my coursework is in Western US. I actually found that some of the discourse in Borderland Studies applied to my work with Czech and German ethnic identities and so I made that sor tof work together. Now at the PhD level I want to go fully into Western US and so that's why I am dropping the Slavic Studies stuff and have always had the Western.

[qbtacoma]

AHA, I did my first year, not my second year of grad school. Most of these memberships have a student rate, it's usually around $35 or so. While I did join AHA for one year, I have remained a member of WHA (Western History Association) because the host institution for their journal was where I did my MA and I had an editing internship there for a semester and I've gone to their annual conference twice. I am a member of the Western Social Science Association and presented a paper at their conference last year and have been accepted this year. Since most of what I did at the MA level was dealing with Czech history, I joined AAASS (American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies), but since I'm pretty much going to be shifting to straight Western US, I will probably be dropping that.

By way of explanation, Utah State, where I did my MA has a really interesting archive of Czech historical documents and stuff, but no Eastern Europeanist (they had one the year before I got there but he left and has not been permanently replaced as yet due to a hiring freeze). They are very strong in Western US history, being the host institution of the Western Historical Quarterly, so most of my coursework is in Western US. I actually found that some of the discourse in Borderland Studies applied to my work with Czech and German ethnic identities and so I made that sor tof work together. Now at the PhD level I want to go fully into Western US and so that's why I am dropping the Slavic Studies stuff and have always had the Western.

That's a really interesting path for your interests to develop! Utah State is great, and that's too bad about the hiring freeze.

[rsldonk]

That's a really interesting path for your interests to develop! Utah State is great, and that's too bad about the hiring freeze.

I think they have lost enough faculty now that they are under their cap, but I haven't kept up on what's going on since I finished.

Edited January 13, 2011 by rsldonk

[StrangeLight]

i'm two years into my grad program and haven't joined the AHA. i don't plan on it, either. it's not a very useful conference or organization for me. you don't need to be a member to go to their job interviews, you just need to pay the conference registration fee, so that's probably what i'll do.

i don't really see a point in joining organizations unless i plan on presenting at their conferences. everything i need to know i can get from the h-net listserves i subscribe to. it's far more important and useful for me to be in field-specific organizations: CSA, LASA, ACH, MACLAS, CALACS (all variations of latin american/caribbean studies/history). maybe when i'm ready for the job market i'll get an AHA membership for the job postings, but even then i'll probably just use a colleague's membership to access that stuff.

Edited January 14, 2011 by StrangeLight

[Henry Hudson]

i'm two years into my grad program and haven't joined the AHA. i don't plan on it, either. it's not a very useful conference or organization for me. you don't need to be a member to go to their job interviews, you just need to pay the conference registration fee, so that's probably what i'll do.

i don't really see a point in joining organizations unless i plan on presenting at their conferences. everything i need to know i can get from the h-net listserves i subscribe to. it's far more important and useful for me to be in field-specific organizations: CSA, LASA, ACH, MACLAS, CALACS (all variations of latin american/caribbean studies/history). maybe when i'm ready for the job market i'll get an AHA membership for the job postings, but even then i'll probably just use a colleague's membership to access that stuff.

agreed.

at this point, there are so many more specialized associations that are more useful and interesting to me.

Maybe I'll join when I'm a prof.

[TMP]

i'm two years into my grad program and haven't joined the AHA. i don't plan on it, either. it's not a very useful conference or organization for me. you don't need to be a member to go to their job interviews, you just need to pay the conference registration fee, so that's probably what i'll do.

i don't really see a point in joining organizations unless i plan on presenting at their conferences. everything i need to know i can get from the h-net listserves i subscribe to. it's far more important and useful for me to be in field-specific organizations: CSA, LASA, ACH, MACLAS, CALACS (all variations of latin american/caribbean studies/history). maybe when i'm ready for the job market i'll get an AHA membership for the job postings, but even then i'll probably just use a colleague's membership to access that stuff.

I agree. I have no desire to join AHA. I do enjoy following the blog to keep me updated about AHA and what's doing. The conferences aren't always appealing because of the themes. I never find panels that I actually like and wish that I could be part of it. The themes just never really struck with my own research.

Otherwise, I've found H-Net to be much, much more useful. They are more field-specific and one could find CFPs, apartment rentals, book reviews, etc. I've forwarded CFPs to my friends who I didn't think really knew about H-Net since they're not in History but we share the same field and they've thanked me for these e-mails. My professors were quite surprised to learn that I've already found these H-Nets and subscribe to them and they were pleased... it makes me look more professional and that I care about my career.

Also, I think it's more useful to do field-specific organizations so you can really target your interests and get the specific information that you need to succeed and advance your career. Also, you can get your name known better through this way. Furthermore, as discussed in "future of history" thread, history is becoming quite broad and it would be useful to learn about everything related to your own studies, even in literature or "studies" areas.

Edited January 16, 2011 by ticklemepink

[BadgerHopeful]

Plese forgive my ignorance, but could someone please tell me what H-Net is? I've never heard of it before.

[TMP]

Plese forgive my ignorance, but could someone please tell me what H-Net is? I've never heard of it before.

Here's the link. You just sign up to a listserv (or a million) and you just get regular e-mails that a moderator puts together from e-mails that s/he received from other subscribers.

http://www.h-net.org/

[Riotbeard]

I agree with what others say. No need to join the AHA until you are looking for a job. H-net is great. I am on H-net South and Slavery. I am also a member of the Southern Historical Association ($10 per year student membership!). I have a friend who went to AHA this year and he advised against going until you are looking for a job. He said there are so many people, that meaningful networking is difficult for anyone not on the market. While their journals are solid, you have so much reading in grad school that it's unlikely that you are going to read the broad appeal articles in your spare time instead of something more focused in your interest.

[StrangeLight]

i'm on the h-net listservs for latin american history, caribbean history, atlantic history, and migration studies. really useful for fellowships and for getting on panels at conferences. marginally useful, depending on where you study, for finding academic housing at your research sites. and really great if you just have a question about something.

h-net.org also has many of the current (and past) job postings listed by subfield, so you can get a sense of how many positions are open in your field. even though i'm 3-5 years away from the job market, i still like to check the job listings because some of them are quite specific and offer hints of where the field is going. for example, virtually every job listing i see for latin american or caribbean history also wants the professor to demonstrate that he or she can teach surveys of US or world history, so now i fight for the opportunity to TA US or world history courses when classes in my subfield are unavailable.

also, a lot of job postings express interest in candidates (again of latin america) that do transnational work or look at ethnicity, race, gender, migration, the environment, etc. i'm sure an amazing dissertation on straight-ahead political history or intellectual history would still attract some interest from search committees, but when a school says they have a preference for a candidate that could contribute to the school's center in women's studies or ethnic studies or urban studies, they mean it. i don't mean to suggest that students should tailor their research interests to the job postings of today, but it helps to know what future employers are looking for or what they deem to be the growth areas of your subfield.

[Riotbeard]

also, a lot of job postings express interest in candidates (again of latin america) that do transnational work or look at ethnicity, race, gender, migration, the environment, etc. i'm sure an amazing dissertation on straight-ahead political history or intellectual history would still attract some interest from search committees, but when a school says they have a preference for a candidate that could contribute to the school's center in women's studies or ethnic studies or urban studies, they mean it. i don't mean to suggest that students should tailor their research interests to the job postings of today, but it helps to know what future employers are looking for or what they deem to be the growth areas of your subfield.

For Americanists, a lot of job postings ask for the ability to teach Atlantic history, so it's not a bad second field to have on your radar. It's also pretty common, but not as, to see requests for public history teaching ability, but it is harder to get these qualifications at most grad programs.

[natsteel]

For Americanists, a lot of job postings ask for the ability to teach Atlantic history, so it's not a bad second field to have on your radar. It's also pretty common, but not as, to see requests for public history teaching ability, but it is harder to get these qualifications at most grad programs.

This is very much the case, especially for early Americanists. I actually get the sense that, in the future, elective courses that used to be "Colonial America" will be replaced with Atlantic World courses. That's one of the reasons I took into account schools that offered "Atlantic World" as a defined minor field, which was a fair number of them.

Edited January 23, 2011 by natsteel

[Beckert]

I had no idea about H-Net. Thanks for the awesome new resource