Sign if you can--scholars' response to the American Historical Association. The AHA hired a DC lobbying firm to help discredit its own members and suppress evidence of genocide in Gaza www.usscholarsspeak.org
US Scholars Speak
usscholarsspeak.org
Scott Sandage
@scottsandage.bsky.social
History isn’t reality, it’s methodology. Historian. Husband. Iowan. Pittsburgh 🏳️🌈🐕🪕⚾️ Wrote a book long ago. Writing another on the Métis Rez in Nebraska. Most useful thing I’ve done is probably https://commonplace.online/article/how-to-read-a-book/
Historians of the world – add your name to this letter urging the American Historical Association’s membership to hold the association accountable to higher standards than its leadership has demonstrated in confronting the genocide in Gaza.
elena razlogova@erazlogo.bsky.social · 6d agoSign if you can--scholars' response to the American Historical Association. The AHA hired a DC lobbying firm to help discredit its own members and suppress evidence of genocide in Gaza www.usscholarsspeak.org
To sign: this open letter to the AHA @historians.org is up to nearly 400 signatures today. Today its authors, "US SCHOLARS SPEAK" invite all historians and practitioners to sign and share it widely in preparation for the 2027 annual meeting. They demand transparency and democratic governance. 🔗⬇️
elena razlogova@erazlogo.bsky.social · 6d agoSign if you can--scholars' response to the American Historical Association. The AHA hired a DC lobbying firm to help discredit its own members and suppress evidence of genocide in Gaza www.usscholarsspeak.org
If students using AI to write seems to force a choice between letting them and giving up writing, that’s a failure of thought — we give up writing either way. But in fact, anyone can still choose to write, and we have as many reasons to do so now as before. So what is it that we want from writing?
Will AI at least let the birds and animals live? Discuss.
Love and obsession are the only things in life that are worth a damn. Any historian can tell you this.
Me and Kevin Roberts had the same dissertation advisor. I could have easily ended up with this as my dissertation topic (and he could have written mine about free black identity in the greater Caribbean). It will forever be strange to me.
sandweisStL.bsky.social@ericsandweiss.bsky.social · 2d ago…but it’s actually from the 2003 UTexas history diss of Kevin Roberts--now pres. of Heritage Fdtn., the group that boasted former NMAAH director Lonnie Bunch from his post as head of Smithsonian. 2/
…but it’s actually from the 2003 UTexas history diss of Kevin Roberts--now pres. of Heritage Fdtn., the group that boasted former NMAAH director Lonnie Bunch from his post as head of Smithsonian. 2/
Academics should not be using general-purpose AI tools (including ones provided by your institution as "closed-loop" for anything proprietary, confidential, sensitive or even just scoopable.
N Sims@copyrightlibn.bsky.social · 3d agoRe: possibility of Navier-Stokes proof scoop I have been saying for a while that I don't trust the purported "closed-loop" tools to actually be closed-loop, unless there is a real, -auditable-, guarantee on that.
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One of the most visionary leaders in the history of The Smithsonian (his appointment is titled "The Secretary"), and the DC heritage sector. Up there with Archibald McLeish at the Library of Congress. Bunch's example positioned memory and recognition as central to preservation and curation.
Smithsonian chief Lonnie Bunch III to retire amid Trump administration pressure on institution - US politics live
Bunch told the New York Times it was not Trump pressure on the organization that had led to his departure but acknowledged ‘stress’ of the role
theguardian.com
I think it's worth keeping this story about the AHA on our radar. The fact that the org identified - with or without the help of an expensive lobbyist - its own membership as the enemy is so disturbing.
Cate Denial@cjdenial.bsky.social · 2w agoA non-paywalled link to the article is in the comments.
I suspect their membership will drop in 2027 "for some reason." I support dissent from within as a political strategy but this news puts me over the edge.
AHA members of conscience should stage a dues/meeting strike. I quit @historians.org a few years ago when I saw this writing on the wall, but still: “AHA hires lobbying firm that also works for the IDF to silence its members“ was not on my bingo card. I don’t feel vindicated. I feel sad and angry.
Stacy Fahrenthold@sfahrenthold.bsky.social · 2w agoThe American Historical Association hired a lobbying firm to help silence member advocacy on Palestine. In this essay, Adam Rzepka covers @historians.org's relationship w/ Thorn Run Partners, its deep ethical conflicts, & the advocacy crisis AHA has thrust upon us. www.chronicle.com/article/a-sc...
Lonnie Bunch deserves to be understood as one of the most consequential American historians of this generation.
NPR@npr.org · 2mo agoThe memo from the Smithsonian's secretary, Lonnie Bunch, responded to a White House report that calls the National Museum of American History driven by "a radical, activist ideology." n.pr/4bfEYb4
We are in the “you can’t learn that anymore” stage of fascism, for anyone still keeping track.
Houston Chronicle@houstonchronicle.com · last wk.The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents cut more than 200 courses from the core curriculum across 11 universities on Thursday, in response to a state law requiring all general education classes to be “foundational and fundamental.” bit.ly/4iQNt0K
Forcing out the scholar who founded the National Museum of African American History & Culture in a frantic effort to shore up the racist vote points again to an unlivable future w an unknowable past.
Dr. William Horne@wihorne.bsky.social · last wk.We are in the “you can’t learn that anymore” stage of fascism, for anyone still keeping track.
My son and I were sitting down to lunch at NMAAH earlier today when the news broke and there was a collective sad gasp. Bunch did an amazing job preserving the Smithsonian. I refuse to let his legacy disappear. Sad for this current state of ignorance and hate.
Some context on Bunch’s resignation: “Forget them cr---kers,” Bunch told The Tribune. When offered not to print his words, Bunch refused to walk them back. “Print them,” he said. “Go ahead, please.”
Museum leaders gather in Philadelphia, send clear message to those who want to erase Black history
Against a backdrop of political pressure, futile attempts to erase Black history and a presidential administration targeting, diversity, equity and inclusion programs across the federal government, hu...
phillytrib.com
Lonnie Bunch has announced that he is retiring from his post as Secretary of the Smithsonian. Link here for the full OAH statement on his remarkable impact: bit.ly/4iSfoNY
I checked into it. They hired the lobbyist to help with the NEH and federal grant cancellations — Cancellations which hit historians really hard. The lobbyist was mainly advising about political support connected to those grants & this lawsuit:
Lawsuit to Restore the NEH - AHA
Important Win in NEH Lawsuit Federal Judge Rules to Restore National Endowment of the Humanities Funding In Historic Case A federal judge has granted the motion for a summary judgment on all counts in...
historians.org
Finally reading this exposé about how the AHA has been using funds to hire a corporate lobbyist to quash its own members’ views. It’s entirely dystopian and I hope for the day when we have leadership that is actually responsive to the views of its membership. www.chronicle.com/article/a-sc...
Opinion | A Scholarly Association’s Secretive Washington Playbook
Did the American Historical Association ask a corporate lobbying firm for advice on how to silence its members?
chronicle.com
I’m still really irritated by this story. Despite disagreeing with some things the AHA has done of late, I believe remaining a member is overall worth it. But the condescension toward the membership is dismaying 🗃️ www.chronicle.com/article/a-sc...
Opinion | A Scholarly Association’s Secret Washington Playbook
Did the American Historical Association ask a corporate lobbying firm for advice on how to silence its members?
chronicle.com
Am pretty much done with the AHA. At a time when the discipline of history (&humanities broadly) is under attack by the right (not to mention university administrators), our professional association spent *our* valuable dues hiring a lobbying firm to attack its own members. Unfuckingbelievable.
Stacy Fahrenthold@sfahrenthold.bsky.social · 2w agoThe American Historical Association hired a lobbying firm to help silence member advocacy on Palestine. In this essay, Adam Rzepka covers @historians.org's relationship w/ Thorn Run Partners, its deep ethical conflicts, & the advocacy crisis AHA has thrust upon us. www.chronicle.com/article/a-sc...
The members need to organize an exodus that will make clear whom the organization is for, and only return if there’s clear change. (I won’t ever return, but then again I left the US and its academia so that outcome is overdetermined)
I left when they squashed the second Palestine vote (I let myself be gaslit re: the first) and I haven't missed them or their conference. I want to support my fellow historians, but not at this cost. They ought to dissolve.
Signed. Let me add that my email to the AHA Executive Director about this has gone unanswered. And yet, they’ve sent me a renewal notice for my membership …
Stacy Fahrenthold@sfahrenthold.bsky.social · 6d agoTo sign: this open letter to the AHA @historians.org is up to nearly 400 signatures today. Today its authors, "US SCHOLARS SPEAK" invite all historians and practitioners to sign and share it widely in preparation for the 2027 annual meeting. They demand transparency and democratic governance. 🔗⬇️