Comments on: The State of the Field: Some Data

By: John Maass

John Maass — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 02:59:58 +0000

Speaking of the AHA, military history, and jobs….there sure were not that many military history jobs in the academy this year as far as the AHA job process. A few at West Point, one at Alabama. The “biggies” at Wisc. amd Ohio St. could be included, don’t really count for those new folks on the market.

By: Wayne Hsieh

Wayne Hsieh — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:49:51 +0000

I doubt its important, but I checked a recent edition of the directory, and my specialties are listed as “American Civil War” and “Western Civilization.” This is what I teach, but it is not what I consider myself–19th Century American Military History/U.S. Civil War. This, of course, is not the fault of the AHA, since I choose to not be a member, but I wonder how many other non-member faculty members also get the specializations slightly off.

WWSH

By: Wayne Hsieh

Wayne Hsieh — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 18:23:44 +0000

So is the data on specialization based off of surveys of individual faculty in each department? I think I may have actually filled out a form of some kind, but I wonder if all faculty bother to fill these sorts of things out–the appeal of the directory is that it bases itself on how historians identify themselves. But if there are faculty who don’t bother to fill the form out (and anyone with any experience in academic admin knows that this is very possible), then the sample can get skewed.

WWSH

By: Dave Stone

Dave Stone — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 16:03:35 +0000

It’s a guide to departments, not simply a membership directory, and so its list is reasonably comprehensive, and not limited to AHA members only.

By: Wayne Hsieh

Wayne Hsieh — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 22:56:34 +0000

BTW, I would like to say that my lack of membership in the AHA is due in part to some profound question of principle, but I think the real reason is that I’m too cheap to pay the annual membership fee.

WWSH

By: Wayne Hsieh

Wayne Hsieh — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 22:50:20 +0000

The other question I have is how accurate the directory is. Is the information based on actual members of the AHA. I am no longer a member of the AHA, and I was only a member of the org. when I was on the market. From my own anecdotal experience, the AHA’s claim that it represents the profession ex cathedra is in decline due to the rise of specialist orgs like SHAFR, SHA, and SHEAR, to name the ones I know of amongst Americanists. As far as I could tell when I was a graduate student, there certainly was no special cachet to presenting a a paper at the AHA, which is fundamentally seen as a job fair more than anything else.

WWSH

By: Dave Stone

Dave Stone — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 21:37:37 +0000

I just posted to H-War a follow-up to Jonathan House’s question. For those who aren’t on that list, the study’s author Robert Townsend told me that only US college / university faculty were included, not governmental or non-academic organizations.