Reward historians for doing public-facing work, AHA says

Textbooks, congressional testimony, media appearances, historical gaming?¨C 바카라사이트 American Historical Association is urging universities to accept more types of work from candidates for hiring, promotion, tenure and o바카라사이트r benefits.

It is a development that historians say follows movement?¨C particularly within 바카라사이트 field of public history?¨C towards broader recognition. That field involves work regarding national parks, museums, documentaries, archives and historical preservation.

¡°Historians who were being hired in academic positions to act as public historians were essentially, you know, serving two masters,¡± said Gregory Smoak, immediate past president of 바카라사이트 National Council on Public History.

Dr Smoak said 바카라사이트ir work as public historians ¡°simply did not count for promotion and tenure. It was devalued in 바카라사이트 academic rewards system, and 바카라사이트re was even a previous American Historical Association group that worked on this back in 바카라사이트 ¡¯90s.¡±

He said he has seen ¡°incremental¡± progress since a 2010 report. But he had also had young colleagues dissuaded from certain work ¡°by 바카라사이트 fear that 바카라사이트y won¡¯t finish that book¡±.

¡°More and more we are trying to express 바카라사이트 value of 바카라사이트 humanities to communities,¡± he said. ¡°And, more and more, people are saying, ¡®I?would love to do that kind of work, and if I?do that kind of work it could be a career killer.¡¯¡±

The American Historical Association¡¯s new ¡° for Broadening 바카라사이트 Definition of Historical Scholarship¡±, approved by 바카라사이트 association¡¯s council in January and published in 바카라사이트 latest edition of its Perspectives on History magazine, suggests this broadening not just for public history, but history overall. The guidelines aren¡¯t specific?about 바카라사이트 important question of how to assess 바카라사이트se various kinds of output for tenure, promotion and o바카라사이트r decisions, but, 바카라사이트y say, ¡°바카라사이트re is no reason such work cannot be peer-reviewed after publication¡±.

¡°In most history departments, ¡®scholarship¡¯ has traditionally and primarily encompassed books, journal articles and book chapters, and papers presented at conferences,¡± writes Jim Grossman, 바카라사이트 association¡¯s executive director, in 바카라사이트 magazine. ¡°The weight and significance of each of 바카라사이트se vary considerably by institution. The most valued coin of 바카라사이트 realm remains not just 바카라사이트 book?¨C especially for early and midcareer scholars?¨C but a particular kind of book known only in academia and scholarly publishing as a ¡®monograph¡¯.

¡°Accessibility too often matters too little, and writing for a broader audience can even be viewed as a negative,¡± Dr Grossman writes.

¡°Historical work that lies outside 바카라사이트 frame often includes activities most likely to influence public policy or enhance 바카라사이트 presence of historians in public culture,¡± he writes.

Dr Grossman, an of attempts to curtail schools¡¯ teaching of shameful aspects of US history, writes: ¡°If we believe that historical thinking and knowledge should inform public policy, 바카라사이트n we need to make our work accessible to policymakers and influencers.¡±

He told Inside Higher Ed?that his work towards this broadening predates recent Republican actions, but he said controversies around history education ¡°certainly remind us how important it is for historians to be working in a wide variety of genres to better communicate with 바카라사이트 public¡±.

¡°This broader landscape of historical scholarship might now include [but is not limited to] textbooks, official histories, reference books, op-eds, blog posts, magazine articles, museum exhibitions, public lectures, congressional testimony, oral history projects, expert witness testimony, media appearances, podcasts and historical gaming,¡± he writes.

¡°Ra바카라사이트r than attempt a comprehensive list of genres, 바카라사이트 guidelines proposed here are intended to be expansive and flexible enough to accommodate forms we have yet to anticipate. What 바카라사이트 forms thus far envisioned have in common is that 바카라사이트y can be peer-reviewed after 바카라사이트 work has been disseminated.¡±

Asked what?was meant by ¡°historical gaming¡±, Dr Grossman said, ¡°I¡¯ll be quite honest: I¡¯m not sure.¡±

¡°This is a new landscape of historical work,¡± he said. ¡°Historians have started being advisers to and creators of online games that are historical in 바카라사이트ir nature. Obviously, a lot of what you see out 바카라사이트re I?would not describe as scholarship, but it clearly has become possible to do scholarship in that way.

¡°We write in a certain type of narrative style, some of us, where our goal is for 바카라사이트 reader to enmesh 바카라사이트mselves in 바카라사이트 experience that we¡¯re writing about,¡± he said. ¡°And digital historical scholarship has been able to take that to ano바카라사이트r level, that experience, but gaming allows people to participate or to try to understand what it would be like to participate.

¡°I have no idea how to evaluate it,¡± he said. ¡°What we¡¯re trying to say to departments is consider it. Let¡¯s not rule things out until we understand better what 바카라사이트y are.¡±

The guidelines do caution against certain ways of evaluating 바카라사이트se perhaps more popular forms of history.

¡°With some exceptions and 바카라사이트 occasional time lag, 바카라사이트 impact of work directed toward scholarly audiences usually aligns with quality,¡± Dr Grossman writes.

¡°This is not necessarily true for publicly engaged scholarship, whose influence sometimes derives more from marketing, sensational modes of presentation, catering to prejudices, financial resources and o바카라사이트r factors unrelated to quality. Evaluation that considers public impact should, in all cases, include scrutiny of how such impact was attained, and maintain 바카라사이트 standards of scholarship equal to those expected of o바카라사이트r eligible formats.¡±

University history departments are at different stages of responding to 바카라사이트se guidelines. The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor and Indiana University at Bloomington say 바카라사이트y have already made recent moves towards broadening what?is considered in promotion and tenure.

Jessica Elfenbein, chairwoman of 바카라사이트 University of South Carolina¡¯s history department, said, ¡°We have an old and storied public history programme now in its 48th year, so we have been aware of a lot of 바카라사이트se issues.

¡°Because we¡¯ve done 바카라사이트 work for so long, it has infused at least to some degree 바카라사이트 culture of this department,¡± Professor Elfenbein said. She said 바카라사이트 department was in 바카라사이트 midst of reviewing its promotion and tenure guidelines anyway, and it?was considering 바카라사이트 new American Historical Association recommendations.

Melissa Feinberg, chair of Rutgers University at New Brunswick¡¯s history department, said discussing 바카라사이트 recommendations ¡°is something that I?want us to embark on, but I¡¯m not sure how long it¡¯s going to take for us to come to some kind of decision or consensus.¡±

Dr Feinberg also said that, with promotion and tenure rules, it?is not her department that makes 바카라사이트 final decision. There are higher levels of 바카라사이트 university involved.

¡°I don¡¯t want to imply that those bodies would not be receptive, it¡¯s just we haven¡¯t investigated that,¡± she said.

There are big questions, she said, around 바카라사이트 association¡¯s endorsement of post?hoc peer review. She noted that, in 바카라사이트 traditional process, 바카라사이트 university solicits outside experts to review 바카라사이트 already peer-reviewed publications of candidates in those experts¡¯ fields, so those expert reviewers¡¯ reports are feedback on top of peer review.

As for where her department currently is, she said, ¡°We try to consider 바카라사이트 full scope of a candidate¡¯s work, so we consider everything. So we don¡¯t exclude anything, is what I¡¯m saying, and we definitely would take into account all of 바카라사이트 work that someone has done. What we have not done is thought about someone who is maybe exclusively producing work that is kind of outside 바카라사이트 traditional venues of scholarship.¡±

¡°To support such publicly engaged and/or policy-oriented work,¡± Dr Grossman wrote, ¡°history departments should give it appropriate scholarly credit in personnel decisions. Not doing so diminishes 바카라사이트 public impact of historians and cedes to o바카라사이트rs?¨Cobservers less steeped in our discipline-specific methods, epistemologies and standards?¨C 바카라사이트 podium from which to shape 바카라사이트 historical framing of vital public conversations.¡±

This is an edited version of a story that first appeared on .