History in Focus

Listen as organizers of the #AHRSyllabus Project discuss their new teaching resource, joined by contributors of syllabi on podcasting and historical smells. Topics include teaching initiatives in the American Historical Association, exploring the power of teaching history, incorporating podcast creation in the classroom, teaching history through the sense of smell, and challenges faced by evidence-based disciplines.

For nearly half a century, Curtis Boyd and Glenna Halvorson-Boyd have devoted their lives to providing safe and affirming abortion care. Curtis, a former Baptist minister, began providing abortions in Texas before the procedure was legal in the state. After Roe v. Wade, with the help of an interfaith network of clergy, Curtis opened up a clinic in Dallas. In the 1970s, Glenna came to work there as well, and the two eventually fell in love. Their partnership and shared commitment to abortion care has enabled them to withstand the increasing violence of the anti-abortion movement and to continue providing abortions to this day. This episode was produced by the podcast Sexing History. It is the inaugural entry in AHR’s new podcast collaboration initiative.

AHR editor Mark Bradley talks with Pure+Applied designers Paul Carlos and Urshula Barbour about the AHR’s first major redesign in over fifty years. This work was recognized with a design award from the Association of University Presses in April 2023.

Anna Krylova examines the complicated role of agency in history. And Denise Ho discusses the multilayered interactions along the Hong Kong–China maritime border in the mid-twentieth century through the lens of oyster producing communities.

On January 5, 2023, the American Historical Association Council approved Guidelines for Broadening the Definition of Historical Scholarship. In this special episode, we explore the guidelines with AHA executive director Jim Grossman and guidelines committee chair Rita Chin.

More than a year since our first check in, we revisit Odeuropa, an interdisciplinary team of researchers investigating—and recreating—the smells of Europe’s past. Project lead Inger Leemans updates us on the project as a whole while smellscape researcher Kate McLean takes us back through the smell walk she led for the 2023 AHA national meeting in Philadelphia.

What does it mean to do transnational history? What has this field of research accomplished over the last few decades, and what remains to be done? Paul Chamberlin discusses the transnational history forum he convened for the AHR. And we hear from three of the forum’s contributors—Rebecca Herman, Maria John, and Hussein Fancy.

Historian Megan Robb discusses her article “Becoming Elizabeth: The Transformation of a Bihari Mughal into an English Lady, 1758-1822” with producer Matt Hermane. Plus, Daniel checks in with AHA meetings manager Debbie Ann Doyle on the recent AHA annual meeting in Philadelphia and looks ahead to the next one in San Francisco.

Historian Lydia Walker discusses international advocacy for Tibet on the part of the US and India in the early Cold War and how those efforts resulted in a sort of humanitarian commodification of the Tibetan cause. And AHR editor Mark Bradley looks ahead with Daniel at what’s coming up at the 2023 AHA Annual Meeting and in upcoming issues of the AHR.

Historian Elizabeth Hinton explores W.E.B. Du Bois’s 1935 magnum opus Black Reconstruction. We also hear from Eric Foner, Chad Williams, Sue Mobley, and Kendra Field. The AHR chose not to review Black Reconstruction when it was first published. A review by Hinton appears in the December 2022 issue.