American Historical Association Annual Meeting Session Title: Historians Under Fire

Session Abstract: This late-breaking session examines the growing wave of harassment and intimidation targeting historians and public history professionals for their research, scholarship, and public engagement. It features a panel of historians who have recently been targeted for that harassment. Prof. Tom Alter will discuss his recent firing from Texas State University. Prof. Leslie Harris will discuss the efforts both to censor and silence the history of slavery and to pressure universities to abandon their diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Prof. Karen Leader will discuss the coordinated effort to silence academics, herself among them; the now predictable result of violent threats demands closer scrutiny. Prof. Erik Wallenberg will discuss the struggle at New College of Florida, which brought together students, staff, faculty, and community members to counter the hostile takeover orchestrated by Governor DeSantis in spring 2023. A harbinger of our current moment, the transformation of New College provides a model of the new McCarthyism in action, and lessons for how it might be countered. They will be joined by scholars who will speak to the wider impact of prohibitions on funding research, public interpretation, and engagement of diverse stakeholders, and the need to act forcefully to protect the nation’s heritage. Prof. Deirdre Cooper Owens will discuss the efforts to undercut reproductive justice and race/gender equality. Prof. Gail Dubrow will speak to the impact of current federal policies on efforts to preserve and interpret places significant in LGBTQ+ and disability histories. Prof. Eileen Boris will speak on behalf of other scholars who were invited but could not attend in person, highlighting the pressures that are making it difficult for them to speak out. We hope to learn from these historians on the frontline of the recent, aggressive assault on our profession and its work. In the midst of this new Red/Lavender Scare, our goal is to explore better ways of supporting individual scholars and collectively countering these destructive forces. Participants will historicize and explore what these incidents reveal about the contested role of history in civic life and how the profession can respond to protect scholars and the practice of evidence-based historical interpretation. This session is organized by the Organization of American Historians History, Archives, and Records Preservation Project.