AHA Ends First-Round Job Interviews at Annual AHA Conference

It's official: the American Historical Association will stop supporting first-round job interviews at its annual meeting.

The group floated the idea this spring, citing a decline in registered departmental searches -- from 270 for the 2005 conference to 20 this year -- and a desire to take the meeting in new directions.

After hearing overwhelming positive feedback from members, the AHA Council voted to end the 70-year-old tradition.

"This is an opportunity to rethink the annual meeting -- to make it into what it should be, rather than what it has always been," said James Grossman, executive director of the AHA. "Large numbers of historians of my generation still cringe at the memories of anxiety and pressure they felt at the meeting," when they were interviewees.

"Ask yourself what happens when you move from an annual meeting where anywhere from one-quarter to one-third of people there are looking for a job or hiring," Grossman continued, "to a meeting about professional development -- where people are there to learn and meet people. Which would you rather attend?"