There are several initiatives that I would want to push if I were to become president elect of H-Net.
1. Supporting our editors:
Many departments, including my own, have little sense of the amount of time that editors devote to this task or the professional impact of their efforts. Letters from the president, the president elect, and the council might help to educate the departments.
I would be willing to write on behalf of editors who need support in applying for jobs or seeking promotion or annual salary increments.
2. An H-Net conference
I would be willing to go to the NEH, the NSF, and elsewhere to seek funding for another conference along the lines of "Envisioning the Future: Creating the Humanities Classroom of the 21st Century" held at Michigan State in 1997.
Our sessions at the AHA are invaluable, but no substitute, I think, for a conference of our own, where we can focus on the issues that most concern us. In addition, such a conference should actively involve as many of our editors as possible. Much as we want our students to be active learners, we need to be active participants in such a conference, not passive attendees.
The "Envisioning" conference played a crucial role in forging a sense of community within the H-Net family. A new conference could serve that function plus many others. Not only could it foster networks of communication across the lists, it would provide a chance to explore in depth how we can use the new digital environment to strengthen teaching and learning.
3. Teaching Initiatives
Every day, our lists promote innovation and improvement in teaching. By securing outside funding, we might be able to expand and enhance these efforts and make new resources readily accessible on the H-Net website.
--We can showcase innovative courses and websites;
--We can webcast or videoconference lectures;
--We can test and share resources that groups of individuals are developing (for example, a number of us are developing PowerPoint-like slide shows that draw on databases of primary source texts, images, maps, and audio and video; others are creating interactive inquiry-based exercises).
--Making certain kinds of instructional resources readily available on the H-Net website (e.g. a public domain image database and music database; an audio pronunciation guide for world history, etc.).
--Above all, H-Net is well-positioned to take a leadership role in the professional development of K-12 history and social studies teachers. As part of one of our Teaching American History grants, we use videoconferencing to run professional development seminars across Texas. With our wealth of content specialists, H-Net could launch a more ambitious professional development program.
4. Making H-Reviews the True Peer of the AHR and JAH
Our reviews need to be as accessible in precisely the same way as the AHR's and JAH's.
H-Net is already making many strides along these lines. By pursuing additional outside resources, we can take advantage of new opportunities and expand our mission without overburdening H-Net central.
As a list moderator since 1993 (first with H-Women, then with H-Film, and now with H-Slavery), I can vividly recall when all of H-Net could meet in a small room on the University of Illinois--Chicago campus. I look at our organization's growth and success with amazement, and feel enormous admiration for all who have made this possible.
More than a decade after its founding H-Net remains much more flexible, adaptable, and energetic than any other professional organization. It draws upon a much larger base of volunteer support who devote time every day to perform H-Net's work.
Unlike any other professional society, H-Net task is not simply to confer honors or to replicate older functions. It has a much broader and an ever-evolving responsibility: to enhance research and teaching through new technologies.
