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Bruce E. Baker
Candidate Statement
My first involvement with H-NET was in the mid-1990s when I subscribed the H-SOUTH and later several other lists corresponding to my interests in labor history and race relations in the U.S. South in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. When I first subscribed to H-SOUTH I had completed my M.A. and was working as a public sector folklorist. H-SOUTH was then, and remains, an important link between the academic community of scholars and independent scholars. This relationship is sometimes a bit uneasy, but it is one of the most valuable features of H-NET, even more so on lists such as H-LABOR, where labor historians have profitable discussions with historically minded union members. I think that were I elected to H-NET Council, this is a feature of H-NET that I would like to be sure we encourage as it is something that sets H-NET apart from anything else.
I have taught U.S. history at Royal Holloway, University of London, since autumn 2004, and I can attest that H-NET is a vital link to scholars from around the world, creating new links and maintaining old relationships. That is another feature of H-NET that is important to me that I would want to work for.
My tenure as a list editor of H-SOUTH only dates from January 2007, so I am still getting up to speed on some of the questions that H-NET has been discussing internally, but I would be glad to have the opportunity to contribute to H-NET by serving on the council.
Bruce E. Baker
Lecturer in United States History
Royal Holloway, University of London
http://personal.rhul.ac.uk/unra/373
List Editor, H-SOUTH
