News of the Profession

House Appropriations Committee Acts on National Archives/NHPRC Budget for FY 2002

The House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations approved a $17 billion Treasury, Postal Service and General Government spending bill. The total is $1.1 billion above the FY 2001 enacted levels (some $340 million above the President's FY 2002 request) and in summary, represents an increase of 6.4 percent. The full Committee embraced recommendations for the funding of the National Archives made by the House Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee on 11 July 2001 (See NCC Washington Update, #29, 12 July 2001).

As passed by the full Committee, the spending bill provides $257.578 million for the National Archives. This includes $243.547 million for operating expenses, $10.643 million for repairs and restoration, and $10 million for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC).

While this is the first time the Committee has provided "full funding" to the authorized level for the NHPRC, several huge directed grants earmark some $2.7 million or about 20 percent of the NHPRC appropriation. One special grant of $1.7 million (some 28 times the typical NHPRC grant) is for an Oklahoma based project championed by Subcommittee Chairman, Rep Ernest Istook (R-OK); the bill language states the funds shall be in the form of a grant to the Oklahoma Centennial Commission "to assist with memorializing the Oklahoma land run as part of the Oklahoma Centennial celebration." The other grant is for a Massachusetts project advanced by Michael E. Capuano (D-MA), "a million dollars for a grant to the Boston Public Library for preserving and enhancing its holdings of materials related to John Adams."

Inside sources state that historian David McCullough, author of the best-selling biography John Adams, was responsible for bringing the needs of the Adams collection at the Boston Public Library to the attention of Congress. In addition to the support of Rep. Capuano, the Adams project has the support of both Massachusetts senators, Edward Kennedy (D-MA) and John Kerry (D-MA). According to NARA insiders, there is little chance to zero out the directed grants but there is a possibility that the size of the directed grants may be reduced when the NHPRC budget is considered by the Senate.

Some of the appropriation line-item highlights for the National Archives include: $1 million for web development and enhancement; $55.1 million (full funding at the President's request level) for the Presidential libraries; and $450,000 for preserving of the Freedmen's Bureau records. There also is an increase of $19 million (for a total of $22.3 million) for the electronic records archives initiative. --Bruce Craig

History News Service

Want to write for the nation's newspapers? Ready to use your expertise to put a current issue in historical perspective? Find out about the History News Service, an entirely volunteer program which regularly distributes 800-word op-ed essays written by professional historians to over 300 newspapers. Check out the HNS website for information, models, and recently published HNS essays: <http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~hns/>.

ACLS Fellowship and Grant Competitions

The American Council of Learned Societies has asked its constituent societies to promote its fellowship programs, including the Burkhardt Fellowships, which are residential and for recently tenured scholars. It may be of interest to our readers that of the eleven Burkhardt fellowships awarded this year by ACLS, six were in history (including OAH prize winner Walter Johnson) and there were historical connections in many of the other five.

The Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowships this year will support scholars tenured since 1 October 1997, who are engaged in long-term, unusually ambitious projects in the humanities and related social sciences. The $65,000 fellowships may be used in 2002-2003, or in either of the two succeeding years, and provide for an academic year of residence at one of nine participating national research centers, plus support from the Fellow's institution for an additional period.

New this year are the Charles A. Ryskamp research fellowships. These fellowships, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and named in honor of Charles A. Ryskamp, literary scholar, distinguished library and museum director, and long-serving trustee of the Foundation, provide a stipend of $60,000 for an academic year of research, plus an allowance of $2,500 for research and travel, and the possibility of funding for an additional summer, if justified. The fellowships support tenure-track assistant professors in the humanities and related social sciences who have successfully completed their institution's review for reappointment, but have not yet been reviewed for tenure, who have made scholarly contributions that have advanced their fields, and who have well designed and carefully developed plans for new research.

Also new this year are the ACLS/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowships for junior faculty. In response to increasingly rigorous expectations for tenure, funding will be available for an additional twenty-two fellowships for Assistant Professors or the equivalent with at least two years' teaching experience. Applicants to the ACLS Fellowship Program who have met this criterion, and who satisfy all the requirements and provisions for the ACLS Fellowships, will be automatically considered for these junior faculty awards.

The central ACLS fellowships are being offered for tenure beginning in 2002-2003. Maximum stipends are $50,000 for full professors and career equivalent, $40,000 for associate professors and equivalent, and $30,000 for assistant professors and equivalent. This program requires that three years have elapsed between supported research leaves, but the two-year Ph.D. requirement has been eliminated. New this year, scholars may apply with a doctorate conferred by 1 October 2001.

The ACLS/SSRC/NEH International and Area Studies Fellowships are again included in the ACLS Fellowship Program to encourage humanistic research on the societies and cultures of Asia, Africa, Near and Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, East Europe, and the former Soviet Union.

Also offered through the ACLS Fellowship Program are the joint ACLS/New York Public Library fellowships. This cooperative program provides residential fellowships at the Library's Center for Scholars and Writers to applicants whose research would be enhanced by such an affiliation.

This will be the second competition year for the Library of Congress Fellowships in International Studies. The stipend has been increased to $3,500 per month for four to nine months' residence at the Library of Congress to pursue research using the foreign language collections of the Library, including books, images, films, legal materials, maps, manuscripts, music, prints, photographs, and rare books. A Ph.D. is required and preference will be given to scholars at the early stage of their careers.

The Contemplative Practice Fellowships will be available this year again, with a stipend of up to $20,000 for the summer or one semester to support individual or collaborative research leading to the development of courses and teaching materials that integrate an awareness of contemplative practice.

ACLS is pleased to continue to offer the Henry Luce Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Fellowships in American Art. The stipend for these year-long fellowships has been increased to $20,000.

The Committee on Scholarly Communication with China Programs will offer fellowships for American humanities scholars to do research in China for four to twelve months. The fellowships provide a monthly stipend and travel allowance. Chinese Fellowships for Scholarly Development will be available for Chinese scholars who are nominated by an American host scholar.

The East European Studies Program will again offer postdoctoral research fellowships and dissertation fellowships. New this year, the ACLS is reinstituting the program of individual support for intensive summer training in the languages of Eastern Europe (except those of the successor states of the Soviet Union).

Application forms for most programs are available for completion online. Alternatively, the application forms for most programs are also available in PDF format to be printed out from the ACLS site. Or, application packets may be ordered from ACLS by filling in an online registration form at <http://www.acls.org/fel-comp.htm>. Applications may, of course, still be requested by e-mail, fax, or mail.

Protecting Human Beings and Research: AAUP issues Report on Institutional Review Boards

The American Association of University Professors published a report in the May-June issue of Academe that addresses issues of concern to oral historians and others who conduct human research. The report was the culmination of meetings held in November 1999 and May 2000 with representatives of the American Anthropological Association, the American Historical Association, the American Political Science Association, the American Sociological Association, the Oral History Association, and OAH to consider the experiences of social scientists and scholars in other academic disciplines whose research is subject to the government's rules for protecting human beings. These regulations have been in place for more than thirty years, and are a permanent feature of research institutions in the United States. There are clear signs that their influence is expanding.

The government's system for regulating research involving human subjects was born out of fear that researchers might, whether wittingly or not, physically or mentally injure the human beings that they study. The government's system is meant, therefore, to limit professional choice insofar as it might otherwise result in harm to human subjects. In pursuit of this aim, the government imposes a regulatory burden on research institutions and their individual researchers. Whether the burden is reasonable depends upon several considerations, not the least of which is the application of the government's rules to disparate academic fields of study, each with its own concepts and methods of research and standards of professional responsibility.

The report offers several suggestions for how IRB practices can be improved so that they do not place undue burden on scholars in the humanities and social sciences who do not conduct clinical or biomedical research on human subjects. The full text of the report is available at <http://www.aaup.org/repirb.htm>.

Neil W. Horstman Named President of the White House Historical Society

The White House Historical Association Board of Directors announced the appointment of Neil W. Horstman as president of the association. Mr. Horstman has served as executive vice president since 1994.

"After forty years the White House Historical Association is revising its executive structure because of maturing responsibility," said Hugh Sidey, chairman of the association. "The association began with a few staff members and no visible means of support. Today it is a multi-faceted institution with a professional staff of twenty five involved not only in supporting efforts to keep the White House authentic and polished but also in a wide range of educational programs about the great events in its 200- year history. The appointment of Neil Horstman gives the association a strong executive operating center."

Mr. Horstman has focused his career on helping communities and historic sites manage and achieve their preservation goals. Before entering the field in 1976, Mr. Horstman held several positions in city and regional planning. He has directed private preservation organizations in Louisville, Kentucky, Kansas City, Missouri, and Savannah, Georgia. From 1987 to 1994, he was Resident Director of the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association, the owner and steward of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s home, since 1853.

The White House Historical Association, a non-profit organization founded in 1961, publishes educational materials on White House history, supports ongoing scholarship, sponsors national education programs, and financially supports the conservation of the public rooms of the White House and its incomparable collection of fine and decorative arts. Since its founding, the association has contributed more than $18 million for the preservation of the White House.