OAH Welcomes New Board Members

Benjamin Aloe

Cronon

Grossman

Perdue

Crew

MacLean

Scott

The OAH is delighted to welcome the new members of the OAH Executive Board and OAH Nominating Board. William Cronon, James Grossman, and Theda Perdue are the most recent additions to the executive board. Spencer R. Crew, Nancy MacLean, and Daryl Michael Scott join the nominating board this year. The organization is pleased to have such a talented and diverse group joining us.

OAH Executive Board
William Cronon, who previously served on the nominating board from 2003 to 2006, and as chair in 2005, was vice president of the AHA Professional Division from 2001 to 2004. As the Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, and former president of the American Society for Environmental History, Cronon has published widely on the relationship between humans and nature in the historical narrative, including a 1992 article in the Journal of American History. He is committed to meeting the membership challenges facing the OAH, stating that “we must make sure that U.S. historians from all walks of life—from colleges and schools to institutions of public history to those who write and practice history independently—continue to regard OAH as an indispensable source of intellectual and professional support.”

James Grossman is currently Vice President for Research and Education at the Newberry Library. He received the New York Public Library “Outstanding Books for the Teen Age” award in 1998 and won the Gustavus Myers Award for “Outstanding Book on the Subject of Human Rights” in 1991. At the Newberry, Grossman has edited a number of books and directed exhibits about migration, American culture, and urban history, including his latest work as editor and project director of the Encyclopedia of Chicago. He has been a member of the OAH Committee on Ethics and Professional Conduct since 2005 and previously served on the AHA's Professional Division from 1998 to 2002 and the AHA Task Force on the Future of the AHA from 2006 to 2007.

The third new OAH Executive Board member, Theda Perdue, has published several works on the subjects of race, gender, and Native American history, including her most recent work with Michael D. Green entitled, The Cherokee Nation and the Trail of Tears. She is the Atlanta Distinguished Term Professor of Southern Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and recently received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship and was a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. In addition to serving on various OAH committees, Perdue has been an OAH Distinguished Lecturer since 2004. She is committed to expanding the reach of the OAH to a variety of historians and educators, noting that “one of the strengths of the OAH is the inclusion of school teachers and public historians in the organization. Since most people learn their history in secondary schools, museums, theaters, and venues other than the college classroom, the organization should expand these relationships.”

OAH Nominating Board
Spencer R. Crew, recently named as the Clarence J. Robinson professor at George Mason University, articulated how his scholarly interests will influence his role on the board. “My career and my work have focused on insuring that a variety of voices are present and made visible when they were previously overlooked. I will follow this same direction as a member of the nominating committee.” Crew has published works on African American history and was curator of the exhibit, Field to Factory: Afro-American Migration, 1915-1940 in 1987 at the National Museum of American History, where he was director from 1992 to 2001. He received a lifetime achievement award from the Association of African American Museums and honorary doctorates from Rutgers University and the University of New Haven. Crew has a long record of service in the profession, including past membership on the OAH Committee on Public History, the Journal of American History editorial board, and chairing the board of the National Council for History Education. 

Nancy MacLean, a professor of history and African American Studies at Northwestern University, comes to the nominating board with a distinguished background in teaching and scholarship.  She has won a number of awards for her books, including the Willard Hurst Prize and the Labor History Best Book Prize in 2007, and the OAH James A. Rawley Prize in 1995 for her book, Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan. MacLean has participated in several TAH projects and understands the importance of building a broad base of active membership in the OAH. As such, she stated that one of her goals for the nominating board is “to enhance the participation of diverse OAH stakeholders in the organization.”

The final new member of the OAH Nominating Board is Daryl Michael Scott, professor and chair of history at Howard University, who brings expertise as a scholar and experience with institution building. He was a winner of the OAH's Rawley Prize in 1998 for his book, Contempt and Pity: Social Policy and the Image of the Damaged Black Psyche, 1880-1996, and is a founding editor of The Woodson Review.  Scott hopes to strengthen OAH by focusing on leadership and administrative skill, while “maintaining our core professional ideals of diversity and intellectual inclusiveness.”

These individuals are fine examples of the talent, experience, and dedication that OAH has come to expect, and is fortunate to receive, from its board members. The organization would like to express its gratitude to all of its board members and its confidence that such a diverse and knowledgeable group will move the OAH forward in its mission to promote excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history.