American Historical Association

131st Annual Meeting (January 5-8, 2017)

January 05 - 08, 2017

History departments throughout the world are facing unprecedented challenges, as they seek to respond to changes in student bodies, the economics of higher education, governmental policies, and society itself.  While the situations of historians in different countries vary in many ways, there is much to be gained by instituting a transnational dialogue about these changes and possible responses to them.  It is the goal of this session to provide the occasion for such a discussion.  Historians from Australia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom will present papers about the challenges currently facing those teaching college history in their countries.  They will consider such issues as the impact of changing governmental policies, the search for common standards, and various forms of supervision in the training of Ph.D. students.

The issues raised in these presentations will serve as the basis for a structured discussion, in which attendees compare the problems, assets, and strategies of college history instructors in the United States with those in the other countries represented in the group.  There will also be a consideration of ways to use the scholarship of teaching and learning to help facilitate such cross-cultural consideration of history teaching.