During the summer and fall of 2020, colleges and universities faced continuing pandemic disruptions, pedagogical changes, budgetary constraints, and debates over the role of history in public culture. In the midst of these concerns, the AHA brought history department chairs together for frank conversations about the status of our discipline on post-secondary campuses.

In a series of “Virtual Seminars for Department Chairs,” generously supported by the Teagle Foundation, administrative leaders discussed the ways in which they were navigating the shifting and unpredictable waters of teaching, class size, research, student needs, politicized debates, and institutional expectations. The goal of this panel is not simply to restate the uncertainties of the early ‘20s but to share practical and thoughtful strategies for strengthening the work of our discipline.

The members of this panel participated in a department head seminar in December 2020. They came together to explore how their departments were “making the case for history” in the midst of a turbulent year. Had their student numbers risen, fallen, or remained stable? Had they re-framed their curricula, loosening or tightening requirements for the major? Had faculty experimented with their introductory courses, hoping to recruit more students and respond more equitably to those struggling in courses? Had they entered public debates over evidence-based arguments and rigorous historical inquiry? Were plans in place to launch any new strategies and agendas that might effectively respond to these questions in 2021?

This session will review two key points: the troubling concerns that department heads articulated in 2020; and the new approaches they and their colleagues adopted in 2021 to address those issues. In place of formal papers, panelists will briefly describe the difficulties they faced and the remedies faculty proposed. Much of the session will focus on the reflections – and suggestions – of audience members who also wrestled with the appeal, stability, and security of historical study on their own campuses.

Elizabeth Lehfeldt will set the stage for the discussion, reviewing the purposes and subjects of 14 virtual seminars convened by the AHA in 2020 for department chairs. David A. Messenger will review his role as facilitator in the seminar and his own departmental work connecting enrollment issues to curricular reform. Victoria Grieve will discuss the ways her Utah State University colleagues focused on marketing and messaging the contributions of historical study and the career skills fostered through the discipline. Wendy Lucas will describe the multiple and transformative approaches historians at the University of Central Arkansas took in response to a sharp decline in enrollments. And Charles Steinwedel will examine how, with few resources, his Northeastern Illinois University department has stabilized enrollments in a context of institutional enrollment drops and student career concerns.