An Inside Look at the American Historical Association: An Interview with Laura Ansley

The Academic Life

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In this episode you’ll hear about: Laura’s reasons for leaving academia, the path to her job at the American Historical Association, what the AHA is, how the insurrection on the US Capital on January 6th made historians “relevant”, and how historians continue to teach both inside and outside academia.

Our guest is: Laura Ansley, who joined the AHA as managing editor in September 2019. She worked previously at the American Society of Civil Engineers as a journals production editor and was an editorial apprentice at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. In her free time, she volunteers as managing editor of Nursing Clio, a website focusing on histories of gender and medicine. She holds an MA in history from the College of William & Mary and a BA in history and American studies from Case Western Reserve University. Her ORCID is https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0160-0190. Follow her on Twitter: @lmansley.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

• The American Historical Association
• New Books in History
• Omohundro Institute
• Historians in Historic Times
• Washington History Seminar
• Essential Guide to Writing History: History Essays by Katherine Pickering Antonova
• 400 Souls: A Community History of African-America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi, Editor
• Leaving Academia by Christopher Caterine [which includes Laura’s story of leaving her PhD program]
• Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks by Wendy Laura Belcher

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