Annual Report of the Secretary-Treasurer

Abstract

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• Annual Report of the Secretary-Treasurer
• Stephen Berry (bio)

The Southern Historical Association is now in its ninetieth year. As we begin turning our attention to our looming centennial, I think it appropriate to take a broader-than-usual look at the health and vitality of our organization.

Once understood as a meeting and a journal, the SHA is now an organization that serves its members 365 days of the year (or 366 as the case may be). Our virtual programming includes our Junior Scholars Fellows program, the Second Book Writers Workshop, the new Classic Texts in Southern History book discussion, the SHA Coffee, Tea, and Confab, and the History Across the Generations interview, in which a junior scholar interviews a senior one. As always, our presence as a full voting board member of the Executive Council of the National Coalition for History ensures that our voice is heard on matters of public policy.

In addition to “what the SHA does,” “who the SHA is” is undergoing important shifts. Our membership software focuses on those in arrears, allowing the Membership Committee to concentrate on growing our representation among new populations: museum professionals, folks at HBCUs, National Park Service personnel, K–12 teachers, and so on. The innovations and adaptations go deeper, however: our newest committees—the Professional Development Committee, the Committee on Teaching, the Communications Committee, and the Graduate Student Council; our new SHA Public Square, which creates a stage and a spotlight in our exhibit hall for the local history work being done on the ground by our allies in the cities we visit; and our new Prison History Book Initiative. Along with the continued growth and vitality of our affiliate organizations (European History Section, Latin American and Caribbean Section, Southern Conference on British Studies, Society of Civil War Historians, Southern Association for Women Historians, and a potential Native South section), these new developments have the combined effect of returning us to our roots as [End Page 391] an organization that absolutely, yes, represents all historians of the South but also represents all history educators in the South.

Walking our exhibit hall last year in Charlotte, I heard one message again and again: “We’re back!” The exhibit hall was alive with laughter. People were pitching books and talking history (and football). The panels, roundtables, and plenaries—including those designed by our Committees on Minorities and on Women, Gender, and Sexuality—were well attended and generative; the Public Square was a complete hit; and the vibe was exhilarating. Other highlights included the opening and closing plenaries—devoted to the history of HBCUs and to North Carolina as a political bellwether, respectively—and Joseph Reidy’s presidential address, which focused on the radical positions of southern conservatives and the conservative positions of southern radicals. Particular thanks are due to the Program Committee co-chairs, Nancy Bercaw and Betsy Herbin-Triant, for organizing such a vibrant meeting. Certainly, our numbers told the tale: we were back in full force, with attendance at well over a thousand strong.

I say all this as we head into what is likely to be one of the most intellectually rewarding conferences we’ve ever held. For the first time, we will meet concurrently with the Western History Association, a notion that has been championed by many but by none more indefatigably than past president Catherine Clinton. More than a marriage of convenience, this meeting will be a marriage of ideas. If you have not already done so, read the brilliant call-for-papers generated by Angela Murphy and her outstanding Program Committee. We are living through an incredible SXSW turn in the historiography as the Global South and the Continental South become dominant facets of the revitalization of southern history itself. While each organization will run its own full program, the SHA and the WHA will co-host several plenaries, panels, and, most important, an exhibit space that will be roughly double what we’re used to. This will not be a meeting to miss.

There will be other changes this year. The SHA has always been accustomed to a leisurely pace, with concurrent sessions at 9:30 a.m. and...