Society for U.S. Intellectual History

Dear Fellow U.S. Intellectual History Enthusiasts:

It is my great pleasure to announce the birth of the Society for U.S. Intellectual History!

We began as a group blog in 2007. We hosted our first conference in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 2008. We will host our fourth annual conference on November 17 and 18, 2011, at the CUNY Graduate Center. And now, thanks to the hard work of about 10 of my colleagues, we are an academic society.

We welcome new members. You'll find our membership form here. (Please download it in order to activate the information fields) In order for S-USIH to thrive, we will need many of you to join and get involved. Other than helping to shape the future of U.S. intellectual history, the benefits of membership include conference attendance and a subscription to our newsletter, the first issue of which we hope to roll out in time for this year's conference.

You'll also find our S-USIH Constitution and By-Laws here. As a small sample, I'll post the first page, which includes the founding principles:

SOCIETY FOR UNITED STATES INTELLECTUAL HISTORY CONSTITUTION

The Society for U.S. Intellectual History advances the historical study of American thought among academic and non-academic scholars and provides a forum for its exploration, aiming also to broaden and diversify the communities engaged in this study and the approaches applied to it.

Founding Principles

The Society for United States Intellectual History is committed to the following principles:

*Scholarship: Upholding a primary commitment to serious, academic scholarship.

*Interdisciplinarity: Understanding American thought in its broadest terms and encouraging interdisciplinary approaches to intellectual history.

*Inclusiveness: Encouraging the participation of anyone with an interest in the intellectual history of the United States, not only professional historians and scholars who work in other fields but also teachers, public historians, journalists, policy analysts, artists, and free-lance critics.

*Outreach: Actively welcoming members who embody the wide range of experiences and cultures that define and enrich our society.

*Media: Using all forms of media to reach broad audiences and engender vital debate and exchange of ideas.

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I am proud to announce the first Executive Committee of S-USIH:

Secretary: Ray Haberski
Treasurer: Mike O'Connor
Conference Committee Chair (2012): David Sehat
Publications Committee Chair: Ben Alpers

Our terms are only one year long. Anybody who is a member in good standing is eligible to run for a position on the executive committee next summer.

I look forward to being involved in S-USIH for decades to come! Cheers.

Andrew Hartman
President, S-USIH