Welcome, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn...and Other Changes!

We are delighted to announce the latest addition to the team here at the U.S. Intellectual History Blog: Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, who will be joining us as our regular Sunday blogger.  Elisabeth is Professor of History at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, and is the author of, among other works, Race Experts: How Racial Etiquette, Sensitivity Training, and New Age Therapy Hijacked the Civil Rights Revolution and Black Neighbors: Race and the Limits of Reform in the American Settlement House Movement, 1890-1945. She also blogs at Longing for the Real.

Elisabeth is an old friend of S-USIH (to the extent that scholarly societies less than a year old can have old friends).  She participated as a panel commentator at our 2009 Conference.  At the 2010 Conference, she was part of a plenary panel entitled "Intellectual History For What?"  And at last year's S-USIH Conference, she presented a brown-bag talk on the state of intellectual history. It was my honor and pleasure to be at the last two of these presentations and was struck, on both occasions, by Elisabeth's commitment to both intellectual seriousness and intellectual community, challenging us to be better scholars and better friends.  I like to think that these are values that we strive for at this blog. I know that Elisabeth will help us achieve both. 

More USIH Blog announcements after the fold...


Some perceptive readers may have noticed that a disclaimer recently showed up in our right margin:

The Society for U.S. Intellectual History is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization that has applied to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status. The opinions expressed on the blog are strictly those of the individual writers and do not represent those of the Society or of the writers' employers.

As a new professional association, S-USIH is applying for 501(c)(3) non-profit status. And one of the restrictions placed on 501(c)(3)s is that they are "absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office."  Since this blog is affiliated with S-USIH, we need to be sure to steer clear of violating this regulation.  This disclaimer is part of that effort: it reiterates that none of the bloggers at USIH speak for the Society.  Additionally, each of our regular bloggers have made a commitment to refrain from intervening in favor or against any current candidate for elective public office in their future posts on this blog. 

Our right margin features another new gadget: once again, this blog will be participating in the For the Love of Film film preservation blogathon. This year's blogathon will take place from May 13 to 18 and will focus on Alfred Hitchcock.  Funds raised by donations during the blogathon will benefit the National Film Preservation Foundation's goal of recording a score to Alfred Hitchcock's silent The White Shadow (1923) and streaming the restored film on their website.  This year's blogathon will be co-hosted by Self-Styled Siren, Ferdy on Films, and This Island Rod.