September 15, 2021
The AAR has endorsed the American Historical Association's recent statement on threats to academic conferences. The statement is printed in full below.
Approved by AHA Council, September 2021
The American Historical Association supports historical scholarship and the free exchange of ideas. Scholarship itself is in many ways a conversation, and often that conversation takes place through conferences. Recently, participants, organizers, and university sponsors of the virtual conference “Dismantling Global Hindutva: Multidisciplinary Perspectives” (September 10-12, 2021) faced harassment and intimidation, including multiple threats of serious violence and invasion of a digital conference space. The American Historical Association condemns these and any other attacks that seek to limit conference presentations and participation.
Conferences, both in person and across digital platforms, are critical to the exchange of ideas among historians and our colleagues in other disciplines. Disruptions to a conference represent an assault on the principle of academic freedom, and the AHA stands unequivocally with participants in this conference and its sponsors in their right to exchange ideas without fear of threats and intimidation.
The following organizations have cosigned this statement:
American Academy of Religion
American Anthropological Society
Association for Spanish and Portuguese Studies
Central European History Society
Czechoslovak Studies Association
Executive Committee, American Comparative Literature Association
Forum on Early-Modern Empires and Global Interactions
Immigration and Ethnic History Society
Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender