H-Afro-Am needs editors

H-Net Vice President of Networks Caroline Waldron                                  (Term Jan '22-Dec '24)'s picture

Greeting H-Afro-Am,

As H-Net Vice-President for Networks I have been interim editor for H-Afro-Am for a time. It's clearly an important network: new subscribers join almost daily bringing the subscription base to over 3500, and posts come in pretty regularly. More importantly, African-American Studies is an important and particularly timely field. The problem here is: H-Afro-Am has no field experts running it. I’m just a fill-in. H-Afro-Am needs a dedicated team of editorswho know the field to lead discussion, moderate posts, and develop resources and original content.

I am seeking volunteers to take over this network and make it thrive. Tasks could include: 

  • working as a moderator of posts from subscribers, and/or reviewing the many posts that come in daily to H-Announce and H-Reviews for cross-posting to H-Afro-Am
  • commissioning academic reviews of books relevant to H-Afro-Am
  • developing new publications, from informal to peer-reviewed, for digital-first open-access publication on H-Afro-Am
  • blogging and/or organizing bloggers
  • calling for teaching or research resources and maintaining collections of them online
  • working with professional associations to develop new resources, publications, etc.
  • working with archives to support and host digitization projects to store as unique resources on H-Afro-Am

I’m looking for people interested in using the range of tools available on H-Net. You need not be tech-savvy—if you have an interest and a vision, H-Net will provide training and support—but I would say tech-comfortable would be good. Ideally, multiple people will apply to form a team of editors: no one is expected to do everything. Editing H-Net networks provides invaluable service to the field and a unique line to your CV. Those who apply will find a blank slate to work with and a ready-made audience already in place. 

If you are interested or have questions, contact Patrick Cox at vp-net@mail.h-net.msu.edu and we can talk about the position.

Thanks.

Patrick Cox

H-NET Vice-President for Networks