blush winkHave you thought about character costumes, mascots, or uniforms in parades affiliated with a recognizable brand? It might not be your first thought when seeing a bunch of people in Wonder Woman costumes striking poses, Smokey Bear waving from a truck bed, or a big faux fur bird, bear, or alligator mascot in sports jersey walking with a marching band in a parade. Maybe some people are thinking intellectual property (IP) thoughts of trademarks, copyright, and other legal concerns when seeing any branded entity in a parade, but not me. Yet, my mind veered to these thoughts while watching a

Note: This is the first offering in what we hope will be an ongoing series of blog posts from the elected officers of H-Net.

Writing in 2004, Jonathan Spence wondered whether he might be the last AHA President to have experienced a once-ubiquitous artifact, the schoolroom inkwell. With his characteristic subtlety of evocation and economy of style, Spence invoked this memory to reflect on the changes in scholarly practice he had witnessed over his career.

Those of us trained in the 1980s and 1990s have lived through a transformation at least as momentous as the disappearance of inkwells: the

"The Conversation"

H-Net Vice President of Networks Blog Post

While working on my PhD I went through a period where I gave a lot of talks at conferences. I’ve really cut back on that, partially to focus on dissertation writing and partially because conferences are just not affordable. While at the height of my unofficial speaking tour, one of my committee members attended one of my talks. She seemed pleased with it and told me she really liked my presentation style—something she and I agreed not enough academic conference presenters seem to work on. But she also told me, “You need to write this is up into an article and get it published. Because it’s

H-Net and Academia

H-Net Vice President of Networks Blog Post

Many of us have pondered H-Net’s place on the internet these days. Finding, or creating, that space, still needs some work, but for the moment I’d like us to think about a slightly different question.

What is H-Net's place in the world of academia today? 

H-Net Council is drafting H-Net’s Strategic Plan for the next five years. We do so at a time when academia is undergoing some serious changes I know we all see. Some of it has certainly been well covered in media. There have been conversations over at H-Adjunct and H-Scholar but we all see, at least in the United States, that the academic