history
The Association of Ancient Historians (AAH) had its origins in 1969, when a number of ancient historians from universities in southern Ontario as well as from the State University of New York at Buffalo gathered at McMaster University for a meeting convened by George Paul, to present papers and discuss topics of mutual interest. Over the next four years, annual meetings were organized at SUNY-Buffalo, the University of Michigan, Penn State University, and the University of North Carolina and Duke University. During this period the annual meetings were enlarged and transformed to conferences of an international character. The success of this transformation, and the recognition that ancient historians needed and were capable of supporting a major professional society, prompted at the meeting at Harvard in May of 1974 the forming of the Association of Ancient Historians and the adoption of a constitution.
Over its lifetime, and that of its informal forerunner, the AAH has organized annual meetings at more than two dozen different universities in the United States and Canada, and its membership has grown to nearly 800, including most of the ancient historians in these two countries. The AAH is the largest organization in North America that is devoted exclusively to promoting teaching and scholarship in ancient history.
In addition to electing its officers and communicating matters of common interest, the AAH works with individual universities to organize annual meetings that provide an opportunity to present and discuss research in the field. The AAH informs its members through a regular newsletter; it sponsors the publication of a series of monographs and has published two volumes of collected essays; it has also printed a directory of ancient historians in the USA and sponsors an on-line version of it. And it has organized summer institutes for college teachers under the sponsorship of the National Endowment for the Humanities.The AAH embraces electronic communication and information technology, and would appreciate any feedback or suggestions regarding this site and how it can be improved.