Conference on Latin American History

Conference on Latin American History, (CLAH), founded in 1926, is the professional organization of Latin American historians affiliated with the American Historical Association. It publishes the journal The Hispanic American Historical Review.Howard F. Cline, “The Conference: A Fecund Decade, 1954-1964”. Hispanic American Historical Review 45:434-438 (August 1965).”Historical Notes” http://clah.h-net.org/?page_id=577,

History In 1916, a group of Latin American historians within the American Historical Association met to create institutional structures for this branch of history. Latin Americanists were marginalized within the AHA, with few sessions at the annual meeting and limited space within The American Historical Review. This group founded The Hispanic American Historical Review at the Cincinnati meeting of the AHA.John Tate Lanning, "The Hispanist in the American Historical Association" in Latin American History: Essays on Its Study and Teaching, 1898-1965, compiled and edited by Howard F. Cline.2 vols. Austin: University of Texas Press 1967, vol. 2, pp. 641–42.

In 1926, at the American Historical Association annual meeting in Rochester, New York, Latin Americanists sought to expand the teaching of Latin American history and organized a session entitled "Means and Methods of Widening among Colleges and Universities an Interest in the Study of Hispanic-American History". The 1926 meeting led further work to create an identifiable group within the American Historical Association."Report of a Committee of the Pan American Union on the Teaching of Latin-American History in Colleges, Normal Schools, and Universities of the United States." Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 7 No. 3 (Aug. 1927), pp. 352–385. The constitution of the Conference on Latin American History was adopted in December 1938."Report of the Committee on the Twenty-Fifth Anniversary" by Donald E. Worcester, John P. Harrison, Bernard E. Bobb. Mimeographed report. Conference on Latin American History Archives, Hispanic Foundation, Library of Congress (Dec. 1953) published in Latin American History: Essays on Its Study and Teaching, 1898-1965. vol. 2, p. 462. CLAH gained a firmer institutional grounding with its incorporation in the District of Columbia in 1964, giving it a legal identity, and locating its offices in the Hispanic Foundation (now Hispanic Division) in the Library of Congress. With that step, CLAH was no longer an organic part of the AHA, but "an affiliated but autonomous body."Howard F. Cline, “The Conference: A Fecund Decade, 1954-1964” Hispanic American Historical Review 45: 434-438 (Aug. 1965).

In 1964, the AHA was granted $125,000 by the Ford Foundation to aid over three years the expansion of CLAH's activities. The AHA received the funds that were disbursed to CLAH. All funding was for programmatic purposes and not for the support of individuals’ research. The projects identified for funding were to provide a bibliographical guide to nineteenth- and twentieth-century newspapers; develop policies for the collection of historical statistics for the field; discuss and plan for a multivolume history of Latin America; develop teaching aids for the field; fund for small conferences; earmark funds for preparation of colonial sources for publication; and develop a publication series of general works. The Hispanic Foundation at the Library of Congress was named the repository of the CLAH archives and provided services for the CLAH Secretariat.Howard F. Cline, "The Ford Foundation Grant Program of the Conference: A Special Report" in Latin American History: Essays on Its Study and Teaching, 1898-1965, pp. 653–655. Originally published in the CLAH Newsletter, Jan. 1965.

Women have participated in CLAH leadership since its early years, with four serving as Secretary Treasurer: Lillian Estelle Fisher (1928) and 1935–39; Mary W. Williams (1929–1934); Vera B. Holmes (1940–1943); and Ruth L. Butler (1944–1948). The first woman president of CLAH was Madaline Nicols in 1949, with a gap of 38 years until Peggy Liss was elected in 1987. The first woman recipient of the Bolton (now Bolton-Johnson) Prize for the best book in English was in 1977, with Doris M. Ladd, for The Mexican Nobility at Independence, 1780-1826 (University of Texas Press). The first woman to receive the Distinguished Service Award was Ursula Lamb in 1990. The first woman to be executive director of CLAH was Donna J. Guy in 1991–92. The first CLAH president originally from Latin America is Asunción Lavrin, 2001–02.

Organizational structure The organization is governed by the Executive Committee and General Council. There is an executive committee: president (formerly chair), vice president, past president, and the executive director. Serving on the General Council are three elected members and ex officio representatives which include the editor of Hispanic American Historical Review, the editor of "The Americas" and the editor of H-Latam. As CLAH grew in membership and complexity of its fields, it established a series of sections with regional or other focus including Andean Studies, Atlantic World studies; Borderlands/Frontiers Studies; Brazilian Studies; Caribbean Studies; Central American Studies; Chile-Rio de la Plata Studies; Colonial studies; Gran Colombian studies; Mexican studies; and the committee on Teaching and Teaching Materials.

Prizes Starting in 1953, CLAH established a series of prizes, the first being the James A. Robertson Prize for the best article published in the Hispanic American Historical Review, followed by others for particular fields. Prizes now include the Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor of the organization; the Herbert E. Bolton-John J. Johnson Prize for the best book in English on Latin American history; the Lewis Hanke Award to enable revision of a dissertation into a publishable book; the James R. Scobie Awards to support travel for dissertation research; the Lydia Cabrera Award, for Cuban history up to 1898; the Howard F. Cline Memorial Prize for the best book on Latin American ethnohistory; the Warren Dean Award for Brazilian history; the Elinor Melville Award for the best book in environmental history; the María Elena Martínez Prize for the best work on Mexican history; Paul Vanderwood Award for the best article published in a journal other than Hispanic American Historical Review; the Antonine Tibesar Award for the best article published in The Americas.

Chairs and presidents

2023–2024 Celso Thomas Castilho 2021-2022 Ben Vinson III 2019–2020 Bianca Premo 2017–2018 Lara Putnam 2015–2016 Jerry Dávila 2013–2014 Jane Landers 2011–2012 Cynthia Radding 2009–2010 Mary Kay Vaughan 2007–2008 Jeffrey Lesser 2005–2006 Mark Wasserman 2003–2004 Ann Twinam 2001–2002 Asunción Lavrin 1999–2000 Susan Socolow 1997–1998 Lyman L. Johnson 1995–1996 Donna J. Guy 1994 Florencia Mallon 1992 Eric Van Young 1991 E. Bradford Burns 1990 Murdo J. MacLeod 1989 Ralph Lee Woodward 1988 John V. Lombardi 1987 Peggy K. Liss

Chairpersons 1986 Michael C. Meyer 1985 Robert A. Potash 1984 Richard Graham 1983 Stuart B. Schwartz 1982 Herbert S. Klein 1981 John J. TePaske 1980 Dauril Alden 1979 Charles A. Hale 1978 James R. Scobie 1977 Richard Greenleaf 1976 Stanley J. Stein 1975 David Bushnell 1974 Benjamin Keen 1973 John Leddy Phelan 1972 Lyle McAlister 1971 William J. Griffith 1970 Thomas McGann 1969 Richard M. Morse 1968 Stanley R. Ross 1967 Woodrow Borah 1966 Harry Bernstein 1965 Robert N. Burr 1964 Howard F. Cline 1963 Charles Gibson 1962 James F. King 1961 John J. Johnson 1960 Irving A. Leonard 1959 Charles C. Griffin 1958 John Tate Lanning 1957 Walter V. Scholes 1956 Engel Sluiter 1955 John Francis Bannon 1954 Bailey W. Diffie 1953 Alexander Marchant 1952 John Tate Lanning 1951 Charles E. Nowell 1950 George P. Hammond 1949 Madaline Nichols 1948 Lewis Hanke 1947 Philip W. Powell 1946 A. Curtis Wilgus 1945 A. Curtis Wilgus 1944 Samuel F. Beamis 1943 Arthur P. Whitaker 1942 Arthur P. Whitaker 1941 Isaac J. Cox 1940 Dana G. Munro 1939 James A. Robertson (deceased, J. Fred Rippy pro tem) 1938 J. Fred Rippy 1937 Arthur P. Whitaker 1936 Joseph B. Lockey 1935 Alfred Hasbrouck 1934 Percy A. Martin 1933 Arthur S. Aiton 1932 Clarence H. Haring 1931 William S. Robertson 1930 Clarence H. Haring 1929 J. Fred Rippy 1928 Isaac J. Cox 1927 Milledge L. Bonham, Jr.

Distinguished Service Award

2017 Eric Van Young, University of California, San Diego 2016 Mary Kay Vaughan, University of Maryland 2015 Herbert S. Klein, Stanford University 2014 Lyman L. Johnson, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte 2013 Valerie Millholland, Senior Editor with Duke University Press 2012 Susan Socolow, Emory University 2011 Paul Vanderwood, San Diego State University 2010 Richard Graham, University of Texas at Austin 2009 Friedrich Katz, University of Chicago 2008 Asunción Lavrin, Arizona State University 2007 William B. Taylor, University of California, Berkeley 2006 Georgette Dorn, Library of Congress 2005 Charles A. Hale, University of Iowa 2004 James Lockhart, UCLA 2003 Thomas Skidmore, Brown University 2002 Ralph Lee Woodward, Texas Christian University 2001 Michael C. Meyer, University of Arizona 2000 Emilia Viotti da Costa, Yale University

1999 Dauril Alden, University of Washington 1998 Richard Greenleaf, Tulane University 1997 John Lynch, University of London. 1996 David Bushnell, University of Florida 1995 John Jay TePaske, Duke University 1994 Tulio Halperin-Donghi, University of California, Berkeley 1993 E. Bradford Burns, University of California, Los Angeles 1992 Magnus Mörner 1991 Stanley J. Stein, Princeton University 1990 Ursula Lamb, University of Arizona 1989 William J. Griffith, University of Kansas 1987 Co-Awards: John J. Johnson, Stanford University 1987 Charles R. Boxer, Yale University 1985 Benjamin Keen, Northern Illinois University 1983 Irving A. Leonard, University of Michigan 1981 Charles Gibson, University of Michigan 1979 Woodrow Borah, University of California at Berkeley 1977 Arthur P. Whitaker, University of Pennsylvania 1975 Nettie Lee Benson, University of Texas at Austin 1973 Lewis Hanke, University of Massachusetts 1971 Howard F. Cline, Library of Congress 1970 Charles Griffin, Vassar College

Herbert Eugene Bolton-John J. Johnson Prize – Best Book in English

2022 Diana Montaño, Electrifying Mexico: Technology and the Transformation of a Modern City (University of Texas Press, 2021) 2021 Sylvia Sellers-García, The Woman on the Windowsill: A Tale of Mystery in Several Parts (Yale University Press 2020). 2020 Natalia Milanesio, Destape! Sex Democracy, & Freedom in Postdictatorial Argentina (University of Pittsburgh Press 2019). Honorable Mention: Ryan Crewe, The Mexican Mission Native Survival and Mendicant Enterprise in New Spain, 1521-1600 (Cambridge University Press 2019). 2019 Maria Cristina Soriano Gómez, Tides of Revolution: Information, Insurgencies, and the Crisis of Colonial Rule in Venezuela (University of New Mexico Press). Honorable Mention: Jesse Cromwell, The Smugglers’ World: Illicit Trade and Atlantic Communities in Eighteenth-Century Venezuela (University of North Carolina Press) 2018 Peter Guardino, The Dead March: A History of the Mexican-American War (Harvard University Press, 2017). Honorable Mention: Pablo Gomez, The Experiential Caribbean: Creating Knowledge and Healing in the Early Modern Atlantic (University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, 2017). 2017 Celso Thomas Castilho, Slave Emancipation and Transformations in Brazilian Political Citizenship University of Pittsburgh Press, 2016. Honorable Mention: Marcela Echeverri, Indian and Slave Royalists in the Age of Revolution. (Cambridge University Press, 2016).