2015 Annual Report

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The one-hundred eighth annual meeting of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association took place at the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel in Sacramento, California, on August 6 – 8, 2015. The conference had 161 registered attendees, who participated in thirty-nine different sessions. During the conference, Natalia Molina (University of California, San Diego) spoke to the Latina/o Scholars Luncheon on the topic “How Race Is Made in America: Immigration, Citizenship, and the Historical Power of Racial Scripts,” and Jennifer Thigpen (Washington State University) spoke to the Western Association of Women Historians luncheon on the topic “On a Mission: Christianity and Empire in Hawa‘i and the Golobal West,” while President Anne Hyde (Colorado College) presented her presidential address, “The Blue Flower and the Account Book: Writing a History of Mixed Blood Americans.” The presidential address appeared in expanded form in the February 2016 issue of the Pacific Historical Review.

Minutes of the Meeting of the Council of the Pacific Coast Branch, American Historical Association, Galleria I, Ballroom Level, Portland Hilton and Executive Tower, August 14, 2014.

President Anne Hyde called the meeting of the PCB Council to order at 2:05 p.m. with the following individuals in attendance: Vice President George J. Sánchez, Vice President-elect Katherine Morrissey, former presidents David Igler and Carl Abbott, Finance Committee chair Albert Hurtado, Marc S. Rodriguez representing the Pacific Historical Review, Council members David G. Gutiérrez, Ana Elizabeth Rosas, Liping Zhu, Phoebe S. K. Young, Jeffrey Sanders, Catherine Gudis, Lorena Oropeza, and Coll Thrush, AHA Executive Director James Grossman, and Executive Director Kevin A. Leonard.  The Council approved the 2014 minutes and then unanimously approved a motion to approve the minutes for the 2015 and subsequent meetings via e-mail. Executive Director Leonard provided a preview of the local arrangements for the Sacramento meeting, and President Hyde continued with a brief preview of the program for the meeting.

Executive Director Leonard then reported on the current financial state of the PCB. In his report, Executive Director Leonard noted that Pacific Coast Branch expenditures have exceeded income since 2009. The Branch has been spending from its reserves to cover the costs of its operations. In its discussion of the financial state of the PCB, the Council considered a number of ways in which revenues could be increased and expenditures reduced. Vice-President Sánchez, former President Hyde, Managing Editor Rodriguez, and Council member Thrush agreed to serve as a subcommittee to explore further these possibilities. Executive Director Leonard reported that the Branch used $2,400 of the donations from past presidents to support conference attendance by twelve graduate students.

Pacific Historical Review Managing Editor Marc S. Rodriguez presented the report of the journal, in which he noted that between August 1, 2014, and July 31, 2015, the PHR received sixty-three submissions, accepted nine for publication, and published twenty-three. During the year, 113 scholars served as external referees for the journal. The journal published 102 book reviews, with 101 reviewers representing 72 different institutions. At Rodriguez’s request, the Council then approved a slate of individuals proposed by the editors as new PHR editorial board members and expressed its thanks to those board members whose terms had concluded.

Executive Director Leonard announced on behalf of Nominations Committee chair Marsha Weisiger (University of Oregon) that 187 members voted in this year’s election, with the following results:

  • President-elect for 2016: Katherine Morrissey (University of Arizona)
  • New members of the PCB Council:
    • Matt Garcia (Arizona State University)
    • Andy Kirk (University of Nevada, Las Vegas)
    • Janet Ward (University of Oklahoma)
  • New members of the PCB Nominations Committee:
    • Matthew Basso (University of Utah)
    • Erika Pérez (University of Arizona)
    • Jennifer Seltz (Western Washington University)

The Council then offered its thanks to all those individuals who generously accepted the invitation of the Nominations Committee to stand for election in this year’s cycle, including Shana Bernstein (Northwestern University) and Mark Atwood Lawrence (University of Texas at Austin), who accepted nominations for Council, as well as Brian Casserly (Bellevue College), Sharon Block (University of California, Irvine), and Vicente L. Rafael (University of Washington, Seattle), who stood as candidates for the Nominations Committee.

Executive Director Leonard then announced the winners of PCB awards:

  • The Pacific Coast Branch Book Award: Abena Dove Osseo-Asare, University of Texas, Austin, for Bitter Roots: The Search for Healing Plants in Africa (University of Chicago Press)
  • The Norris and Carol Hundley Award: Charles F. Walker, University of California, Davis, for The Tupac Amaru Rebellion (Harvard University Press)
  • The W. Turrentine Jackson (Dissertation) Award: Megan Asaka, Yale University, for “The Unsettled City: Migration, Race, and the Making of Seattle’s Urban Landscape.”

Thereafter, PHR Managing Editor Rodriguez announced the two awards for articles that appeared in the Pacific Historical Review:

  • The Louis Knott Koontz Memorial Award (chosen by the entire editorial board): Kelly Lytle Hernandez, University of California, Los Angeles, for “Hobos in Heaven: Race, Incarceration, and the Rise of Los Angeles, 1880-1910” (August 2014, Vol. 83, no. 3)
  • The W. Turrentine Jackson (Article) Prize (chosen by the editors from among articles submitted by graduate students): Paul Hirsch, University of California, Santa Barbara, for “‘This is Our Enemy’: The Writers’ War Board and Representations of Race in Comic Books, 1942-1945” (February 2014, Vol. 83, no. 1)

Leonard also presented details about the Presidents Travel Award Fund: twelve graduate students received awards of $200 each, and the fund-raising campaign undertaken by President Hyde generated $2,900 in donations from past presidents.

Executive Director Leonard then offered preliminary details about the 2016 annual conference. The meeting will take place at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort on the island of Hawai‘i, August 4-6, 2016. Incoming President Sánchez announced his selection of Ana Elizabeth Rosas (University of California, Irvine) and Mark Padoongpatt (University of Nevada, Las Vegas) as Program Committee Co-chairs, as well as the conference theme, “Uncharted Terrain: The Challenge of Re-Imagining Traveling to the Past.”

Under the heading of new business, President Hyde offered the thanks of the PCB Council on behalf of the Pacific Coast Branch to those whose terms of service were concluding with this annual conference, including

  • Former President Kyle Longley
  • Council members David G. Gutíerrez, Ana Elizabeth Rosas, and Liping Zhu
  • Nominations Committee members Marsha Weisiger, Elizabeth Escobedo, and Ray Rast
  • PCB Book Award Committee member Kathleen Brosnan
  • Hundley Award Committee member Glenna Matthews
  • Jackson (Dissertation) Award Committee member Laura Barraclough
  • Graduate Student Travel Award Committee member Kyle Longley

No further issues awaiting discussion, President Hyde declared the Council meeting adjourned at 4:05 p.m.

Respectfully submitted by
Kevin A. Leonard