Salem State Professor Awarded the American Historical Association’s James Harvey Robinson Prize

Bethany Jay, PhD, has been awarded the 2018 American Historical Association James Harvey Robinson Prize for her outstanding contribution to the teaching of history. Jay, an associate professor of history here at Salem State, won the award for her work on the book Understanding and Teaching American Slavery with Cynthia Lynn Lyerly of Boston College.

Understanding and Teaching American Slavery is designed to help teachers more effectively integrate a study of American slavery into their classrooms. By providing both content and resources from across the time and landscape of American slavery, Understanding and Teaching American Slavery encourages teachers to envision and teach slavery as fundamental, and not incidental, to the history of the United States. In short, this edited volume brings together the field’s leading scholars to give instructors the confidence they need to teach this important content and navigate the sensitive issues surrounding American race and slavery. 

Recently, Jay played a central role in a Southern Poverty Law Center Report, Teaching Hard History, released on February 1 detailing the insufficiencies in the teaching of the history of American slavery. Through her work and the work of Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the nation’s educators will be provided with the tools needed to teach the topic correctly.

“American slavery is an essential part of any history education, but it remains one of the most challenging to teach.  Instructors at all levels grapple with the complexity and brutality of the institution, as well as its legacy of racism. I am thrilled that Understanding and Teaching American Slavery has been recognized for giving teachers both the ability and confidence to bring this difficult subject into the classroom in more meaningful ways,” said Jay.

According to the American Historical Society, “The Robinson Prize is awarded biennially by the American Historical Association (AHA) to the teaching aid that has made the most outstanding contribution to the teaching and learning of history in any field for public or educational purposes.”

The American Historical Association is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1884 and incorporated by Congress in 1889 for the promotion of historical studies. The AHA provides leadership for the discipline, protects academic freedom, develops professional standards, aids in the pursuit and publication of scholarship, and supplies various services to sustain and enhance the work of its members. As the largest organization of historians in the United States, the AHA is comprised of over 12,000 members and serves historians representing every historical period and geographical area. For further information, go to www.historians.org.