Become a Recurring H-Net Supporter 2024

We Cannot Do All This Without You

 

In “Share Your Story”: Legacies of Online Collecting,” a digital project review published in the June 2024 issue of the Journal of American History, Sheila Brennan asked:

 

“Today, when it is possible for anyone to react and circulate content online and in private chat groups at breakneck speed—including hate speech and falsehoods—do historians still want to launch online collecting projects open to anyone with an Internet connection in the style of the early 2000s?” She concluded that, “Yes, clearly some do,” and H-Net heartily agrees.

 

H-Net began over 30 years ago by leaning into technological innovation to fill a need in the academy. We continue to meet scholars’ needs in these constantly changing and challenging times.

 

Institutional support for digital scholarship and collaboration is hard to come by. Over the last decade, H-Net created several open access services such as the H-Net Commons, H-Net Journals, and the H-Net Book Channel, which all serve to foster collaboration and support digital-born scholarship. In the upcoming months, we will also introduce H-Net Spaces, where scholars can make use of a free and robust, content creation platform for digital projects and publications, supported by tech-savvy H-Net staff members and a built-in commitment to project sustainability.

 

Scholars are working in an environment where politicians are pressuring universities to stifle academic freedom. Three years ago, we started hosting the virtual H-Net Teaching Conference to provide educators from around the world an opportunity to share their experiences and methods for teaching under these trying circumstances.

 

Social media platforms are increasingly toxic sites of harassment and bigotry. H-Net listservs, now networks, have long been safe spaces for robust, moderated, scholarly discourse. In November 2022, when Elon Musk began turning Twitter into a haven for lies, hatred, and bigotry, H-Net responded by creating h-net.social, a free, moderated Mastodon server to provide an off-ramp for scholars fed up with Twitter.

 

While all H-Net’s services are, and will remain, free to use, they require financial support to keep them going. This work is supported by an incredibly talented staff of five full-time senior leaders, two contract copy editors, and six-to-nine undergraduate students, but they need your help to maintain the valuable services mentioned above and to build new services for the future:

 

  • The 3rd Annual H-Net Teaching Conference taking place virtually August 19-24.
  • A Symposium on AI in the Humanities and Social Sciences taking place on February 20-21, 2025, hosted at Michigan State University and streamed live on the H-Net Commons, focused on teaching, research, and ethics.
  • New Job Guide and Reviews platforms fully integrated into the H-Net Commons – one login, and a one stop shop for everything you value at H-Net.
  • A new service, H-Net Spaces, which will allow cohorts of scholars to create robust digital projects on the H-Net Commons, supported by H-Net and mentors experienced creating digital projects.
  • A new Teaching Hub, where educators can upload, create, share, and discuss teaching resources.


I know that quality work has a price. I am lucky enough to have a regular salary, and I enjoy the quality of H-Net’s work, so I feel it is only right to contribute. - Current donor

 

Our goal for this campaign is to add another 50 new recurring contributors. Would you consider becoming a recurring H-Net donor today to support these initiatives and the services you already rely on?