It’s difficult to imagine today that there was not much of an academic discipline called “world history” before the 1970s.  

 

Post-World War II saw an increased array of programs in area studies.   World history emerged as a field of study in the United States in the 1970s.   Historians and educators sought to shift from an emphasis on national and regional histories toward broader cross-cultural, comparative, and global approaches.  

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Some of these pioneering world historians were trained in area studies programs that focused on regions beyond Europe and the US; some were self-taught. All carried out research and laid the theoretical groundwork for the field.    They began to create world history courses that emphasized connections, comparisons, and large-scale processes.

 

In the early 1980s, a group of these instructors and scholars formed the World History Association (WHA), set up a governance structure, began holding meetings, and established ways to exchange scholarship and ideas.   This was after New York City public secondary schools established a world history course requirement[i].  

 

The effort gained momentum at a 1982 gathering at the Air Force Academy in Colorado in which a number of papers were presented about designing a world history survey course at the university level and a large number of world history educators were in attendance.  The Air Force Academy had begun to teach world history to its cadets and its history department chair, Carl Redell, in partnership with the American Historical Association, invited the pioneers in the then-nascent field of world history to come to Colorado Springs.  

 

As a result of that meeting, Kevin Reilly (then of the AHA), Ross Dunn, Craig Lockard, Marty Yanuck, and Jerry Bentley founded the World History Association.   Concurrently, secondary school educators Heidi Roupp and Marilynn Hitchens, along with Carl Redell from the Air Force Academy, formed the Rocky Mountain World History Association, which became the first regional affiliate of the WHA. 

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The group formed a steering committee that met in May 1983 at the Johnson Foundation’s Wingspread Conference Center in Racine, Wisconsin with the goal of establishing a structure for the group and initiating future programs.  They created a governance structure with officers and an executive director; they wrote a constitution for the organization. 

 

The Wingspread Journal reported (in summer 1983) that it had been the site of a “key organization meeting for the new World History Association, an affiliate group of the American Historical Association.   The organization comes into being in response to a call for a more global view of history on the part of historians and academicians.   Its principal purposes are to improve the teaching of world history, to encourage the extension of graduate programs in world history, and to aid the development of world history courses in schools and colleges.”

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Soon thereafter, the WHA had a formal Constitution and Bylaws along with a full roster of officers and committee members.   Officers generally served two-year terms.   Each president put his/her/their mark on the association.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From its inception, the World History Association’s executive council was to consist of college and university faculty as well as secondary school educators.    The hope was that the WHA would play a role in furthering graduate teaching and scholarly research as well as to provide support for secondary school and college teachers.    Over the course of its history, although most of its presidents came from the post-secondary/college/university arena,  the WHA has had three secondary school teachers—Heidi Roupp (1998-2000), Marilynn Jo Hitchens (1990-1992), and Michele Forman (2006-2007) —serve as presidents of the organization.

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A decade after it was founded, the World History Association began hosting annual conferences.   Attendance at these legendary conferences grew exponentially so that today, hundreds attend each year.   Our intention is that conferences will be held in and beyond the borders of the United States on a regular cycle.   

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From its inception, the World History Association was dedicated to generating publications that would set high standards of scholarship for world history.  The Journal of World History, founded by the groundbreaking world historian Jerry H. Bentley in 1990 and published in partnership with the University of Hawai'i Press, features scholarly articles, reviews, and analyses and has set the bar for all of the WHA's publications.   The World History Bulletin began earlier, in 1983, serving initially as the newsletter for the Association but over time, it morphed into an essential publication as well, featuring reports from the WHA as well as materials on world history relevant to practicing teachers, book reviews, and announcements.   Recent issues of the World History Bulletin  features guest editors soliciting and editing articles revolving around a particular theme, highlighting the wide range of topics relevant to the study and teaching of world history.   World History Connected, an e-journal founded by former WHA President Marc Jason Gilbert, has been an affiliate publication of the WHA since 2003 and features insightful articles on world history-related topics, reviews of curricula and methodological innovations in world history education, as well as reviews.   World History Connected is published in partnership with George Mason University Press and is supported by a foundational grant of the College Board.​

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​​​Over the course of its existence, the WHA has collaborated with the College Board, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Center for History in the Schools, and sponsored H-World.   Thanks to the work of many WHA members, the College Board developed its AP World History curriculum and exam.   

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In September 2002, the World History Association moved its headquarters from the mainland United States to the University of Hawai’i.   In 2015, it moved back to the mainland and was headquartered at Northeastern University, where it remained through 2023.   Since 2023, the organization is fully virtual, with a mailing address in Massachusetts.   

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During the pandemic years of 2020-2022, much of the WHA's programming was virtual.   Given the inability to host an in-person annual conference, the WHA, like most institutions, pivoted to cyberspace.   In addition, it began hosting webinars, including the innovative series "Under the Baobab," featuring collaborative presentations on innovative approaches to world history topics that were viewed widely.   

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In the late 2010s-early 2020s, the WHA embarked on a series of partnerships with organizations generating curriculum and and freely sharing these materials with the education community.   This included a partnership with OER (Open Educational Resources), followed by one with History for the 21st Century (H/21).   Very much in line with its mission to support educators centering global awareness in their teaching of world history, these peer-reviewed curricula are increasingly used widely in world history classrooms around the world.

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As the WHA approaches the 50th anniversary of its founding in 2032, we continue to grow, learn, collaborate, and respond.   The world grows ever more interconnected.   Deep understanding of world history will be essential to being a citizen of this planet in the 21st century.   The World History Association has a central role to play in building that global civic awareness and articulating our global, interlinked responsibility to fellow citizens of this world, both past and present..   

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​[i] Joe Gowaskie, “The Teaching of World History: A Status Report,” The History Teacher 18 no. 3 (May 1985): 365.