ASEH endorsed a letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement concerning its decision to end visa exemptions for international students. The Modern Language Association drafted the letter and sent it this afternoon to Matthew T. Albence, the deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The letter text and signatories are here. Full text below.

Letter to Immigration and Customs Enforcement Concerning Its Decision to End Visa Exemptions for International Students

In July 2020, the Modern Language Association and other members of the American Council of Learned Societies sent this letter to Matthew T. Albence, the deputy director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

8 July 2020
 
Deputy Director Matthew W. Albence
Immigration and Customs Enforcement
By email to matthew.albence@ice.gov

Dear Deputy Director Albence,

The higher education community represented by the undersigned disciplinary societies urges Immigration and Customs Enforcement to revisit its decision to end temporary visa exemptions for international students whose upcoming coursework will be entirely online. Colleges and universities alike depend on the presence, physical and online, of international visa holders, and many undergraduate and, especially, graduate students cannot complete their work without access to the archival, library, laboratory, and technical resources of their institutions, whether classes are being held entirely online or not. 

International students are an important element of our institutions’ vitality and diversity, and the exemptions that were in place for spring and summer under the Student Exchange and Visitor Program allowed many students to remain connected to their US institutions during this unsettled time. Revoking those exemptions now will end the possibility of US study for international students, affecting both their futures and the futures of the institutions that have depended on and benefited from their contributions. These new restrictions will affect the futures of international students and will as profoundly affect the futures of the colleges and universities that depend on and benefit from their contributions. The increased financial burdens on US universities will be significant.

Please reinstate the temporary visa exemptions for international students and faculty members while we are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, including at least the Fall 2020 and Spring 2021 semesters. The U.S. system of higher education has long attracted students from all over the world, and for good reason. Please do not refuse access to our colleges and universities for the estimated one million international students who would be affected by this change in policy.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

African Studies Association

American Academy of Religion

American Anthropological Association 

American Comparative Literature Association Executive Committee

American Folklore Society

American Historical Association

American Musicological Society

American Political Science Association

American Schools of Oriental Research

American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies

American Society for Environmental History

American Sociological Association 

American Studies Association

Archaeological Institute of America

Association for Asian Studies

Association for Jewish Studies Executive Committee

Association for Research on Nonprofit Associations and Voluntary Action

Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

Bibliographical Society of America

Latin American Studies Association 

Medieval Academy of America

Middle East Studies Association

Modern Language Association

National Communication Association 

National Council of Teachers of English

National Council on Public History

North American Conference on British Studies

Organization of American Historians

Phi Beta Kappa Society

Shakespeare Association of America

Sixteenth Century Society and Conference

Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Study

Society for Ethnomusicology

Society for Biblical Literature 

Society for Classical Studies

Society for Music Theory

Society of Architectural Historians

World History Association

Dear Members and Colleagues,

The American Society for Environmental History has decided to postpone our April 2021 conference in Boston because we are not confident that Covid-19 will allow us to hold a large, in-person meeting this coming spring. We are extremely disappointed that we will not be able to see everyone. We are going to use next year as an opportunity to connect through regional meetings and local events that bring environmental historians together and environmental history to a wider audience - Environmental History Week.

Environmental History Week is an international celebration of environmental history, organized by environmental historians of all stripes to foster scholarly collaboration, academic research, teaching and public awareness of environmental history. It will take place April 19-25, 2021, and will coincide with Earth Day.

Please join us by organizing an event in your area, and sending information to us so we can publicize it on the Environmental History Week events calendar on the ASEH.org website. You can help diversify environmental history by inviting colleagues, scholars, and community-members who do not normally attend environmental history conferences to participate. Find collaborators by posting on H-Environment, other H-Net lists, and social media channels listed on the Environmental History Week website. ASEH will help connect people and organizations, and promote and amplify the events and good works in your communities.

Environmental History Week events can take many forms. In person, face-to-face events could be all-day mini-conferences; environmental history lectures on a campus or at a public library or museum; student presentations at a student research symposium; film series with audience discussions; field trips or tours, or hands-on projects in collaboration with nonprofits in your area; or a teacher training program for local K-12, community college, or graduate students. Digital events could be virtual conferences conducted on an online, video conference platform; streamed films with online discussions; self-guided field trips; or a virtual museum exhibit. Programs for all audiences are welcome. If you have other ideas for events, please share them. ASEH will maintain a calendar of affiliated events and promote all Environmental History Week activities. Check aseh.org for regular updates and information

Environmental History Week replaces the 2021 American Society for Environmental History conference in Boston. We are very grateful to the Boston Local Arrangements Committee for all their work. ASEH's annual meeting will return in 2022 in Eugene, Oregon; in 2023 ASEH will meet in Boston. In the meantime, Environmental History Week will provide rich opportunities for intellectual exchange, and for engaging the public, K-12 teachers, and scholars in adjacent fields in an era when global pandemic makes a large, international conference risky and unwise. We also hope that Environmental History Week will generate models for low-carbon alternatives to large academic conferences.

Please join us as we celebrate environmental history and help us bring our interests and knowledge to a broader public.

Thank you for your support.

American Society for Environmental History

ASEH has signed the AHA Statement on the History of Racist Violence in the United States.

The AHA has issued a statement urging a reckoning with the United States' deplorable record of violence against African Americans, a record that stretches back centuries. The killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers stands within this sordid national tradition of racist violence. It is past time for Americans to confront our nation's past, using insights from history to inform our actions as we work to create a more just society. 

Dear ASEH Members,

I feel torn apart by recent events.  The Covid-19 epidemic and job layoffs have caused terrible suffering in communities of color.  In the midst of that crisis came the horrific killings of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.  Those murders are, of course, only the most recent examples of a long history of racism and injustice toward African Americans in the United States.  Protestors have flooded into our streets to call for justice, and in too many cases police have responded to peaceful protest with violence. 

In the midst of a terrible time, I am writing to say to all our members—and especially African Americans and members of other oppressed groups—that ASEH stands with you and condemns racism, injustice, and brutality.  I do not pretend to know what it feels like to be African American, but anyone can see that we live in a world of pain.  I too feel anger and despair.

Now, as ever, we must work diligently to enact our principles of equity and inclusion in ASEH, educational institutions, and all of society.  I encourage all of us to contact colleagues, even by brief texts or emails, to let them know we support them.  We need to be ready to listen and respond to colleagues who voice their experiences with racism and injustice.  If there is a particular way in which I can help you, please let me know.  

Sincerely,

Edmund Russell