The Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) announces the selection Bertis D. English, professor of history at Alabama State University (ASU), as the new editor for the Journal of African American History (JAAH). Dr. English will succeed Dr. Pero G. Dagbovie of Michigan State University, who served as editor for several years.
The Journal of African American History, formerly the Journal of Negro History (JNH), was established by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in 1916 and is an official publication of ASALH. The journal publishes original scholarly articles and book reviews on the African American experience from its earliest phases to the more recent past.
Recent special issues and symposia have focused on the 400th anniversary of 1619, LGBTIA+ themes in African American history, the history of Black internationalism, and African American sports history.
A life member and founding president of the Harper Councill Trenholm Sr. branch of ASALH, English is a tenured history professor, former undergraduate history program coordinator, associate dean, and acting dean of the ASU College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences. English authored an award-winning book titled Civil Wars, Civil Beings, and Civil Rights in Alabama’s Black Belt, published by the University of Alabama Press in 2020, and co-edited (with R. Drew Smith and Stephanie C. Boddie) Racialized Health, Covid-19, and Religious Responses: Black Atlantic Contexts and Perspectives, which Routledge published in 2022. A freelance copyeditor and indexer, English brings a wealth of experience to JAAH. Among other activities, he edited the International Journal of Africana Studies; serves as associate editor of the Journal of Race and Policy; and is former associate editor of the Griot: The Journal of African American Studies. Aware of the preeminence of JAAH, ASU administrators gladly provided institutional resources for the editorship.