Thoughts from SHAFR President
Mary Ann Heiss

It was great seeing so many of you in Arlington for our first fully in-person conference since 2019.  Thanks to Program Committee Chairs Jeannette Eileen Jones and Jason Parker, the members of the Program Committee, Conference Consultant Kaete O’Connell, Conference Assistant Sydney Snowden, and especially Executive Director Amy Sayward for working so hard to put together such an outstanding event.  I know I join many others in saying I’m already looking forward to Toronto.

The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) seeks to appoint a new Executive Director. This part-time position will officially begin on 1 August 2025, but will include a one-year stint as assistant to the current Executive Director, beginning on 1 August 2024, in order to facilitate the transition.  The term of appointment is five years with the possibility of renewal, and compensation will be commensurate with skills and experience.

Candidates should be SHAFR members and have experience or demonstrated aptitude in these areas: embracing SHAFR’s research and teaching missions; administering a program or organization; managing budgets, finances, and business procedures; supervising conference and event planning; embracing intellectual diversity and dynamic change; and handling both routine and sensitive communications with SHAFR members and others.

Department of State Central Files, 1789-1910 Available Online: An Omnibus

NHPRC has a job posting for the Director for Publishing Programs.

Read more on USA Jobs - https://www.usajobs.gov/job/734930600.

National Archives Releases JFK Assassination Records 
 

WASHINGTON, June 30, 2023 – In accordance with President Biden’s memorandum of June 30, 2023 the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) posted all documents with newly released information subject to the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (JFK Act). Released documents are available for download here.  

On December 15, 2022, President Biden directed agencies to jointly review remaining redactions in records, disclosing all information except when the strongest possible reasons counsel otherwise. NARA worked in concert with agencies to complete this review and adhere to the President’s direction. Since April 15, 2023, 2,672 additional documents have been released in full or with fewer redactions. 

The President also instructed agencies involved in this effort to provide NARA’s National Declassification Center (NDC) with transparency plans, which are available to the public here. NARA approved these plans, which will be used by the NDC to ensure appropriate continued release of information as specific identified harm dissipates, then triggering public disclosure.  

“At the National Archives, we believe in the importance of government transparency and the accessibility of information. The dedicated and detailed work completed by NARA staff and by our partners and stakeholder agencies is an excellent representation of how we can collaborate together to ensure that the maximum amount of information is made available to the American people, while we protect what we must,” stated Dr. Colleen Shogan, 11th Archivist of the United States. “I have every confidence that the NDC’s implementation of these plans offers a clear path forward for public transparency and the timely release of additional information as circumstances warrant.”

Online Resources:

Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on the Temporary Certification Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection

Documenting the Death of a President

JFK Assassination Records Review Board

JFK Assassination Records FAQs

Warren Commission Report
 

FOIA Advisory Committee Seeks Input on Draft Model Determination Letter – The FOIA Ombudsman (archives.gov)

June 14, 2023 By Kimberlee N Ried, Posted In Customer Service, Definitions And Concepts, FOIA Advisory Committee, Government Information, National Archives And Records Administration, Ombudsman, Open Government, Plain Language, Uncategorized

SHAFR Conference Prize Announcements, 2023 

At this year’s awards presentation at the SHAFR Conference, we recognized some of the best scholarship of the previous year, determined by some of SHAFR’s hardest working volunteers on our prize committees. 

NARA Research Rooms Fully Open

Required research appointments ensure enough space and an improved research experience.

There's less a month left to submit nominations for the 2023 SHAFR election!

The upcoming election will fill the following positions:

By way of Lee White at the National Coalition for History:

POLITICO- White House declassification review delayed

By JOSH GERSTEIN, ALEXANDER WARD, MATT BERG and ARI HAWKINS 

May 10 2023

WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA), Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Sens. John Cornyn (R-TX), Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jerry Moran (R-KS) today announced bipartisan legislation to reform the security classification system in order to reduce overclassification, prevent mishandling of classified information, promote better use of intelligence, and enhance public trust.

“The government systematically overclassifies too much information, at a dangerous cost to both the nation’s security and the public trust.  At the same time, we too often fail to protect the nation’s most important secrets.  As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, I think it is clear that our security classification system is badly in need of change,” said Sen. Warner. “Given the explosion in digital records, the status quo is no longer tenable.  We’ve got too many people with access to a system that is devoid of accountability and has grown increasingly byzantine, bureaucratic, and outmoded. We need to protect our national security secrets, and then declassify those secrets when protections are no longer necessary.  It’s time for Congress to take action and establish accountability.”

National Archives Press Release

Shogan Confirmed by U.S. Senate as 11th Archivist of the United States

June 3, 2023 from 2-5:30 PM at the Gatton Student Center Grant Ballroom, University of Kentucky

Celebration of Life Invitation

Conference: The New International Economic Order. Lessons and Legacies 50 Years Late 

May 10-11, 2024. Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy