By Erin Richardson, AASLH Standards and Ethics Committee Chair
AASLH’s Standards and Ethics Committee is currently seeking nominees for terms beginning October 1, 2024. If you are interested in museum and public history ethics or know someone who is, this may be an ideal opportunity.
I’ve been serving on the Ethics Committee since 2018, and as Chair since October 2020 (I served two terms as Chair to provide continuity during the pandemic, but I’ll be stepping down in September 2024). This committee provides considerable value to AASLH’s members and the history and museum field as a whole through a variety of activities. Plus, our meetings are fun and I love engaging with smart folks in our field who are interested in considering tough topics.
This Committee is responsible for the Statement of Standards and Ethics, publishing occasional papers and reports of interest to the field, and fielding questions from AASLH members with ethical dilemmas. Much of our work is accomplished on a task-force basis incorporating members of other committees. Recently we’ve completed these publications:
We also worked with AAM’s Curator’s Committee to gather feedback on the Collections Sustainability Rubric at AASLH’s 2019 conference in Philadelphia.
In the next few years we’ll be reviewing the existing AASLH Statement of Standards and Ethics along with representatives from the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Small Museums Affinity Community. The Statement was last updated in 2018 and it is time for another close read to assess what changes or additions might be needed. Our committee gathers virtually for quarterly meetings and typically present some content or provide opportunity for feedback at each of AASLH’s annual conferences around current ethical concerns in the field. At this year’s conference in Mobile, we plan to hear feedback about some proposed revisions to the Statement.
If you’re looking for some fun and intellectually challenging field service, we’d love to hear from you. You can nominate a colleague (or yourself!) by sending an email (along with your resume, if self-nominating) to John Marks (marks@aaslh.org), the AASLH staff liaison to the committee. Check out the AASLH Committee Handbook for more information on responsibilities of AASLH committee members. Please feel free to reach out to any of the current committee members for more information about this service opportunity.
- Erin Richardson, PhD, Principal, Frank + Glory (Committee Chair), NY
- Chris Goodlett, Senior Director of Curatorial & Educational Affairs, Kentucky Derby Museum, KY
- Michelle Banks, Co-Founder, African American Firefighter Museum, CA
- Aimee Newell, Director of Collections and Exhibitions, Museum of the American Revolution, PA
- Alex Rasic, James M. Gamble Executive Director, The Gamble House Conservancy, CA
- Ellen Endslow, Director of Collections/Curator, Chester County History Center, PA
- Sara Phalen, Director/Curator, West Chicago City Museum, IL
- Angela Agard, Executive Director, Clemson Area African American Museum, SC
- Margaret Koch, Director, Bullock Texas State History Museum, TX