Membership in SSHA

The Social Science History Association is an interdisciplinary group of scholars that shares interests in social life and theory; historiography, and historical and social-scientific methodologies. SSHA might be best seen as a coalition of distinctive scholarly communities. Our substantive intellectual work ranges from everyday life in the medieval world – and sometimes earlier – to contemporary global politics, but we are united in our historicized approach to understanding human events, explaining social processes, and developing innovative theory.

The term “social science history” has meant different things to different academic generations. In the 1970s, when the SSHA’s first meetings were held, the founding generation of scholars took it to reflect their concern to address pressing questions by combining social-science method and new forms of historical evidence. Quantitative approaches were especially favored by the association’s historical demographers, as well as some of the economic, social and women’s historians of the time. By the 1980s and 1990s, other waves of scholars – including culturally-oriented historians and anthropologists, geographers, political theorists, and comparative-historical social scientists – had joined the conversation.

New intellectual directions continue to emerge at the outset of the 21st century. Today’s SSHA incorporates a diversity of scholarly styles, with lots of crosstalk among them.

When you become a member of SSHA, you will receive the association’s journal Social Science History, which is published online quarterly. Members have access to the journal’s full online content, which includes all recent issues as well as past issues available from the journal’s online archives. Along with your 12-month subscription to Social Science History, members also receive a reduced conference registration rate, are entitled to vote for officers and committee members, and encouraged to participate in the Annual Business Meeting. More benefits, such as special discounts with publishers and special member-only events, are being added constantly. More information is provided to active members via a monthly newsletter.

Membership is on a rolling basis – good for 12 months from the date of your joining/renewal. To sign up for an SSHA membership, please visit the SSHA membership registration website. For assistance with your membership, please contact iuconfs@iu.edu or call 800-933-9330.