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Research Leadership is Hallmark of Historian’s Career
Dr. Leslie Howsam is traveling to Europe three times this year, but she is not going just to speak at the four academic conferences where she’s 
registered. As President of an international academic organization, she chairs meetings, buttonholes potential contributors, chats with University presidents and generally networks. For senior scholars, research leadership becomes an important part of the job. Making connections among scholars is an essential part of the activity behind the planning of conferences, publications and research collaborations.
She goes first to Freiburg-im-Breisgau, in Germany, for a conference called Popular History 1800-1900-2000, where she’ll give a paper called “Growing up with History in the Victorian Periodical Press.” Next comes Helsinki, where the annual conference of SHARP takes place in August. Howsam was elected President of SHARP last year. Her Finnish colleagues have organized a conference on the theme of “Book History from Below” where scholars from Baltic and Scandinavian countries, as well as Britons, Americans and a healthy representation of scholars from Canada present papers. She chairs the executive committee, board of directors and annual general meetings and attends sessions. But mostly, she talks to people at every lunch, coffee break and drinks reception.
Next, Dr Howsam goes to Amsterdam, where SHARP expects to become affiliated with the International Committee of the Historical Sciences. “This is a big thing for SHARP, to see book history taking an institutional place on the global agenda, where it’s already so significant in terms of research,” Howsam says. “And it’s a big thing for me because I’m fascinated by historiographical trends, so Amsterdam this summer is the place to be.”
Then in September – a quick trip during the first week of classes – Howsam crosses the Atlantic once more, for a symposium at Trinity College Dublin, called “The Perils of Print Culture.” She gives a paper, but she also goes to Ireland with an eye to widening and strengthening that book history network.
Research leadership doesn’t always mean travel abroad, though. A lot of it is editorial work of various kinds. L
eslie Howsam is General Editor of a series of about 30 books published by the University of Toronto Press, “Studies in Book and Print Culture.” She has also co-edited a volume of essays on transatlantic book culture, to be published soon by Palgrave Macmillan: it’s called Books Between Europe and the Americas. Research leadership also includes peer review – reading someone’s application for a research chair, or for promotion and tenure. “People who think professors don’t work very hard, and get to do whatever they choose, should know how much of our work has to be reviewed by other scholars,” Dr Howsam says. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s the best job there is – but there’s a lot more to research than working in the archives and writing a paper. That’s only the beginning.”
eslie Howsam is General Editor of a series of about 30 books published by the University of Toronto Press, “Studies in Book and Print Culture.” She has also co-edited a volume of essays on transatlantic book culture, to be published soon by Palgrave Macmillan: it’s called Books Between Europe and the Americas. Research leadership also includes peer review – reading someone’s application for a research chair, or for promotion and tenure. “People who think professors don’t work very hard, and get to do whatever they choose, should know how much of our work has to be reviewed by other scholars,” Dr Howsam says. “Don’t get me wrong, it’s the best job there is – but there’s a lot more to research than working in the archives and writing a paper. That’s only the beginning.”
