Annual Meetings
Membership and Student Involvement
The AAHM actively encourages students to become members of the Association, recognizing that students are vital to the Association’s future success. Toward these ends, the AAHM provides for very low membership dues for students, and they are encouraged to take every advantage of this opportunity.
In addition, students are welcome to submit paper proposals for the AAHM meetings, which have historically featured a large proportion of papers by students. Many universities and graduate departments will support your travel to read a paper at a scholarly meeting if it has successfully passed a peer review process. Membership is not required of presenters at the meeting, although the Student Section strongly encourages all speakers to join. The Travel Grant Program, now in its 8th year, provides a good option to help offset travel costs for student member-presenters who do not have support from their host institution. While the continuation of such programs cannot be guaranteed by the AAHM, its leadership is committed to including students in the Association’s scholarly and organizational activities as much as possible.
Finally, the AAHM awards two prizes annually to recognize excellence in student scholarship. The Shryock Medal is awarded to a graduate student enrolled in a humanities or social sciences program “for an unpublished essay that is the result of original research or shows an unusual appreciation and understanding of problems in history of medicine.” Conversely, the Osler Medal is given each year to a medical student “for an unpublished essay that is either the result of original research or shows unusual appreciation and understanding of historical problems.” Both prizes seek to promote student scholarship and greater involvement in our discipline.