Committee Elections
Each year, the existing members of the HOTCUS steering committee stand down. The vacant positions are then subject to a new nomination and – if necessary, election – process.
The nomination period has now closed, and registered HOTCUS members will receive an email from ElectionBuddy on Friday 30 May 2025 at 17:00 (BST) where they will be able to submit their ballot. Voting will end in two weeks time on Friday 13 June 2025 at 17:00 BST. The new committee will then be presented to the membership at the HOTCUS AGM at the annual conference at Lancaster University.
Below are the nomination statements each candidate has submitted to help voters make their choices.
Chair (1-year term) – One candidate standing for election.
Kaeten Mistry (University of East Anglia
These are unprecedented, turbulent times for higher education. As traditional institutions struggle to respond to political and funding crises, organisations like HOTCUS have never been more important.
It has been a tremendous honour to have served as HOTCUS Chair for the past two years. The organisation has rebuilt from the pandemic and is a crucial intellectual hub with growing international membership. It would be a pleasure to lead it as we face the current challenges.
My hopes are for HOTCUS to showcase how a community can take care of its members and nurture critical thinking – in the academy and beyond – to better understand the past and present.
Firstly, I want the organisation to become more self-sufficient to allow it to better withstand external headwinds. We’ve had recent experiences of how the loss of external funds threaten our activities. But thanks to the generosity of the community, we rallied to ensure that we keep supporting junior and early career colleagues through travel grants and conference bursaries. I will continue to develop fundraising and sponsorship efforts so that HOTCUS is fully autonomous, self-reliant, and member led.
Secondly, we will work alongside other organisations and stakeholders to speak out against cuts, precarity, and the uncertainty prevalent in the sector. The risks are not just concentrated at postgraduate and early career members but impact every career stage. We’ll work in collaboration and solidarity with others to demonstrate why robust historical thinking is essential for research, learning, and citizenship.
Vice-Chair (1-year term) – One candidate standing for election.
Katharina Rietzler (University of Sussex)
I’m a Senior Lecturer in History and American Studies at the University of Sussex. My research focuses on U.S. intellectual history, U.S. foreign relations and women’s history. I have served as HOTCUS Vice Chair since 2023, after being a member for several years. As Vice Chair, I have supported the HOTCUS Chair and the Committee, worked on our research awards, and, together with the Postgraduate and Early Career Secretaries, developed a mentoring scheme which launched in 2024/2025. I am very aware that without the dedication and commitment of many HOTCUS members, we would not have been able to set up a mentoring community, and I am deeply grateful to all who came forward and participated in the orientation sessions and the scheme, whether as mentors or mentees. I would like to continue in the role to ensure continuity as we learn from our experiences this year and improve and broaden the scheme. My aim remains to work towards even better HOTCUS support for the research and career prospects of its members. I am enthusiastic about serving HOTCUS and helping it fulfil its aims: to provide intellectual leadership, an inclusive and vibrant scholarly community open to all, and a forum for exchange.
Committee Secretary (1-year term)– One candidate standing for election.
Daniel Rowe (University of Oxford)
I have been closely involved in HOTCUS, and its events–winter symposia and annual conferences–for more than a decade. During that time, I have benefited tremendously from this wonderful, welcoming, and supportive organisation. I view the annual conference, in particular, as a highlight of the academic calendar (a respite from the early summer exam marking deluge). The years I spent working in fixed-term, teaching-centric positions have also made me deeply appreciative of the vital cross-institutional community-building work, and academic exchange that HOTCUS facilitates.
If elected Committee Secretary, I would draw on my experiences of helping to lead the University of Oxford’s RAI to administer HOTCUS’s committee meetings, serve as webmaster of the eye-catching new website, organise elections, and oversee HOTCUS’s other web presences. I am well aware of the important behind-the-scenes role that the Committee Secretary plays in ensuring HOTCUS runs smoothly, and the foundations this work provides for the inclusive and supportive environments we encounter at the organisation’s events. I would also seek to build on Miguel Hernández’s unstinting, selfless work in making the organisation visible in the UK, the rest of Europe, the US, and wider world.
In sum, the health, vitality, and future of HOTCUS as an institution is very important to me. I hope to have the opportunity to play a more active role in this vibrant and vital organisation as its teenage years draw to a close.
Treasurer (1-year term) – One candidate standing for election.
Zoe Hyman (University College London)
In continuing as treasurer at a time of ongoing financial uncertainty, my priorities remain as follows:
- Ensuring that HOTCUS’s bank balance remains healthy so that we can continue to support the organisation’s conference and outreach activities.
- Budget to ensure that HOTCUS can continue to support PGR, precariously employed, and ECR members of our community to carry out research, disseminate their work, and attend HOTCUS events.
- Support committee and institutional conference organisers with budgeting and strategic planning.
- Expand HOTCUS’s membership and fundraising strategy to help support the HOTCUS community, and grow the organisation’s impact on the US History community in the UK and beyond in the longer-term.
Membership Secretary (1-year term) – One candidate standing for election.
Elizabeth Ingleson (London School of Economics)
Community is at the heart of how I approach ideas and learning. To my mind, both are always stronger when they are developed as part of, and within, communities. I have spent the last 10 years studying and working in multiple countries—Australia, the United States, China, and now the UK—during which time I have only come to believe more in the importance of having shared spares to learn and discuss ideas. It is for this reason I am applying for the position of membership secretary, a role that directly engages with the HOTCUS community. If elected, I will use the position to continue and strengthen the connections within HOTCUS and help welcome new members to the organisation—just as I myself experienced when I first moved to the UK. Through the regular newsletter, I will continue to build a research and learning environment that is welcoming and diverse. As a recent member myself, it would be a pleasure to take on a formal role within HOTCUS and give back to an organisation that has given so much already.
Events Secretary (1-year term) One candidate standing for election.
Bevan Sewell (University of Nottingham
I’d be honoured to join the HOTCUS committee as Events Secretary. HOTCUS emerged from the pandemic in a strong and important position, and I have really enjoyed re-engaging with the inspirational intellectual environment the organisation provides. Events have always been integral to HOTCUS and the opportunity to help coordinate those would be one that I’d really embrace. I’ve been hugely impressed with the way the organisation caters to so many areas of interest and would look forward to developing that further.
Building on the many strengths that already exist in the HOTCUS events portfolio, I believe there’s the opportunity to carry on developing those in ways that meet the demands of the contemporary academic sector and its state of perma-crisis; offering a place for people to come together and discuss research, but also providing a space to contemplate skills, careers, projects, and ideas in a broader sense that facilitates HOTCUS members’ engagement with the field. This is particularly important for the organisation’s postgraduate members, who are contemplating joining a sector where traditional academic roles are contracting, and I would see facilitating discussions around that as a vital part of the role.
I have a considerable experience in organising events—from a major international conference at the University of Nottingham, to smaller workshops and symposia, running the Centre for U.S. in the World Studies at Nottingham, and leading an AHRC-funded research network featuring scholars from the UK and Europe. I also co-edited the Journal of American Studies for four years.
Early Career Secretary (1-year term) – One candidate standing for election.
Jennifer Chochinov (University of Manchester)
Hello! My name is Jen Chochinov and I am vying to become the next HOTCUS Early Career Secretary. Since I began my postgraduate studies in 2018, I spent two years as the chair of History Lab where I also organise conferences and helped bring the Olivette Otele Paper Prize to life, assisted organising a HOTCUS winter conference, and assisted in fundraising for the 2024 HOTCUS Summer Conference. I am incredibly passionate about creating and nourishing community and looking for ways to create opportunity for one another. As the Early Career Secretary, I would look for ways to build community and support, whether through brainstorming and creating collaborative projects together, connecting scholars with similar interests, encouraging ways for us to bring each other’s work into classrooms, and to find ways to help each other navigate the minefield of non-permanent employment—a position in which I am very familiar with.
It would bring me immense joy to join the HOTCUS committee and to support ECRs and academics, as well as PGRs and PGR-EC events at HOTCUS, lead sponsorship and fundraising initiatives, and maintain links with similar organisations such as BAAS and to create a closer relationship with History Lab+ and extend our ECR network.
Thank you for your consideration.
Postgraduate Secretary (2-year term) – Two candidates standing for election.
Eszter D Kovacs (University of Oxford)
The postgraduate secretary role at HOTCUS provides an exciting opportunity for me to build on my experience in academic administration and events organising, especially related to 20th century queer history. Having worked as an administrator for the Oxford Centre for Women’s, Gender, and Queer Histories and as a committee member for the Oxford LGBTQ+ History Network, I have gained insight into the academic needs and interests of many postgraduate historians. My organising partners and I have put on various events in Oxford, such as workshop, archival talks, and presentation days, which catered to the specific issues and interests of the postgraduate community. Thanks to this, I have developed a profound enthusiasm for organising events, particularly for postgraduate students. By joining the HOTCUS steering committee, I would be able to gain further experience in similar tasks beyond my university, in-conversation with academics from various institutions.
Moreover, I have been actively engaged in representing students at my university, which I would be interested in continuing at HOTCUS. As a postgraduate representative to the Oxford LGBTQ+ History Working Group, I have been responsible for representing the interests of not only queer historians but queer history itself as a discipline. This experience has allowed me to observe how crucial it is to nurture subfields of history that have been marginalised. If selected for this position, I would be curious to find opportunities to highlight the role of 20th century LGBTQ+ history within the diverse academic community of HOTCUS historians.
Mark Slater (University of Edinburgh)
I am a second-year PhD student at the University of Edinburgh analysing the complex, two-way, relationship between Big Tobacco advertisers and Black Americans in the post-WW2 era. My passion for the study of American history is strong, and I intend to enthusiastically share this passion with other HOTCUS postgraduate researchers should I be elected to this position. As the field of American history faces its challenges both within, and outside of, the UK, I wish for HOTCUS to remain an inclusive, welcoming, and friendly environment for all those who have an interest in our field. I wish to carry on the efforts of our previous postgraduate secretaries and ensure that the thoughts, feelings, and concerns of all postgraduates are accommodated for. HOTCUS is, and should remain, an area where ideas can be shared freely, and without judgement, and, if given the opportunity, I want to continue to facilitate this.
I intend to further expand upon the previous secretary’s efforts to build HOTCUS’s social media presence, particularly as Bluesky has taken off as a friendly forum for academics to exchange ideas. Similarly, I aim to be involved in organising postgraduate workshops, building on my previous involvement in the University of Edinburgh’s postgraduate Global History Workshop, which was a deeply rewarding experience. Lastly, I want to foster deeper connections with other UK-based Americanist organisations in these challenging financial times. Now more than ever do we need a strong cohesive postgraduate community, and I feel that I can continue to foster this.
Further Information
Descriptions of the responsibilities of each committee position are available below. As well as completing their duties, committee members are expected to participate in 4 committee meetings per year over Zoom, and to help judge the annual HOTCUS prizes and other awards.
HOTCUS is dedicated to fostering a culture of inclusion and equality in our organizational structure. We seek to develop an intellectual and organizational environment built on the premise of equity in terms of gender, age, race, sexuality, disability, career stage, and employment status.
If you have any questions about the nomination and election process, please contact Miguel Hernandez at the address above.
Description of HOTCUS Committee Roles
Chair
- Chair meetings of the HOTCUS Committee
- Represent HOTCUS in the broader academic community and act as a link with associated organizations in History, American Studies, Politics, among others
- Define and realise strategic goals
- Help raise the profile of HOTCUS in the international community of U.S. historians and play a role in enhancing membership
- Produce annual report to AGM
- Planning for all HOTCUS events (in collaboration with Events Secretary), including arrangements for the plenary speaker and chairing the lecture at the annual conference
Vice Chair
- Act as Chair pro tempore of Committee meetings as required
- Lead Mentorship scheme
- Promote and deliver EDI in all HOTCUS activities
- Ensure a voice for the alt-academic community (in collaboration with EC Secretary)
- Support Chair in representing HOTCUS in broader academic community
Committee Secretary
- Arrange Committee meetings and keep minutes
- Monitor the planning calendar to ensure committee work and tasks are completed in a timely fashion
- Serve as HOTCUS webmaster
- Manage social media accounts, ensuring consistency of comms (in collaboration with Membership Secretary)
- Organise Committee elections
Treasurer
- Prepare budgets and provide advice on the financial implications of HOTCUS activities and strategic planning
- Manage HOTCUS banking and financial accounts
- Process membership payments and fees (in collaboration with Membership Secretary)
- Advice and assistance in financial planning for HOTCUS events (in collaboration with Events Secretary)
- Pay awards and grants
Events Secretary
- Organisation of Annual Conference, including liaison with personnel of host institution on all aspects of the event
- Disseminate CFP for Annual Conference, review submissions, and draft programme
- Lead planning for future events
- Oversee PG-EC workshop (in collaboration with PG and EC Secretaries)
- Coordinate Winter Symposium (in collaboration with PG Secretaries)
Membership Secretary
- Maintain membership list
- Manage and record membership dues (in collaboration with Treasurer)
- Produce and send news bulletin to HOTCUS members
- Ensure news is disseminated on webpage and social media accounts (in collaboration with Committee Secretary)
- Administer HOTCUS award schemes
Early Career Secretary
- Represent Early Career researchers and academics, including those on temporary contracts and non-permanent employment, ensuring HOCUS activities meet the needs of the EC community
- Lead HOTCUS’s sponsorship and marketing work, including contact with publishers for paid publicity at events (in collaboration with Events Secretary)
- Alongside PG Secretaries, organise the PG-EC workshop that takes place before the Annual Conference (in collaboration with Events Secretary)
- Maintain links with counterparts on BAAS committee and other academic organisations
Postgraduate Secretaries x 2
- Represent Postgraduates, ensuring events and activities meet the needs of the PG community
- Alongside EC Secretary, organise the PG-EC workshop that takes place before the Annual Conference (in collaboration with Events Secretary)
- Assist in organisation of Winter Symposium (in collaboration with Events Secretary)
- Maintain links with counterparts on BAAS committee and other academic organisations