Professional

Sweet has served in a variety of professional leadership positions. At UW-Madison, he directed the African Studies Program (2012-2013), chaired the Department of History (2013-2016), and chaired the Department of Spanish and Portuguese (2017-2020). He is a book series editor for the University of Wisconsin Press. He also sat on the editorial boards of Luso-Brazilian Review, The Americas, and Journal of Africana Religions. He was an elected Councilor of the Research Division of the American Historical Association (2016-2019). Currently, he is the president of the American Historical Association (AHA), the largest organization of its kind in the world and the oldest professional organization of historians in the United States. As president, he pens monthly columns in AHA’s news magazine, Perspectives on History. His columns include: “Grief, Goodness, and History” (December 2022); “Our Letter-Writing Culture” (October 2022); “Is History History?” (September 2022); “Professor Coach” (September 2022); “Finding our Roots” (April 2022); “March Madness” (March 2022); “Diffusion as Dilution?” (February 2022); and “From Inclusive Public Schools to Divisive Concepts” (January 2022).