Working Groups

What’s an Annual Meeting “working group”?

NCPH working groups are seminar-like conversations of 8-10 people before and during the annual conference that explore, in-depth, a subject of shared concern.  Working groups have a purpose they are working toward, a problem they are actively trying to solve.  The working group proposal must articulate this as well as an end product(s) that the group seeks to create.

What makes a working group unique? 

Two things.  When a group convenes at the annual meeting, the conversation has already begun. Participants are invested in the outcome. Facilitators have had time to refine their questions and perhaps refocus on the issues.  Second, facilitators lead their group in  developing an end product, such as an article, a list of resources, an exhibit, a manifesto, a white paper, or a new collaborative project.

2011 Working groups

1. The Choices We Make: Public Historians Role in the Commemorations of the Sesquicentennial of the American the Civil War *Case Statements*
Facilitators: Kati Engel, National Park Service, [email protected]; William Stoutamire, Arizona State University, [email protected]

Initiated at the 2009 annual meeting, past participants in this working group have called on NCPH to provide opportunities for members to share information and coordinate efforts before and during the commemoration of the Sesquicentennial. As we continue the conversations begun in Providence and Portland, we must explore the responsibility of public historians to offer new insights into familiar topics, identify gaps in the historical record, and encourage new scholarship. The theme, “Civil War to Civil Rights,” adopted by the National Park Service, challenges us to go beyond the battlefield and explore the legacy of this conflict. Following the theme of the conference, working group participants will reflect on how the challenge of intersecting identities in the United States has affected how we are choosing to commemorate this anniversary. Those interested in participating in this working group should submit a one-paragraph overview of what they will bring to the discussion, and hope to take away. Topics that may be explored are changing perceptions, previous commemorations, and the role of memory in history, and others.

2. Public History and Gentrification: A Contentious Relationship *Case Statements*
Facilitators: Andrew Urban, Rutgers University, [email protected]; Jeff Manuel, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, [email protected]; Amy Tyson, DePaul University, [email protected]

This working group will explore the complicated relationship that exists between public history and the urban development process known as gentrification. Gentrification typically refers to the economic and cultural transformation of urban neighborhoods – in the form of new restaurants, shops, attractions, and housing stock – and the marketing of these neighborhoods to middle-class residents seeking cheap housing. Whereas some people view gentrification as saving or reviving neighborhoods that would otherwise be neglected, others view gentrification as a form of hostile takeover or even urban colonialism.

History is at the heart of gentrification. As poorer residents are displaced, the dramatic racial and economic shifts that often accompany gentrification can lead to a neighborhood’s past being bulldozed. Alternatively, new residents are enticed by the opportunity to “buy into history” through the purchase of a dilapidated Victorian-era house or by converting a former factory space into a residential loft. History may be used to brand a neighborhood and mark it with an unspecified heritage that offers consumers a seemingly unique place in a world of increasing global sameness.

Through historic preservation and the creation and operation of historic sites, museums, and walking tours, public historians routinely interact with neighborhoods and communities experiencing gentrification. This working group will address the following questions: how is public history deployed by those seeking to promote gentrification, such as property developers, civic officials, and economic development agencies? What are the consequences of using public history to assist in the transformation of an urban neighborhood? Conversely, how can public history work to oppose or counteract the effects of gentrification? What roles can public historians play in preserving human ties and sites that are threatened as a neighborhood undergoes economic and cultural change? Finally, what role should public historians and the field of public history play in the broader policy debates about gentrification, which involve planners, politicians, community leaders, and realtors? What unique and important perspectives can public historians bring to these debates?

We hope to examine the relationship between public history and gentrification in practical and pedagogical contexts. We invite participants to share specific case studies where public history has come into conflict with gentrification and examples of how the relationship between gentrification and public history has been interpreted and debated in the classroom, through oral history, and in negotiating community partnerships. In the spirit of the 2011 conference theme, the working group will explore community partnerships that cross class and racial lines, as well as examples of universities and museums acting as agents of gentrification.

The working group seeks to include a diverse range of public history scholars representing universities, museums, and community organizations whose case studies may be drawn from existing or planned public history projects, or works in progress. As a practical output, the working group will compile a bibliography and list of projects that address gentrification and public history, which we will make available to the NCPH.

3. Using “Centers” to Teach Public History and Engage Community Partners *Case Statements*
Facilitator: Ann McCleary, University of West Georgia, [email protected]
Steve Lubar, John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities and Cultural Heritage, [email protected]

In recent years, many public history programs have created some type of institutional structure at their universities to provide experience for their students. This session will examine the roles of such centers in the public history field and their advantages to the public history programs, community partners, and students. In discussing such “centers,” we are focusing on institutionalized “centers,” not class projects or internships designed for short-term, often semester-long training. We propose this session as a working group that would include representatives from all the relevant constituencies, from university faculty and students to the public history partners with whom these “centers” work. The latter could range from local governments to regional museums, archives, and parks to larger government entities such as the state humanities councils and the National Park Service.

Ideally, these “centers” are designed to assist all involved, so how can we create and maintain these laboratories to their best potential? We propose a variety of topics for discussion, but we will be open to those of interest among the working group participants. On the university level, when should a university consider creating such an institutional structure? What types of organizational structures have public history programs created? How are such centers
funded? What types of resources are needed? How does one gain support for a center through the university? Should these centers be collaborative, involving other departments? If so, with whom have programs partnered? What are the challenges and successes at the institutional level in managing these centers and keeping them vital to the university and the mission of the department and the program? How does a program keep a center going? What might be some of the reasons for not creating such an institutional structure?

From the students’ point of view, we plan to recruit graduates, and perhaps current students, who have worked in these environments and could speak to the benefits from their point of view. What have they gained through their experiences? What lessons can they share with us about what we should do, or not do, when creating and managing these centers? When have they learned the most in working at a center, and when have the centers failed to reach their potential?

Last, but equally important, we want to include representatives from partners who have worked with university centers. Who might utilize such a center and why? What are some of the factors that have led to successful partnerships with university centers? What do these partners most need from centers? How can centers more effectively meet the needs of the public history community? What types of projects have partners funded? What are some of advantages and disadvantages when working with a center? We believe that this session would help all of the parties involved by providing opportunities for all the participants to brainstorm and share ideas in this increasingly popular public history endeavor.