Camille Bethune-Brown, student, University of Maryland
Proposal Type
Working Group
Seeking
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking Specific Expertise
- General Feedback and Interest
Related Topics
- Teaching
- Other: Diversity/Inclusion
Abstract
This working group seeks to continue the work and conversation from our roundtable, “Public Historians of Color”; we aim to examine the tools of public history training and practice as components of the discipline’s pipeline. Recruitment, retention, and curricula are vital elements of any graduate program; we believe that developing and maintaining culturally competent graduate programs can be the foundation of future public history practice, thereby influencing both the academy and the profession.
Seeking
This working group is a response to the lively discussion in our roundtable at last year’s Annual Meeting. What initially began as a call to action to increase the numbers of students of color in public history graduate programs evolved into a discussion of cultural competency within these programs. It is in this spirit of continuing both the conversation and the work that we seek to analyze and understand the tools utilized in PH graduate programs to create culturally competent scholar-practitioners. If diverse voices are underrepresented in the tools of research, their perspectives may not be adequately represented in exhibits, programs, and other public history initiatives.
In creating this working group, we recognize the importance of intersectionality; as such, we welcome feedback and participation from a variety of viewpoints (ability, age, gender, ethnicity, race, religion, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic class). Additionally, we are looking to involve public historians from across the spectrum of experience–graduate students, new professionals, public history educators, and public history professionals.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to share contact information for other people the proposer should reach out to, please get in contact directly: Camille Bethune-Brown
If you have general ideas or feedback to share please feel free to use the comments feature below.
All feedback, and offers of assistance, should be submitted by July 3, 2016.
COMMENTS HAVE CLOSED. PLEASE EMAIL THE PROPOSER DIRECTLY WITH ANY ADDITIONAL COMMENTS OR OFFERS TO COLLABORATE.
Discussion
2 comments
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I’m excited for this working group, which is addressing one of the (if not the) most pressing issues facing public historians, especially those of us involved in training the next generation of leaders in the field.
I’m interested in learning more about how the group is defining cultural competency. When I was working in the public humanities before starting at Rutgers University-Newark, I ran a program that used literature to help healthcare practitioners gain cross-cultural sensitivity, among other goals. One of my most fascinating sites was the medical residency program at an urban NJ hospital located in a very poor, majority African American city. The residents in the program were often people of color, but from all over the world and from a higher class background than the people who they were treating. So, cross-cultural competency there meant something very different than at a suburban or non-teaching hospital. It meant thinking intersectionally about class, national and religious difference, and how the history of African Americans in the U.S. differed from the history of other people of color worldwide, in the context of providing appropriate healthcare. I share this example to suggest the complexity of these issues and one tool to deal with them: literature. I’m looking forward to hearing how we can address this complexity in our public history programs while also making sure that our students are supported.
Camille, did you have any specific curricula proposals in mind? How do you achieve a culturally competent graduate program? Were there any particular areas of practice that came out of the round table discussion that might be a focus for a working group to investigate and explore further?