National Council on Public History

Michella Marino, Assistant Professor of History, Hastings College

Proposal Type

Roundtable

Seeking

• Seeking Additional Presenters
• General Feedback and Interest

Related Topics

• Civic Engagement
• Oral History
• Teaching

Abstract

My Intro to Oral History class provides an intersection for academic, public, and oral history through Service-Learning projects. S-L, generally defined, entails student participation in a community service activity for class credit and student reflection to understand class materials, the discipline, and civic values and responsibility. Through such high-impact practices, I have found that bringing more public history into the classroom is also a way to engage students in the community while exploring different types of historical methods and functions. My experiences with the Mary Lanning Healthcare Oral History Project and the Hastings Oral History Initiative highlight both the merits and challenges of this intersectionality.

Seeking

I would like to engage with other scholars, teachers, and practitioners of oral history and public history in a fruitful roundtable discussion about both public and oral history in the classroom and community through utilizing such high-impact learning practices as Service-Learning. I hope to find at least two other facilitators (perhaps a public historian, oral historian, and/or a community partner/organizer) to help guide the roundtable as well as multiple participants to share their experiences in combining these types of projects, related projects each participant has been involved in, the successes and drawbacks of these projects, ideas about future types of projects, and conversations about power dynamics, shared authority, and community service. Potential questions for discussion could include:

• Who is providing and receiving the service in oral history and S-L projects?
• Does the shared authority of the project value the views of both the college and community? Does it have to encompass both?
• Are we in the middle of a reimagining of the relationship between academic and public history?

I am open to further suggestions or a narrower topic based on other potential presenters ideas, particularly as I know there have been similar roundtable discussions in the past.

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: Michella Marino

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