Ethan Sribnick, Consultant, Adjunct Professor, Montgomery College
Proposal Type
Roundtable
Seeking
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking Specific Expertise
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
Related Topics
- Consulting
- Inclusion
Abstract
As a consultant, I have been engaged in writing institutional histories of social welfare and advocacy organizations that have focused on the needs of the poor and dispossessed. How can we use the history of public policy and institutions to better tell the history of the impoverished and the communities they live in? What are the connections between writing the history of organizations and writing the histories of communities? What are the best ways that public historians and consultants can best contribute to a history of poverty?
Description
I am looking for others who would be interested in taking part in a conversation on the questions above or other related questions. I’d be happy to share some of the work I’ve completed as a public history consultant but I’d like this work to be a jumping off point for further discussion.
If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Ethan Sribnick, [email protected]
If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
I hope you can find someone who addresses the experience of the rural poor. Here in Minnesota, counties often ran a poor farm for destitute, elderly, and disabled poor. Then when the state hospital system (for people with mental illness) was started, those poor farms were closed.
Your work also points to the broad question of how public history is of use to social welfare and advocacy organizations–important stuff.
Hello Ethan, If dimensions of food security as depicted in history museums and historic sites are of interest, I discussed that a bit in my book _Interpreting Food at Museums and Historic Sites_. Through decisions that omit or minimize food scarcity, nutrition, and issues of food quality, history museums often misrepresent the state of past food supplies. In that book I offer some suggestions for presenting a more holistic picture of food access and quality – please feel free to use/refer to those, and if there is anything I can do to support the panel, I would be happy to.
http://resource.aaslh.org/view/interpreting-food-at-museums-and-historic-sites/