Richard Harker, PhD Student, Georgia State University
Proposal Type: Panel
Abstract: My paper will look at two projects from the Museums Connect program, sponsored by the U.S. State Department and administered by the American Alliance of Museums, and will consider how the projects and museums involved negotiate national borders given the explicit presence of the U.S.’s governments cultural diplomacy agenda.
Seeking: As public history grows increasingly internationalized and more partnerships and projects emerge that transcend national borders, this panel will explore different examples of transnational public history and the implications that this has on the the work and practice of public history.
I am looking for two or three additional panelists whose work or research in interested in public history around or across national boundaries. This may include transnational partnership, working with transient communities, or border sites as spaces for historical interpretation. This panel could also consider cultural and linguistic “borders” and may appeal to oral historians or practitioners working with immigrant communities.
Related Topics: Museums/Exhibits, Oral History, Memory
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: Richard Harker, rharker1[at]student.gsu.edu
If you have general ideas or feedback to share please feel free to use the comments feature below.
Great topic. I am sure people from the International Federation for Public History will be interested. I will highlight your proposal in our listserv. I know public historians who try to create collaboration between PH programs in America and Europe, that would be a more academic example. I guess you must know the “Identities: Understanding Islam in a Cross-Cultural Context” project organized by Museum Connect with Morocco? http://marb.kennesaw.edu/identities/
My proposal, which deals with an interdiscipary look at the Texas Hill Country, focuses on this issue of borders-for example, Texas as the frontier relative to the South and the Civil War and Texas as the frontier relative to Native Americans before and after the Civil War. Our work might fit well as a panel.
Thanks for the suggestion Thomas, and for helping me reach out to the Int. Fed. folks. I actually worked on the “Identities” project you mentioned through my work at the Museum of History & Holocaust Education, and it is one of the case studies in my dissertation/conference paper!