Alicia McGill, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State University

Proposal Type: Roundtable

Abstract: Today, historic sites and objects, built environments, natural landscapes, and other forms of history and cultural heritage are under a broad range of threats. Heritage preservation is a burgeoning industry with practitioners from many fields (such as public history, anthropology, environmental studies, and cultural resource management), who face shared preservation challenges, including urban development, environmental and cultural sustainability, rising economic costs, and issues of shared authority with stakeholders. But, these individuals often work within stark disciplinary boundaries where ideological and practical debates take place about how risks to history are managed and mitigated. At the edge of these boundaries, interdisciplinary work is taking place that increases understandings of the social, economic, political, and cultural issues facing heritage preservation practitioners and stakeholders.

The aim of the proposed roundtable panel is to bring together practitioners from diverse backgrounds to address disciplinary boundaries related to heritage preservation, engage in dialogue about practices, challenges, and successes in historic preservation (broadly defined), and to explore how interdisciplinarity can ensure the sustainability of heritage preservation and social-justice oriented practice in the future.

Seeking: With this topic proposal submission, I am seeking to connect with individuals who have expertise in heritage preservation and who are interested in acting as panelists in a roundtable session at the 2015 NCPH meeting.

Specifically, I am seeking panelists from a variety of disciplinary and professional backgrounds to participate in an open and engaging dialogue and debate about heritage preservation, and who are willing to share their experiences including success stories and lessons learned.

I bring a background in community-based heritage research, cultural anthropology, education, and critical heritage studies to the panel discussion, with a focus on Latin America. I am interested in hearing from people who work in other areas of the world, and other disciplinary contexts including (but not limited to) public history, environmental conservation, architectural history, practitioners involved in community-based preservation initiatives, critical heritage studies, urban development, and cultural resource management. I am particularly interested in hearing from scholars who could contribute to discussions about the growing internationalization of heritage preservation, as I see this as an important component of diversifying the fields of public history and preservation and increasing the sustainability of conservation movements.

Once panelists for the roundtable session are identified, I expect that we would also elaborate on the abstract proposed here to tailor it to heritage preservation issues and topics in which panelists specialize. Possible topics to be explored in the roundtable include: political and social agendas related to heritage preservation, the potential for interdisciplinary exchanges and collaboration across history, public history, anthropology, and other fields, scholarly and cultural perspectives on the meaning of stewardship, interdisciplinary training in heritage preservation work, and methods to increase the diversity of heritage preservation practitioners.

Please contact me if you are interested in engaging in an interdisciplinary conversation about current challenges to heritage conservation movements and the field of public history within varied economic, political, and cultural climates.

Related Topics: Preservation, Civic Engagaement, Environment, Cultural Heritage

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: Alicia McGill, aemcgill[at]ncsu.edu

If you have general ideas or feedback to share please feel free to use the comments feature below.

 


Discussion

3 comments
  1. Denise Meringolo says:

    I like this idea of identifying the ways in which disciplinary boundaries help or hinder preservation (which is probably a vast oversimplification of what you are trying to accomplish). In some ways, I think your proposal seems too big to me at the moment. Perhaps you can pinpoint some case study examples of projects that succeeded (or where hindered) by interdisciplinary input, that might help you ground your discussion goals a bit.

    1. Alicia McGill says:

      Thanks for your comment, Denise. Case study examples are precisely what I hope participants will contribute to the discussion. Do you have an example you might like to discuss? Please email me if you are interested in joining the panel.

  2. Adrienne Burke says:

    I think this is a fantastic topic! I work in community development for a local government, where my particular area of expertise is historic preservation. I have a background in history before I got into city planning, so I recognize the value in telling the story of a place in addition to understanding the regulatory structure needed to protect it. We have a project going on in my community right now surrounding our historic municipal cemetery, c.1798. We have a working group involving representatives of the City (me), our local history museum, genealogical society, historical society, tree preservation group, and some citizens at large. I also have a wonderful partnership with our history museum, and together we have done some fun projects over the past few years.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.