(Re)Active Public History: NCPH Twitter Mini-Con

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As you may have noticed in Public History News, NCPH is excited to announce that our first ever NCPH Twitter Mini-Con will be taking place October 18-19, 2018. The theme for the conference is (Re)Active Public History, and is rooted in a desire to critically discuss the active ways that public historians engage with the public, the past, and historical scholarship.

This NCPH Twitter Mini-Con comes with no conference fees and no travel costs. It is designed to encourage collaboration and public engagement, and to spark discussion in an accessible format. This is a great opportunity to participate in the NCPH community if you can’t make it to the upcoming 2019 annual meeting in Hartford, Connecticut.

The conference is modeled after the Beyond 150 Twitter Conference,  supported by Unwritten Histories, Active History, Canada’s History Society, and the Wilson Institute, which took place in August 2017 and invited Canadian historians to talk about Canada’s 150th anniversary.

During the conference, each presenter will be allocated fifteen minutes to present their work in a pre-scheduled presentation of 12 to 15 tweets. Each presentation will be followed by an additional fifteen-minute period for discussion and questions. Presentation tweets can be text based (within the 280-character limit), contain links, consist of slides and/or graphics, or combine these approaches.

Interested in seeing what a Twitter presentation looks like? Here are some examples from the Beyond 150 conference:

Julia M. Gossard, a presenter at the Beyond 150 conference, also wrote about her experience participating and presenting. If you’re looking to get a sense of how Twitter conferences work, the benefits to participating, and what you would be required to do as a presenter, check out her post on The Junto Blog.

A presenters’ guide with additional information about tweet formatting and how everything will actually work is available here. Follow the #NCPHactive hashtag to learn more about the conference and to connect with presenters during the conference.

We are really looking forward to engaging with NCPH members and public historians through this Twitter conference.

~ Krista McCracken (They/Them) is a public history professional and archivist.  They work as an archives supervisor at Algoma University’s Arthur A. Wishart Library and Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre, in Baawating (Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario) on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe and Métis people. Krista’s research interests include community archives, residential schools, access, and outreach. Krista is an editor of the popular Canadian history website Activehistory.ca. Krista also currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Council on Public History. On Twitter: @kristamccracken

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