05 February 2014 – Cody Ferguson
conference, preservation, public engagement, sense of place, environment, sustainability, profession
How are public history and environmental history connected?
As this year’s liaison between the National Council on Public History’s Annual Meeting in Monterey and the annual Conference of the American Society for Environmental History in San Francisco, I am tasked with this question. Read More
03 February 2014 – Steven Burg 4
Off the east coast of Southern Sweden, a battle is raging between competing visions of sustainability. On the most unlikely of battlegrounds, bucolic Öland island, a desire to promote renewable energy has brought local officials committed to promoting a sustainable society into conflict with island residents, preservationists, farmers, environmentalists, and local business owners who believe that protecting the island’s character and cultural resources is incompatible with a proposal to expand industrially generated wind power on the island. Read More
31 January 2014 – Richard Anderson 4
In September of last year,History@Work published a series of posts by Robert Weyeneth, president of NCPH and Director of the Public History Program at the University of South Carolina. Collectively titled “A Perfect Storm,” the posts addressed what Weyeneth identified as a broadly shared concern among public history professionals (inside and outside academia) that a jobs crisis exists in the field. Read More
29 January 2014 – Denise Meringolo 1
Recently, I went with a group of friends to see Yoga: The Art of Transformation at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC. The exhibition includes representations of yoga practice in sculpture, painting, icons, and illuminated manuscripts across 2,000 years. Read More
29 January 2014 – editors
ANNCT: LYRASIS announces CollectionSpace, an open source, web-based collections management system (CMS) for museums and other collecting organizations
CFP: “How do we choose? The stories we collect, the ones we don’t” – Oral History in the Mid-Atlantic Region conference, April 24-25, 2014, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. Read More
27 January 2014 – Tyler Priest 1
I am generally not a fan of sound-bite history. In this age of information overload and attention deficits, however, I suppose we must consider ways of packaging history in short, audio-visual formats in order to reach a larger public audience. Richard Heinberg’s Post Carbon Institute video, “The Ultimate Roller Coast Ride,” is a worthy effort in this regard. Read More
24 January 2014 – Holly Ackerman
Editor’s Note: This piece continues a series of posts related to the Guantánamo Public Memory Project, a collaboration of public history programs across the country to raise awareness of the long history of the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay (GTMO) and foster dialogue on its future. Read More
22 January 2014 – Nancy Zak 3
archives, environment, sustainability, human rights, politics, digital media, projects, advocacy, public engagement, community history, memory
Ironbound Community Corporation, a non-profit community organization in Newark, New Jersey, which celebrates its 45th anniversary in 2014, began working on an archive in 2011, partnering with the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. ICC’s unique environmental justice history, which gained it an early national reputation, is important to its city, state, and the country at large. Read More
21 January 2014 – Cathy Stanton
ANNCT: Museums Advocacy Day 2014, Feb. 24-25 in Washington, D.C., is the prime opportunity for museums to make their case on Capitol Hill and your participation will provide an invaluable service to both your museum and your museum colleagues nationwide. Read More
17 January 2014 – Cassie Ward 2
Every day I am asked, “You’re a public historian–what the heck is that and what do you do all day?” I smile from ear to ear, climb on top of my soapbox, and begin to talk about how fortunate I feel to have turned my love of history into a challenging and fulfilling career. Read More