Coffee Tables Books, Pulp Fiction Covers, and Courtroom Photography: Finding & Understanding the Art in Historical Interpretation

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Art was how I first encountered and understood history. Today, as a doctoral candidate researching the transnational legal history of juvenile justice in the American borderlands, I explore the history of the surveillance and policing of youth in places such as public schools, places of worship, and social services through historical visual sources and my own multi-media art. Read More

Our Side of the Tracks: Community Curation of Black History in Acworth, Georgia (Part 1)

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The first of two installments in a series exploring the development of the “Our Side of the Tracks” exhibit at Doyal Hill Park in Acworth, Georgia, Part One describes the origins of the project, starting with the partnership between Kennesaw State University’s Department of Museums, Archives and Rare Books and the City of Acworth, Georgia, as well as providing background on developmental changes over the past forty years in Acworth’s historically Black neighborhoods. Read More

Reflections on (relatively) rapid-response programming

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Last year, in my role as the membership coordinator for National Council on Public History (NCPH), I had the pleasure of helping put on several virtual programs in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Soon after lockdown began and public history institutions started cutting hours and furloughing or laying off staff members, at NCPH we asked ourselves, in the spirit of rapid-response collecting, what could NCPH do for struggling public historians? Read More

Centering African American history in a public history course

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I first became interested in public history as a child. My church often had events that celebrated Black history. And at least once a year, my schools would create bulletin boards highlighting the achievements of African Americans. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, I knew that I wanted to teach courses that explored how this history has been taught in public spaces. Read More

A Public Historian in Publishing: Lessons from Working Outside the Field

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As we grapple with the short-term (and potentially long-term) impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis on museums and cultural institutions, public historians across the field are dealing with layoffs, staff reductions, and decreased funding. And when non-history job prospects arise, offering higher salaries, healthcare benefits, and the ability to work from home, many face a difficult choice: to hold out for a position in public history or pursue opportunities in a different field. Read More