Tag Archive
11 November 2016 – editors 6
How should public historians respond to the new reality of the incoming political leadership in the United States? Representative democracy in the United States has survived the bitter partisanship of the Early Republic, the Civil War, corruption and scandals, the rise of international fascism, and the paroxysms of protest against the Vietnam War, so it is likely to endure. Read More
23 August 2016 – editors
Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site recently launched Prisons Today: Questions in the Age of Mass Incarceration, the first major museum exhibit to tackle this civil rights issue.* Prisons Today asks open-ended questions and encourages dialogue among visitors about America’s past and present prison systems. Read More
08 June 2016 – editors
On Monday, March 21, 2016 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia officially launched A Liberian Journey: History, Memory, and the Making of a Nation, a new digital public history project that is the product of a multi-year, multi-institutional collaboration. This effort marks the beginning of a recollection of Liberia’s lost history and represents a very important step in reawakening the Liberian national consciousness. Read More
04 April 2016 – Donna Neary 6
My transition from public history to teaching was unplanned. After twenty-five years of working for local, state and federal governments, museums, non-profits, and as a consultant, I was unemployed, cut loose, and drifting out of sight of the public history mother ship. Read More
15 April 2015 – Aleia Brown 7
I have always thought of public history as a tool to assist us in mediating unchartered territory. More specifically, museums can serve as public forums to tackle persistent forms of oppression that have escaped clear resolve. This vision seems particularly relevant today. Read More
09 April 2015 – Dan Kerr 1
advocacy, methods, social justice, community history, publicity, collaboration, human rights, gentrification, politics, conference, ethics, Hardball History
On May 30, 1995, wearing an orange construction helmet, I stood behind a makeshift barricade on E. 13th Street in New York City. Hundreds of squatters faced off against larger numbers of riot police who were armed with a tank and supported by snipers on the surrounding buildings. Read More
02 April 2015 – Cynthia Renteria 1
advocacy, social justice, public engagement, community history, sense of place, collaboration, museums, education, human rights, training, politics, race, conference, ethics, Hardball History
Hardball history that places historians at the center of politics, advocacy, and activism can be a difficult journey, but it can also be inspiring. My introduction to public history coincided with the 2006 unveiling of a controversial downtown revitalization plan in the city of El Paso, Texas. Read More
05 February 2015 – Briann Greenfield 5
Muralist and activist Mike Alewitz has finished his tribute to the labor and social justice movements, an imposing four-panel painting titled The City at the Crossroads of History–but the museum it was commissioned for doesn’t want it.
The Puffin Foundation, a grant maker that frequently supports politically left artists, engaged Alewitz to create the mural for a new gallery at the Museum of the City of New York. Read More
08 December 2014 – editors 2
How should public historians address Officer Darren Wilson’s killing of Michael Brown, the grand jury’s decision, and protests in Ferguson and across the country? This is a vital question many of us are discussing on Twitter, Facebook, and in person. The discussion has broadened recently to include the grand jury decision not to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the July chokehold death of Eric Garner, and the Justice Department’s citation of the Cleveland Police Department for civil rights abuses. Read More
24 October 2014 – Evan Kutzler, Sarah Conlon, Jamie Diane Wilson, and JoAnn Zeise 1
digital media, projects, digital history, memory, sense of place, human rights, politics, race, graduate students, The Public Historian, slavery
Continued from Part 1.
As well as trying to convey a sense of these enslaved workers as people, the team of graduate students working on the “Slavery at South Carolina College” website also sought to connect this history to the physical landscape. Read More