National Council on Public History

ALAN NEWELL, MISSOULA DOWNTOWN FOUNDATION

PROPOSAL TYPE

Traditional Panel

SEEKING

• Seeking Additional Presenters

RELATED TOPICS

• Data/Information Management
• Labor and Economy
• Public Engagement

ABSTRACT

In late March, at the suggestion of a County Commissioner in Missoula, Montana, public and private citizens and historians from Missoula City and County government, the University of Montana, Missoula downtown organizations and county historical museums formed a group to collect the community’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The group has been meeting regularly to review collection procedures, solicit citizen submissions and to coordinate county-wide activities. The goal of this project has been to ensure that Missoula citizens have access to how all of us have responded to this unique period in our history and to learn from our response how to address future similar events.

DESCRIPTION

Public Historians involved in creating Missoula County’s COVID-19 Documentation Project would like to find comparable public/private partnerships that have functioned during the recent pandemic.The proposed conference panel would bring one of two comparable groups together to explore ways that public historians have been integrated into community emergency planning and to considers the challenges to employing historical perspective in an ongoing crisis. We envision a panel of individuals from three organizations who would discuss how public historians engaged with their communities during the crisis and, specifically, how they were integrated into the governmental emergency response framework. A public historian and the county commissioner from Missoula County, Montana would be available for the panel. We are seeking a comparable involvement from two other political entities to form the panel and to develop a proposal.

If you have a direct offer of assistance, sensitive criticism, or wish to pass along someone’s contact information confidentially, please get in contact directly: Alan Newell, Missoula Downtown Foundation, [email protected]

ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 6, 2020. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.

Discussion