National Council on Public History

BRIAN WHETSTONE, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

PROPOSAL TYPE

Roundtable

Seeking

• Seeking Additional Presenters
• Seeking General Feedback and Interest

RELATED TOPICS

• Place
• Preservation
• Public Engagement
• Social Justice

ABSTRACT

This proposal seeks concrete alternatives to preservation practice that transcend the limitations of historic preservation’s entanglement with private property ownership. Session participants will analyze preservation’s commitment to private property while envisioning new, more radical strategies to build on the preservation movement’s successes that de-emphasize privileging private property ownership. Questions for consideration include: How can preservationists respond to and incorporate the expansive visions of housing and racial justice activists into a preservation praxis that critically addresses preservation’s investment in private property? How can preservationists build coalitions that promote social welfare over private property?

DESCRIPTION

Preservation remains entangled with modern private property law in both overt and unrecognized ways. Preservation’s more radical and transformative capacities are tempered by an investment in private property ownership, limitations reinforced by pillars of preservation practice such as investment tax credits and the National Register of Historic Places nomination processes. This proposal seeks participants committed to transcending these limitations by not only imagining a preservation praxis freed from commitments to upholding private property rights, but, more importantly, charting a path forward to accomplish that vision. In particular, I am interested in how preservationists can respond to and incorporate the expansive solutions to housing, racial equity, and redistributive justice articulated by activists. Additionally, this proposal seeks to investigate how preservationists can form coalitions to continue orienting preservation towards a more redistributive agenda. I envision this proposal as either a roundtable, working group, or structured conversation, with the intent that the session produces some kind of tangible product that can be distributed following the conference or built upon in future collaborative settings. At this time, I picture this session producing an easily accessible and distributable “toolkit” for preservationists, public historians, and activists that captures the strategies devised by session participants, although I ultimately hope this product is arrived at collaboratively by session participants. I am seeking feedback from anyone who would like to join as a participant or who could point me towards other individuals or organizations seeking answers to similar questions and problems.

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: Brian Whetstone, UMass Amherst, [email protected] 

ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 1, 2021. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.

Discussion