Mariaelena Dibenigno, william & mary’s highland
PROPOSAL TYPE
Roundtable
Seeking
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
- Seeking Specific Expertise
RELATED TOPICS
- Memory
- Public Engagement
- Social Justice
ABSTRACT
We plan to present on community-centered initiatives at historic sites facilitated and/or operated by colleges and universities. Our current postdoctoral work involves research, instruction, and engagement — we are interested in opening our ongoing dialogue up to the field at large. How can higher-level education address its own histories while also educating students on reparations, enslavement, and racial inequity? How are universities also historic sites where interpretation and research needs to be re-imagined, re-evaluated, and re-written? How can we encourage better public histories by examining where people encounter the past?
DESCRIPTION
Over the last few years, public histories have been shared in many non-traditional texts, from journalism initiatives like The 1619 Project to collaborative collections like Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019 to speculative television like Watchmen and Lovecraft County. All of these texts reflect how community-curated histories unsettle — through long-overdue questions and necessary revisions — the myths of a nation.
These public histories often intersect with the work of cultural institutions such as museums and historic sites, especially when they engage new audiences with “traditional” patrons. This brings new energy and infuses conversations with immediacy, relevance, and re-imagining. In Virginia, some museums and historical sites strive to rectify historical erasure and audience unfamiliarity through new, often student-led initiatives centered on time and place: specific commemorations; Williamsburg, Virginia; and the College of William & Mary. At W&M, community members on and off-campus collaborate to tell better public histories and encourage the recovery of lesser-known narratives. This collaboration happens in a variety of ways, from informal book clubs to semester-long seminars. It is predicated on sharing authority among a diverse group of stakeholders.
To illustrate this collaboration, Drs. Maria DiBenigno and Jajuan Johnson want to share their ongoing work as Mellon Foundation postdoctoral fellows for William &Mary’s Lemon Project and James Monroe’s Highland. They will discuss how community initiatives and historic sites help the university to share knowledge and authority, strengthen existing relationships, build new collaborations, and challenge historical interpretations to examine the afterlives of slavery in Williamsburg and beyond. The session will include a facilitated conversation on the broad themes of community engagement in the humanities, “sharing authority,” and the ways we are re-imagining better public histories.
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: Mariaelena DiBenigno, William & Mary’s Highland, [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.
Hi Maria and DaJuan, Your work sounds really interesting. The nuts and bolts of how historic sites are engaging with descendant communities, visitors, staff, and volunteers around issues such as reparations, racial violence are very important. Perhaps if you focused your presentation around some of the issues that you’re facing at your sites, and used that experience to test the concept of shared authority, you might open up some important areas of inquiry. Good luck!
Thank you so much for this feedback — I think we will ground the discussion in specific examples. That will certainly help the conversation stay rooted in place and practice.
In 2019 the students at George Washington University led a really interesting campaign for reparations there. Is there someone who has written on this? Or maybe a student who was involved who could participate in this panel? I really like this example as the impetus came from the students, not from faculty or administration, and it would fit very nicely into your conception of sharing authority. I also really like the idea of presenting some of the ways that these discussions can be taken to the public – ie book clubs. Julia Rose has a great book on interpreting difficult history in museums and historic sites and could add some theoretical framing on how to bring these conversations to a public that may be resistant to them. She potentially could be an addition to your panel.
Hi! Thank you for this feedback, especially the suggestion of including a student (yes!) and connecting with Julia Rose. I’m grateful for the ideas!