PROPOSAL TYPE
Roundtable
SEEKING
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
- Seeking Additional Presenters
RELATED TOPICS
- Advocacy
- Memory
- Reflections on the Field
- Social Justice
ABSTRACT
The physical world we live in is a cultural text—composed, inscribed, used, modified, and invested with meanings by its users on a daily basis. If indeed the built world is a historical archive, how then do we read its grammar and syntax? What methods do we employ in order to interpret the messages embedded in the landscapes around us? This panel seeks to re-examine the methodological toolkit that a public historian uses in order to document and interpret the ordinary physical world around us. Papers that critique the efficacy of the old methods and explore new ways of reading our environment as a cultural artifact are welcome. We ask: How can public history methods contribute to transformative change and democratic civic action?
DESCRIPTION
The physical world we live in is a cultural text—composed, inscribed, used, modified, and invested with meanings by its users on a daily basis. Vernacular spaces offer us a glimpse into histories of ordinary people whose life experiences are not held in archives or stored as recorded interviews. Their histories are passed on in embodied ways—in the way they walk, cook, live, and sleep, so that these habitual and taken for granted practices are evidence of historical traditions and communal identities. If indeed the built world is a historical archive, how then do we read its grammar and syntax? What methods do we employ in order to interpret the messages embedded in everyday buildings and landscapes around us?
The turmoil and isolation we experienced during the pandemic gave us an opportunity, though absences, via reversals, to recognize how ordinary places sustain public life and public belonging in unexpected ways. City streets turned into stages for solidarity against racial justice; neighborhood porches, parks and sidewalks became deserted and social networks that sustain marginalized communities were disrupted. We held classrooms online and conducted board meetings in a park. Everyone learnt to hack into a world that we took for granted in order to use it in unconventional ways. The ordinary was rendered extraordinary; the obvious became experimental. On careful consideration we find that what seemed to be offbeat practices are, after all, not so alien. Marginalized communities, minoritized groups, and migrants often use the world in ways that may be unfamiliar or invisible to the mainstream.
This experience suggests that our traditions of analyzing and interpreting the commonplace world may be incomplete and sometimes incorrect. Our methods continue to be complicit in rendering invisible the worlds and histories of marginalized communities. For instance, our focus on property ownership, land tenure, authorship, and permanence may end up ignoring the world of those who didn’t own property or those who are mobile.
This panel seeks to re-examine the methodological toolkit that a public historian uses in order to document, understand, and interpret the ordinary physical world around us. Papers that critique the efficacy of the old methods and explore new ways of reading our environment as a cultural artifact are welcome. We ask: How can public history methods contribute to transformative change and democratic civic action?
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:Arijit Sen, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, [email protected]
ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 7, 2022. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
This sounds really interesting, but I wonder if a roundtable is the right answer here – I know we do limited working groups but the topic is specific enough that I feel like that might be a better format. Especially since you talk about building a new taxonomy that emphasizes the ways in which historically excluded communities adapted, shifted, and used public spaces in the last two years.
This topic is very alluring given we are literally still living within theses occurrences. This discussion would be best suited for a roundtable. I also implore you to interact with the audience as much as possible as it is necessary in order to answer your poignant question of “How can public history methods contribute to transformative change and democratic civic action? Since everyones experience during these times has been different, the communal style of presenting may proof most effective to chip away at that question.
I have to say, we could really use this discussion. The roundtable format is great, but as others have mentioned, as long as it’s more interactive. I think taking a moment to consider our methods should be something we do annually as practitioners (or per semester as teachers), and allowing audience participation will allow more public historians to benefit from this session.