PROPOSAL TYPE
Traditional Panel
SEEKING
- Seeking Additional Presenters
- Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
- Archives
- Material Culture
- Memory
- Museums
- Oral History
- Place
ABSTRACT
Descendant Engagement has become a buzzword throughout the museum field. There are established best practices, such as the 2018 “Engaging descendant Communities in the Interpretation of Slavery at Museum Sites rubric, published by The James Madison Montpelier Foundation, which can be a guiding force, however, it is also important to know what NOT to do. This traditional panel will provide three case studies of descendant engagement at sites of enslavement. Specifically, the panel will discuss challenges, successes, and failures and provide examples of descendant engagement across multiple departments (collections, education, interpretation, archaeology, and preservation), using the Montpelier/NTHP rubric. Ample time will be left for Q&A.
DESCRIPTION
I would like feedback as to if this topic is best served as a panel, round table, workshop, or individual presentation? I know of a lot of folks doing descendant engagement, but it would be nice to have panelists who belong to NCPH and plan on attending the conference to participate. Financially, a lot of us don’t have funds to travel and this may make things easier. I’m also happy to invite people myself, but I would like to know if NCPH has some names in mind before I do that.
I have submitted two proposals for feedback and I am happy to do both or one and save the other for the next year or a different conference.
Looking forward to your feedback!
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: Kelley Deetz, [email protected]
ALL FEEDBACK AND OFFERS OF ASSISTANCE SHOULD BE SUBMITTED BY JULY 10, 2024. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.
Hi Kelley! I think this would be a wonderful session. I have some experience working with descendant communities and I am actually submitting a proposal to be a facilitator of a session for the most recent project I worked on. I am interested in perhaps being on the panel.
Hi Kelley, I actually did a virtual panel on a specific case of working with descendants for the online NCPH/OAH conference this past spring, bringing together the work of staff at Arlington House and Mount Vernon as well as a key descendant organizer. There’s a growing partnership of institutions in Northern Virginia/DC that is working with descendants of those enslaved at Mount Vernon, and we’ve been grappling with how to apply the rubric across very different institutional settings. I’d be happy to chat and/or connect you with colleagues involved in this; I come at it slightly from the outside, as a professor who worked with descendants and staff at these sites while writing a book and also doing some consulting work for the sites.
I could see a workshop being helpful here, with professionals who have used the rubric or their own variation of it (which the National Park Service has at Arlington House) sharing guidance and time for people to discuss questions and potential challenges with implementing it.