National Council on Public History

PROPOSAL TYPE

Roundtable

SEEKING

• Seeking Additional Presenters
• Seeking General Feedback and Interest

RELATED TOPICS

• Advocacy
• Place
• Public Engagement
• Social Justice

ABSTRACT

Through a program of walking tours on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Close Friends Collective works to build a model of public history that prioritizes community partnership and social dialogue. Working directly with Henry Street Settlement, a historic social services agency, and Bluestockings Cooperative, a queer and trans-owned bookstore and community hub, we connect historical content to contemporary actors. Our pedagogical approach foregrounds dialogue and the sharing of authority, which not only creates a better learning experience, but also invites contemporary queer people into the work of defining and writing queer history. We hope to share what we’ve learned, as well as receive feedback from the public history community.

DESCRIPTION

We’re open to a variety of types of session, but our first thought would be to participate in a roundtable discussion about approaches to either queer history or community public history programming – maybe walking tours in particular, if there are other submissions who work in that medium. We’d love to work with panelists from 1-2 other similar projects, if possible.

In terms of our goals, we’re hoping to get feedback on our work and our methods from other practitioners of public history. In the three years that we’ve been leading tours of the Lower East Side, making zines and producing history-themed events, our collaborators have almost exclusively been outside the realm of public history. Our principal partners are Henry Street Settlement, a social services agency, and Bluestockings Cooperative, a bookstore and community hub for public health and mutual aid.

So we’re very much open to ideas! If there are other public historians who have closely worked with social service agencies or other community institutions that aren’t primarily interested in historical programming, we’d love to team up. Alternatively, it would also be great to participate in a panel discussion on issues in contemporary public queer history, and the importance of sharing authority over history with living queer communities.

And we’re certainly open to hearing other ideas in terms of focusing a proposal in a different direction. We’re very much interested in any and all feedback from public historians in the field, as we’re still relatively new at the business of evaluating and analyzing our work.

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: Daniel Walber, [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.

Discussion