National Council on Public History

PROPOSAL TYPE

Structured Conversation

SEEKING

• Seeking General Feedback and Interest
• Seeking Additional Presenters
• Seeking Specific Expertise

RELATED TOPICS

• Advocacy
• Social Justice
• Teaching and Training

ABSTRACT

Using our experience coordinating NEH-funded Teaching Institutes on LGBTQ+ Histories of the United States, we propose a roundtable or panel to promote the benefits of partnerships and solidarity between public historians and educators at secondary and post-secondary institutions who value inclusive educational approaches and want to counter the harmful impact that current restrictive legislation and intimidation-based campaigns have on the inclusion of LGBTQ+ topics in curriculum.

DESCRIPTION

Since 2022 the American Social History Project at the CUNY Graduate Center has sought to resolve the gap between what is happening in schools, where campaigns to suppress LGBTQ+ education conflict with the outpouring of recent LGBTQ+ scholarship. To that end, in 2024 we are offering our second NEH-funded summer institute on LGBTQ+ Histories of the United States. The Institute is a learning space that provides an opportunity for secondary educators with a variety of expertise and experiences to expand their historical understanding within the context of a supportive community of colleagues from around the US. We connect teachers to both scholars of LGBTQ+ and queer/trans studies and public history institutions including the Lesbian Herstory Archives, the Center, Stonewall NPS, and local museums. Participants then strategize and develop LGBTQ+-inclusive courses and teaching units.

We believe our work is a critically important link between academia, the LGBTQ+ historical community, and middle/high school teachers who do the bulk of history education in the country. The resources we’ve connected these educators to have been important in developing their course content, but we have also been awed by the preparation and expertise these educators already demonstrate as well as the demand their students exhibit for this content. This is a growth area for developing historical interest in youth with energizing and encouraging potential for the existing public history community. We are aware of the looming threat to teaching LGBTQ+ history that exists in many places in both the US andCanada, but it is our belief that strengthening these bonds between academics, public historians, and educators will help us all to endure and outlast political backlash.

Our goal in presenting at NCPH is to encourage partnerships and solidarity between public historians and educators at various levels who value inclusive and up-to-date educational approaches and want to counter the harmful impact that current restrictive legislation and intimidation-based campaigns are having on LGBTQ+ topics in curriculum. We are interested in strengthening bonds in this triangle of knowledge workers – community/public historians, educators, and academics. To that end, we are proposing a roundtable with members of each community involved with the institute. After sharing these different experiences, we anticipate opening up for a robust discussion about how to strengthen these bonds in attendees’ own localities.

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: Danielle Bennett, CUNY Graduate Center, [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