National Council on Public History

PROPOSAL TYPE

Roundtable

SEEKING

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

RELATED TOPICS

• Digital
• Reflections on the Field
• Theory in Practice

ABSTRACT

Public historians are on the cutting edge of research methods. This roundtable examines emerging methodologies in research, interpretation, and narrative construction. Panelists will present innovative or otherwise experimental methods they are developing. We will explore: How do we theorize new research methods and practices? What ethical frameworks guide nascent methods? What distinguishes experiment from established practice, and how does that transition occur? Methodological innovation is revolutionary work as it challenges established power structures, redistributes authority, and expands whose pasts can be recovered and preserved. Let’s build the revolutionary methods public history scholarship needs now.

DESCRIPTION

I am organizing a roundtable for public historians developing innovative research methodologies or employing established methods in new ways. Rather than showcasing finished projects, this session creates space for practitioners to share experimental approaches, discuss challenges, and learn from each other. Methodological innovation is revolutionary work, transforming whose histories can be told, what sources are legitimized, and how historical authority is distributed.

My contribution examines cooperative construction of meaning through oral history combined with personal material culture. Building on Evangeline Varonis’s work on interactive meaning-making (1985) and Michael Frisch’s “shared authority” (1990), I examine how historical understanding is cooperatively constructed when researcher and narrator interpret objects together during recorded interviews. Working on a book about girls in 1970s/1980s Annie productions, I face challenges common to children’s history: archives rarely preserve young people’s voices. I am developing a methodology involving oral history interviews while examining narrators’ personal collections in their homes. Historical understanding emerges through dialogue around objects rather than from questions or independent recollection alone. This raises questions about evidence (what can we learn from objects-in-dialogue versus objects-in-archives?), authorship (can historians relinquish narrative control without compromising analytical rigor?), and boundaries (what happens when the archive talks back?).

I seek 2-3 panelists developing emerging methods. Your work might involve:
-Experimental oral history (sensory methods, walking interviews, photo elicitation)
-Community-based research redistributing authority
-Material culture methods beyond traditional museum analysis
-Collaborative research with descendant communities on difficult histories
-Performance, embodiment, or artistic practice as research
-Non-traditional sources recovering marginalized voices
-Methods bridging academic and public practice

You don’t need fully theorized methodology—I want practitioners wrestling with questions, rather than having all the answers to them.

Contact me if you want to talk about a project that will have us thinking critically about methodological development, legitimation, and public history’s future.

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:
Stella Ress, University of Southern Indiana, [email protected]

All feedback and offers of assistance should be sent by  November 15, 2025. If you have general ideas or feedback to share, please feel free to use the comments feature below.

Discussion