Rethinking Revolutionary Memory: Pedagogy, Public History, and Politics

PROPOSAL TYPE

Roundtable

SEEKING
  • Seeking Additional Participants
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
  • Seeking Specific Expertise
RELATED TOPICS
  • Memory
  • Museums/Exhibits
  • Preservation
  • Public Engagement
ABSTRACT

As we near the American Revolution’s 250th anniversary, we are still grappling with how the memory of revolutionary figures like George Washington and other founding fathers, have been preserved and re-thought by public history professionals since the end of the Revolution. Read More

Working Group on Sharing Best Practices and Challenges of Institutional Slavery Reckoning Projects

PROPOSAL TYPE

Working Group

SEEKING
  • Seeking Additional Participants
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
  • Seeking Specific Expertise
RELATED TOPICS
  • Archives
  • Public Engagement
  • Social Justice
ABSTRACT

Over the past decade, many museums, universities, churches, and cities have launched projects to explore and reckon with their histories of slavery. Read More

Descendants Illuminate the Unfinished Work of Revolution

PROPOSAL TYPE

Experiential

SEEKING
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
  • Memory
  • Public Engagement
  • Social Justice
ABSTRACT

As descendants of the family of William Whipple, a signer of the 1776 Declaration of Independence, and of Prince Whipple, an African he enslaved who co-signed the 1779 Petition for Freedom, we facilitate a juxtaposition of primary and secondary sources and spaces of our ancestors to illuminate both existing challenges and promising practices to strengthen public history. Read More

More Than a Field Trip: Building Interactive History Experiences that Spark Investigation

PROPOSAL TYPE

Nuts and Bolts

SEEKING
  • Seeking Additional Presenters
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
  • Seeking Specific Expertise
RELATED TOPICS
  • Public Engagement
  • Teaching and Training
ABSTRACT

How do we move beyond scripted tours to create revolutionary learning experiences? How do we engage with necessary but challenging topics like westward conquest in an inviting, engaging field trip? Read More

Starting with Stories: Building Exhibits in Reverse

PROPOSAL TYPE

Experiential

SEEKING
  • Seeking Additional Presenters
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
  • Museums/Exhibits
  • Oral History
  • Public Engagement
ABSTRACT

Revolution reshapes societies, but how we document, preserve, and interpret its impact shapes collective memory. This presentation explores “reverse exhibit development,” using oral history as the foundation rather than the frame. Read More

Radio That Listens to You

PROPOSAL TYPE

Open to Feedback

SEEKING
  • Seeking Additional Presenters
RELATED TOPICS
  • Digital
  • Material Culture
  • Museums
  • Oral History
  • Public Engagement
ABSTRACT

In 1973, Springfield was only one of four state capitals without a public radio station. WSSR went on the air January 3rd, 1975. Read More

Nuclear Weapons in Our Midst — A Cold War Revolution

PROPOSAL TYPE

Roundtable

SEEKING
  • Seeking Additional Presenters
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
  • Seeking Specific Expertise
RELATED TOPICS
  • Place
  • Preservation
  • Public Engagement
ABSTRACT

During the Cold War, 49 of the 50 states hosted nuclear weapons, often located very close to the citizens they were designed to protect. Read More

Anniversary as Eulogy

PROPOSAL TYPE

Roundtable

SEEKING
  • Seeking Additional Presenters
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
  • Memory
  • Museums/Exhibits
  • Public Engagement
  • Reflections on the Field
ABSTRACT

Anniversaries are often an opportunity to celebrate key figures and moments in history and to reflect on their significance to our present. Read More

The New England Road to Revolution and Civil War: Revelations from Local Black Public History Projects

PROPOSAL TYPE

Roundtable

SEEKING
  • Seeking Additional Presenters
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
  • Leadership
  • Place
  • Public Engagement
ABSTRACT

Many New Englanders still consider slavery to have been simply part of the faraway agricultural South. However, multiple pillars of the northern economy, from rum distilleries and textile factories to trade, rested on the foundation of slavery. Read More

Staging The Archive: Theatrical Methods for Presidential Library and Museum Engagement Through Betty Ford’s Legacy

PROPOSAL TYPE

Lightning Round

SEEKING
  • Seeking General Feedback and Interest
RELATED TOPICS
  • Archives
  • Museums/Exhibits
  • Public Engagement
ABSTRACT

This study explores how theatrical techniques can revitalize presidential libraries and museums, using Betty Ford as a case study. Combining expert interviews, fieldwork, and archival research, it argues that performance-based interpretation can bridge archival history and contemporary relevance. Read More