This list of advocacy resources was prepared by the Advocacy Committee of the Board in March 2025. Please email us at ncph@iu.edu if you have resources we can add to this list! 

NCPH engages in advocacy to represent the interests of public history practitioners and promote historical understanding. Over the years, NCPH issues or co-signs advocacy statements on a variety of topics relevant to the practice of public history. To learn more about prior advocacy efforts, visit: ncph.org/what-is-public-history/advocacy

The 2023-2028 NCPH Long Range Plan charges the NCPH Advocacy Committee with developing a position paper on the necessity of protecting accurate, inclusive views on history at public institutions. Current legislative and political initiatives have further underscored the need for advocacy to support the professional integrity of public historians and our work. In lieu of a traditional position paper, this page aims to be a living document that articulates NCPH values around the protection of accurate and inclusive views on history and offers recommendations and resources to NCPH members and public history practitioners that help support such work.

The Value of Accurate, Inclusive History

Presenting evidence-based, inclusive views on history ensures accuracy, prevents bias and erasure, and fosters critical thinking by representing diverse perspectives and challenging one-dimensional narratives. By reflecting the contributions of all groups, public history promotes mutual respect and strengthens communities through a shared understanding of the past.

Recommendations

NCPH strongly recommends that organizations, public institutions, and public historians in all contexts:

  • Embrace and advance diversity, equity, and inclusiveness in the workplace, in historical interpretation, and in historical scholarship
  • Facilitate informed, rigorous discussion about history’s relationship to contemporary debates
  • Support open dialogue and respectful exchange of ideas
  • Oppose discrimination or harassment in any form
  • Protect historical resources and make them accessible to the public
  • Proactively develop diverse funding streams and organizational collaborations to mitigate the impact of losing donors while defending accurate, inclusive history
  • Leverage resources to support historically disadvantaged communities
  • Affirm the civic importance of public historians and other cultural workers by paying living wages, protecting workers against political retaliation, and acknowledging workers’ right to unionize

Resources

Understanding the Big Picture

This is where you can start if you are trying to wrap your head around the big-picture issues at stake

Professional Ethics

These resources articulate the ethics of historians’ work, help contextualize why public history projects are constructed in particular ways, and demonstrate the professional standards of our field

Advocacy

Here you can find success stories, toolkits, and strategies to build support for accurate, inclusive history

Messaging

These resources focus on language and communication strategies to articulate the value of inclusive, evidence-based history

Workplace Resources

These resources address working conditions and labor relations in public history workplaces. Look here for guidance to cultivate more equitable workplaces, resources if you or your job are threatened, or if you are experiencing trauma or burnout for work-related reasons.

Funding Strategies

These are places to find federal and private grants and resources to strategize how to navigate challenging funding climates

Economic Impact of Cultural Heritage

These resources provide data to demonstrate the positive economic impact of cultural heritage work

Topical Resources

These resources focus on specific topics where evidence-based interpretation has been under attack