Theatre: A Neglected Site of Public History?

2012 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-39
Author(s):  
David Dean
Keyword(s):  
Public History ◽  
Living History ◽  
The Public ◽  
National Theatre ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
The Past ◽  
Theatre Company ◽  
Theatrical Representations ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Although theatrical representations of the past have been examined by theatre and performance studies scholars, public historians have preferred to focus on historical re-enactments in living history sites, museums, or on film and television. This article argues that theatre is a compelling site for representing and understanding the past through a case study of one of the most performed plays in recent Canadian repertoire, Vern Theissen's Vimy. Drawing on a survey of audience members and the author's experiences as an academic historian working with a national theatre company, it proposes ways in which further study and practice can illuminate our understanding of the public and its pasts.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Beiner
Keyword(s):  
Public History ◽  
Memory Studies ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Living History ◽  
Grass Roots ◽  
The Past ◽  
Shared History ◽  
Folk History ◽  
Subaltern History

Questioning the inevitability of an inherent opposition between myth and history opens possibilities for rethinking our engagement with the past through the lens of ‘mythistory’. In the same vein, the concept of ‘vernacular historiography’ is introduced in relation to a number of related historiographical developments, namely: living history, history from below, people’s history, subaltern history, democratic history, ethnohistory, popular history, public history, applied history, everyday history, shared history, folk history, grass-roots history, as well as local and provincial history. In turn, the study of forgetting and of lieu d’oubli is identified as a new direction for advancing the field of Memory Studies and moving beyond our current understanding of lieux de mémoire. In particular, ‘social forgetting’, whereby communities try to supress recollections of inconvenient episodes in their past, is conceptualized as thriving on tensions between public reticence and muted remembrance in private. Finally, charting the forgetful remembrance of the 1798 rebellion in Ulster—known locally as ‘the Turn-Out’—is presented as an illuminating case study for coming to terms with social forgetting and vernacular historiography.

Occupied Philadelphia

2019 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 31-48
Author(s):  
Tyler Rudd Putman
Keyword(s):  
Urban Environment ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Public History ◽  
Living History ◽  
Pilot Program ◽  
Historical Empathy ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Walking Tour

This article explores the aims and delivery of a living history event conducted in a contemporary urban environment. It reports on a pilot program, “Occupied Philadelphia,” delivered in October 2017 by the Museum of the American Revolution in downtown Philadelphia. This program re-created events and incidents from the fall of 1777 and included a walking tour with three main stops highlighting the lives of everyday Philadelphians and British soldiers. Occupied Philadelphia provided a framework for volunteer interpreters to engage in a form of “guerilla interpretation,” taking public history into unexpected places as a means of inspiring historical empathy and encouraging the public to make connections between the past and present.

Reflections on the Public Interpretation of Regional Environmental History In Western Pennsylvania

2014 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 50-69
Author(s):  
Chris J. Magoc
Keyword(s):  
Environmental History ◽  
Public History ◽  
Industrial Development ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Interpretation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Natural Resource Extraction ◽  
History Of ◽  
Environmental Histories ◽  
Western Pennsylvania

This essay attempts to counter the scarcity of efforts to address issues of natural resource extraction and environmental exploitation in public history forums. Focused on western Pennsylvania, it argues that the history of industrial development and its deleterious environmental impacts demands a regional vision that not only frames these stories within the ideological and economic context of the past, but also challenges residents and visitors to consider this history in light of the related environmental concerns of our own time. The essay explores some of the difficult issues faced by public historians and practitioners as they seek to produce public environmental histories that do not elude opportunities to link past and present in meaningful ways.

scholarly journals Integrating Digital Datasets into Public Engagement through ArcGIS StoryMaps

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-360
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Howland ◽  
Brady Liss ◽  
Thomas E. Levy ◽  
Mohammad Najjar
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
First Century ◽  
Copper Production ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Archaeological Methods ◽  
Three Dimensional Models

AbstractArchaeologists have a responsibility to use their research to engage people and provide opportunities for the public to interact with cultural heritage and interpret it on their own terms. This can be done through hypermedia and deep mapping as approaches to public archaeology. In twenty-first-century archaeology, scholars can rely on vastly improved technologies to aid them in these efforts toward public engagement, including digital photography, geographic information systems, and three-dimensional models. These technologies, even when collected for analysis or documentation, can be valuable tools for educating and involving the public with archaeological methods and how these methods help archaeologists learn about the past. Ultimately, academic storytelling can benefit from making archaeological results and methods accessible and engaging for stakeholders and the general public. ArcGIS StoryMaps is an effective tool for integrating digital datasets into an accessible framework that is suitable for interactive public engagement. This article describes the benefits of using ArcGIS StoryMaps for hypermedia and deep mapping–based public engagement using the story of copper production in Iron Age Faynan, Jordan, as a case study.

scholarly journals German experiences in documenting and presenting information about past crimes to the public

Temida ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 5-21
Author(s):  
Vesna Nikolic-Ristanovic
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Social Memory ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past

This paper aims to present German experiences in documenting the crimes of the past using Berlin as a case study. The first part provides a brief overview of the history and the broader social context in which the process of dealing with the past took place in Germany in general, and in Berlin in particular, as well as the most important characteristics of data on crimes that were presented to the public. The second part provides an overview and analysis of the data presented in two memorials: the Topography of Terror and the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. These two memorials are examples of presenting information about war crimes that can be considered as fairly inclusive, thus the goal of their presentation is to highlight the potential that these approaches may have in creating a social memory and the overall attitude of society toward the past. The findings presented in this paper are the result of the research carried out by the author in Berlin in June 2011.

Sound in the archive: Media materials as archives of narrative

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 78-83
Author(s):  
Seth Ellis
Keyword(s):  
Oral History ◽  
The State ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
And Performance ◽  
State Library ◽  
Affective Impact

This paper describes and evaluates research undertaken by the author at the State Library of Queensland, in the collection, cataloguing, and presentation of audiovisual materials—specifically, sound materials beyond oral history and performance. It suggests that strategies drawn from transcription can make the sounds of the past more evident in digitised catalogues, and thus can make those sounds themselves more accessible to the public. In doing so it offers a different affordance of the archive to public experience: not just information about the past, but the affective impact of the past.

scholarly journals Half-Remembering and Half-Forgetting? On Turning the Past of Old Norse Studies into a Future of Old Norse Studies

Humanities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 97
Author(s):  
Jan Alexander van Nahl
Keyword(s):  
Old Norse ◽  
Social Relevance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Special Obligation ◽  
The Past ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
Science Technology ◽  
The Face

Many Humanities scholars seem to have become increasingly pessimistic due to a lack of success in their efforts to be recognized as a serious player next to their science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM) colleagues. This appears to be the result of a profound uncertainty in the self-perception of individual disciplines within the Humanities regarding their role both in academia and society. This ambiguity, not least, has its roots in their own history, which often appears as an interwoven texture of conflicting opinions. Taking a stance on the current and future role of the Humanities in general, and individual disciplines in particular thus asks for increased engagement with their own past, i.e., histories of scholarship, which are contingent on societal and political contexts. This article’s focus is on a case study from the field of Old Norse Studies. In the face of the rise of populism and nationalism in our days, Old Norse Studies, with their focus on a ‘Germanic’ past, have a special obligation to address societal challenges. The article argues for the public engagement with the histories of individual disciplines to strengthen scholarly credibility in the face of public opinion and to overcome trenches which hamper attempts at uniting Humanities experts and regaining distinct social relevance.

scholarly journals Public History in Movement – Present Pasts: the Memory of Slavery in Brazil

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juniele Rabêlo de Almeida ◽  
Larissa Moreira Viana
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public History ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Historical Representation ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
The Public Sphere

AbstractPresent Pasts: The Memory of Slavery in Brazil is a sound testament to the Brazilian public history movemen.This problematization of the “present pasts of slavery” finds fertile ground in Brazilian public history because of the urgent need to record and analyze representations of this traumatic past, going beyond professional and academic contexts to the public sphere. Public history offers reinvigorating possibilities for mediation between, and intervention in, the past and its publics.The Present Pasts Research Network provides a thought-provoking example of public history’s ability to be sensitive to broad public debate and how the needs, interests, and representations of communities can be addressed through historical representation, interpretation, and active history-making.

Karlsruhe 1975–1995: A Case Study of Light Rail Transit Development

1998 ◽  
Vol 1623 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. G. Brandl ◽  
K. W. Axhausen
Keyword(s):  
System Development ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Light Rail ◽  
Rail Transit ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ownership Structures ◽  
Public Transport System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Heavy Rail

The public transport system of Karlsruhe, Germany, in particular its innovative services on jointly used heavy rail lines, has received substantial attention throughout the last 2 decades. The discussion of the system and of its development was rather limited in the past, mostly highlighting technical aspects. An overview is provided of the development, including the urban development of the region, and of the funding system. The ridership and financial development of the operator is documented in detail. Case studies focus on the integration of the system development in the general political process of the region and demonstrate the limitations of the operator under its current ownership structures.

scholarly journals Blogging as Popular History Making, Blogs as Public History: The Singapore Case Study

2007 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephanie Ho
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Public History ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Historical Society ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

Blogging is a twenty-first century phenomenon that has heralded an age where ordinary people can make their voices heard in the public sphere of the Internet. This article explores blogging as a form of popular history making; the blog as a public history document; and how blogging is transforming the nature of public history and practice of history making in Singapore. An analysis of two Singapore ‘historical’ blogs illustrates how blogging is building a foundation for a more participatory historical society in the island nation. At the same time, the case studies also demonstrate the limitations of blogging and blogs in challenging official versions of history.

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