AHA Session 13
Central European History Society 1
Central European History Society 1
Thursday, January 5, 2023: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Washington Room B (Loews Philadelphia Hotel, 3rd Floor)
Chair:
Dominique K. Reill, University of Miami
Panel:
Sarah C. Davis-Secord, University of New Mexico
Bee R. Lehman, Boston College
Caroline Sequin, Lafayette College
Brian Van Wyck, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Bee R. Lehman, Boston College
Caroline Sequin, Lafayette College
Brian Van Wyck, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Session Abstract
Migration in Europe is often treated as a contemporary concern, not a consistent feature of European history and a subject that must be historicized. In recent years, addressing this oversight and responding to recurrent contemporary "crises" of migration, many historians have created courses dedicated to migration in Europe across national contexts and time frames. At the same time, others have begun to incorporate migration as a central theme in teaching European history, even outside courses dedicated to the topic. Both models pose connected challenges to those teaching and learning European history. One challenge lies in the difficulty of finding and using sources on migration history. Such sources frequently involve multiple languages, organizations, people groups, and other layers of analysis. In decades past we relied on printed document collections to guide our research and teaching. In our contemporary age, there are dozens of collections of digitized material available. Many are behind expensive pay walls that are far outside many library’s budgets. Increasingly, however, there are also expansive Open Access (OA) collections available with state agencies including national libraries as well as academic and private collections. As long as the user has access to a computer and the internet, these collections provide equitable access to text, images, and other forms of documents. This roundtable looks at that access, with an emphasis on discovery, use, and interpretation in an effort to make migration movements and multicultural communities easier to bring into the classroom. Topics of discussion will include using medieval sources in translation; using primary sources to encourage comparative thinking; sources on gender, sexuality, and migration; incorporating primary sources in introductory and survey courses; and questions of equity in access.
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