Mobilizing Oral and Public History: Approaches to Participatory, Community Based, Interdisciplinary Projects

AHA Session 119
Saturday, January 4, 2025: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Empire Ballroom West (Sheraton New York, Second Floor)
Chair:
Christine E. Eubank, Bergen Community College
Panel:
Anthony Diaz, Newark Water Coalition
Christine E. Eubank, Bergen Community College
Wilmarie Medina-Cortés, Humanities Action Lab
Liz Ševčenko, Humanities Action Lab
Kristina Shull, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Session Abstract

Ongoing and emerging crises on the global as well as local scale suggest that the twenty-first century is an inflection point in history. Oral, public, and digital historians, colleges and universities, issues organizations, cultural institutions, and community partners are forming coalitions and mobilizing around urgent social issues to develop interdisciplinary humanities-based projects that not only create useful narratives but encourage systemic changes for a more just, sustainable, and equitable future. This work is urgent, valuable, exhilarating, collaborative, and creative. Participants on this roundtable are college and university scholars, oral and public historians, museum and gallery curators, community activists, and organization leaders who will share their experiences and insights gained from developing, launching, and managing these types of projects.

This session will appeal to anyone doing work in digital, oral, and public history; scholars whose whose work centers community activism or issues of social and environmental justice; and those with an interest in developing similar coalitions and community-focused projects. Our goal is to generate a fruitful conversation with audience members. After the chair introduces the panel, each participant will give a five-minute statement that highlights a signature project or projects. The chair will pose questions to the panelists and the remaining session time will be devoted to discussion with the audience.

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